Oliver is 11 month’s old today. It’s hard to believe that he will be one year old soon. It seems like he should be turning two given the size of him. Oliver is still not really talking except for a few words like DaDa, Bird, PaPa, Button, and BaBa. He babbles on and on as if he has something to say, it’s just impossible to comprehend it. He does like the “B” words though. He is making some interesting new sounds too. This week he started grunting like a pig at mealtimes. I know that this practice may not be polite, but given the manner in which he eats, it is entirely appropriate.

Aside from mealtime, Oliver’s second favorite time of the day is bath time. He would soak for hours if we let him. He has mastered crawling and standing up by himself in one place, but he has not shown much interest in actually taking any steps on his own. In fact, if you grab his hands to try and walk with him now, he just melts to the floor and crawls instead. I’m in no hurry to have him walk… the crawling is fast enough.

He has started kissing, and will it’s often the way he likes to great strangers too. They say hello and he leans forward with his mouth slightly open making an “O” with his lips and just the smallest bit of tongue. People are like, “what is that”? and I tell him he’s trying to kiss them. By that time the stranger will inevitably lean forward to return the sentiment only to have Oliver pull back and put his hand up in front of their face. A chip off the old block, no?

This week Oliver started to go to sleep without putting up a fight. After the past few weeks of endless crying and fighting, it’s been well received. Now he sits with us, reads a book or two and then conks out at promptly 8pm without so much as a peep. I think it has a lot to do with losing his second nap and/or restricting the second nap to before 4pm only. In large part it is also due to the fact that we sort of have a bedtime routine now: We read Good Night Moon, and then Good Night Gorilla and after that I turn the overhead lights off. Leaving only the crib light on (which shuts off in 5 minutes) and his turtle that shoots the stars on the ceiling. We sit in the rocking chair together for a few minutes while I tell him a story that I made up on the spot and within a few minutes of the crib light shutting off, I have bored Oliver with my story and he’s asleep. He likes the boring stories much better than the off-key singing. How many times can a kid hear “Amazing Grace” before they scream anyway? I don’t know what I was thinking last week. 11 months and we are finally making some good decisions.

Happy 11 Months Oli!