11 months!

Wow has time just flown! I can't believe its already the end of the school year and Brady is almost 1. ONE. Our baby is almost one? That is just crazy! It seems like yesterday he was a little peanut that couldn't hold his head up and I was just coming back to school from my maternity leave. And now we are into our last week of work before summer vacation (yay!) and I am ending my 6th year teaching. And Brady is no longer a little peanut, but rather a big meatball.

He looks such like a little boy. I love his curls and his chubby cheeks. He is getting taller and bigger everyday it seems. He's around 23lbs. and 30 inches. And he eats, boy does this kid like to eat! For dinner tonight he polished off a bunch of sweet potatoes, then a whole one of grandma's meatball, and some pasta with sauce (I think he likes Italian). He love biting things with his little chipmunk front teeth. As of today he has 5 in all-- 2 front and 3 bottom... and boy does he love to use them to rip and bite and chew and chomp on whatever he can fit his mouth around.

He's been sleeping well for us lately, after a little spell (ok, more like a long, excruciating stretch) of getting up in the middle of the night every night for like 2 months. Then, one week 3 of his teeth came in, and we decided enough was enough and let him "cry." We were putting him in the crib every night where he would sleep fine but then at the 3am waking we'd bring him into bed with us to sleep. I know, BAD parents, but it was the only way we'd get ANY sleep. Finally we decided to cut the bringing him into bed and so the "Cry It Out: Version 3" began. (We tried this twice before but softie here caved in after 15 minutes of crying.) The first night he woke at the usual 3am, crying for us to bring him into our bed. I went in, hugged him, cuddled him for a minute or two, then put him back in. He was NOT happy, and cried for about 30 minutes before falling asleep. The second night I did the same thing but this time the crying went down to 20 minutes. The third night? He SLEPT. Until 6am. And its been that way ever since, aside from a random wake up here and there. Am I glad we did the cry strategy? Yes and no. I hated hearing him cry, but we are sooo much happier that he is sleeping in his crib all night by himself. I think he sleeps much better in there too. Anyhoo, enough about sleep.

As far as movement goes, he is into everything...and thats just from crawling! He zips around the house so fast its no wonder he doesn't want to walk by himself...it would show him down! He walks holding on to things, or someone's hand-- I think its more of a mental thing now.. he just squeezes your hand when he walks, not using it that much to balance anymore. One of these days he's just going to take off!

He LOVES pointing at things, and will now point in multiple directions at one time, not even paying attention to what he is pointing to. His usual phrase when he points is he says "tuhh, tuhh." He says and knows who mama and dada is. He also has some other babbles I don't think are associated with anything yet-- like nana, baba, hot.

I'll leave this post with some pics of the little monster getting into trouble in his room, and his first trip to the zoo with Grammy and Grandpa Johnny. Happy 11 months little buddy!