11 Months!

Dean is 11 months old today. That means (in case anyone out there is REALLY bad at math) that he will be one year in one month. What? How is that possible? Here are pictures of him the day we brought him home from the hospital:

And here is a picture of him in the same rock n' play taken about two weeks ago.

Crazy.

Dean is now army crawling his little heart out. It's nice that he can follow me if I go to another room, because it means he doesn't just cry every time he can't see me. The only down side is...he can follow me. Oh, and that I feel like the worst housekeeper in the world since his onesies are always SOOO dirty! Our floors are impossible! They are this textures linoleum that looks like wood. I love that it's not carpet. I hate that it's...it.  I just bought a steam mop and I hope it helps!

After a few times of this:

we finally borrowed a drill and got cabinet locks installed. We've also had to move the toilet brush to sit on top of the toilet. Yuck.

He has not outgrown his phase of spitting out all fruits that aren't pureed. Ugh. This morning I tried to  sneak some bananas into his oatmeal. This was the result:

It doesn't show up as well in the picture, but it was all over his tummy and legs and ear. I try feeding him a non-pureed fruit every day. Remember how he loved those grapes? I'll tried a few more times to no avail. He used to eat pieces of banana just fine, too. Yesterday he did play with/chew a tiny bit on an apple slice. He didn't throw it on the floor until he'd had it for 5 minutes or so, so I count that as a great success! Good thing he's so cute.

There are plenty of foods that he loves. He normally just eats what we eat for dinner with the help of the food grinder. We're trying to introduce him to more foods not ground up. Normally if we give him some ground up and then follow it up with some just cut in small pieces he'll do okay eating it. And the boy loves yogurt. Cannot get enough. He also gobbles down garlic bread and taco meat. He likes blueberry bagel a lot, too, so that and yogurt is his typical lunch. Here he decided he didn't want the little pieces I had torn off for him and swiped the rest of the bagel when my back was turned. Stinker.

We went to the library last week and Dean had a great time playing with the toys. He loved his activity cube! 

And he would even stand at the tables! He doesn't really pull himself up yet, and normally if we try to get him to stand he just lifts his feet up, so this was huge!

Then, this past Saturday, Trevor and I found a yard sale in our apartment complex, and look what I found for $5! I looked it up on Amazon just for kicks and giggles, and used ones were starting at $40. I felt like a champ! It's Dean's birthday present, but we just cleaned it up and let him have at it.

He still loves books a lot. I've started showering while he's awake more often since he's better at entertaining himself. One day I got out to find him like this just reading his books.

He just loves turning pages!

He's still learning appropriate book choice. Obviously he's tried to read some things he's just not ready for.

We doggy-sat for Trevor's cousin while they went out of town for a wedding. I think Dean ate more of the dog food than Presley did!

He loves our Sonicare toothbrushes and always wants to help us brush! I tried putting it in his mouth to feel, but he wouldn't let me.

He had his first actual throw up. I'm so glad I got to hold him for that. (sarcasm, if you couldn't tell) No, he wasn't sick. Isolated random, incredibly stinky throw up.

So, I tried to take pictures of him with his yellow blanket and elephant, but they didn't turn out so good. Something about him refusing to stay put and crawling towards the camera.

Can someone make the next month go by a little slower? I need some time to plan his party and to snuggle the daylights out of him. 

Mommy's Little Helper

Dean has been a great little "helper" lately. Here he is helping me fold laundry. It's pretty much is favorite thing in the world.

Some of those piles used to be folded nicely. Today he did start bringing me clothes, so that was cute.

I don't have a picture, but he has started feeding me food. He'll put his cheerios up to my mouth. And his chewed on graham crackers. So sweet! He attempts to slide his tray onto his chair. He's still working on that one.

The other night he was SUPER fussy pants--crying if I held him, crying if I put him down. So I finally decided I was just going to do the dishes. Well, he seemed interested so I held him up to see the bubbles. I put his feet in to let him feel the water. Next thing I know, bam, he's in the sink with the bubbles. I guess it counts as helping me do dishes since he even grabbed some dishes and put them in there with him. He was in heaven. Then he got to go straight to the bath. More heaven. Have I mentioned that he loves to splash? He was just so happy and cute that I didn't mind cleaning up the massive amounts of water all over the kitchen.

I sure love my little helper!

A Boy and His Cup: A Love Story

But seriously, he's madly in love with this thing.

Today Is Not That Day

I know there are approximately a bazillion blog posts about stuff like this, but I wanted to write down some thoughts I've been having lately for my own benefit.

I often find myself thinking things like this:

"Someday I will go an ENTIRE day without anybody else's bodily fluid getting on me. Today is not that day."

"Someday my life will not revolve around nap times. Today is not that day."

"Someday I will go a whole day without sweeping up food my kid dropped on the floor. Today is not that day."

"Someday I will do everything with two hands. Today is not that day."

But then I get to sit with Dean and read stories and play blocks and my thoughts change a little.

"Someday his face won't light up every time he sees me. But today is not that day."

"Someday he won't want to cuddle with me. But today is not that day."

"Someday I won't get to hold him close while I feed him his bottle. But today is not that day."

"Someday clapping and peek-a-boo will lose their wonder. But today is not that day."

"Someday I won't be his favorite person in the world. But today is not that day."

"Someday his feet and hands will stop spinning wildly when he gets excited. But today is not that day."

"Someday he'll be too big for me to carry and spin and flip upside down. But today is not that day."

"Someday I'll go a whole day without hearing him laugh and I will miss it so very much. I'm so glad that today is not that day."