Our sweet baby is only a month away from his first birthday!  They really do grow up so fast!

Ethan has been such a little darling this past month.  He is eating and sleeping well and continues to grow, change and learn every day.  He is still sleeping like a champ most of the time.  It is so nice to have a predictable nap schedule and for him to sleep all night in his crib most nights.  He wakes up around 6:30 every morning.  He usually takes naps at 10am and 3pm and sleeps around 1.5 to 2 hours each.  He will usually sleep until 5pm, or we will wake him shortly after 5 so he goes to bed on time.  He is in bed by 8 for the night.  He is doing really well with purees now and has expanded his horizons to include broccoli, spinach and peas, and pumpkin.  I got so frustrated with him not eating any vegetables so I decided to try some combinations.  I bought several Plum’s Organic pouches for him to try and he loves them all, so I am buying most of his food now instead of making it.  It has taken a lot of srtess off me, especially since he will eat it!  He is still loving his puffs and crunchies and does pretty well with bread items (crackers, waffles, etc).  He even got to enjoy a few bites of my apple cider donuts this weekend (and it was delicious!).  He is still not interested in feeding himself chunks of fruits or veggies.  I am trying to not get too impatient with him, as I know all babies develop differently, but he needs to be on full table foods before he can go to the toddler room at school.  They are doing a fantastic job of working with him at school.  He does still eat much better for them than he does for me!

Ethan has been showing signs over the past few weeks that he is ready to learn how to walk.  For a long time we thought it was a long ways off, as he didn’t seem interested in taking steps or standing on his own.  He was very content crawling, pulling up, then getting back down and crawling to his next destination.  We have been helping him play with his walking push toys and that has seemed to help.  Initially he wanted to stand and push his toy, but he did not want to take steps, so he would have fell forward.  We held his toys so it wouldn’t move so he could very slowly take steps.  After just a few days of this, he took off pushing and walking by himself!  The past few days he has stood on his own for a few seconds (until he realized he is standing on his own!).  I can only imagine what kind of trouble he is going to get himself into when he can walk!

Ethan is currently saying two words.  Well really only one word, but two meanings.  He started saying book (buh) a few weeks ago but it took about a week for us to decide he was really saying book and not just babbling.  But if you point to a book and say “Ethan what is this?” he will say “buh” or if you say “Ethan can you say book?” he will say “buh” which he does not do with any other objects.  Over the past week he has been doing the same for ball, which almost sounds exactly the same as book.  Sometimes it sounds a little more like “baa” but he will say it when he sees a ball.  Sometimes it seems like he is saying “dada” when he sees Jason but we’re still not sure if he is just babbling.  He has also started doing this funny thing where when he says book he lets the pressure of the “b” build in his mouth before he says it so it sounds more like “bbbbbbbbbbuh!”

Speaking of books, Ethan still loves to read.  We are accumulating a lot of books with frequent trips to Half Price Books and Home Goods.  His favorite new book is a lift the flap “noisey” book that moos, baas, and oinks when you open the right flap.  We also go to the library often, which is one of Ethan’s favorite places.  Not only are there tons of books, there are aisles that he loves to crawl up and down.  There are also other kids which always want to talk and play with him.  We are very excited to go to the 1 year old story time at the library in November.

Ethan still loves singing and music.  His new favorite song is “If you’re happy and you know it” and he is learning to clap his hands at the apprioriate times.  He has also started “dancing” when he hears music – wiggling back and forth when he is standing or sitting down.  I’m hoping that we can take a music class at Gymboree this winter.

We are loving every moment with our little boy, and as much as I would love for him to stay little forever, it is so exciting to watch him grow up!

Sitting in the hand chair at the library.

Celebrating Grampy’s birthday!

He loves riding on Daddy’s shoulders!

Sweet little boy.