Two Nights Away from Momma

We went down to Fort Wayne again last weekend. I photographed a wedding in Huntington, so Sean and I had a hotel room for 2 nights. Obviously, having a newly-walking baby with us during the wedding...almost a 12 hour day...was not going to be possible. So Roan stayed with grandma Bibi and grandpa Dean Friday and Saturday night! Sean has been away from Roan overnight before, but I haven't.

Surprisingly, I didn't sob! I definitely almost did. Friday night I was pretty worried...not that I don't trust my parents, I just have a tendency to worry...a lot! I got a lot of reassuring texts from my mom that he was doing great. He basically stayed on schedule and even napped from 1pm-3pm for them! I just can't figure out why he doesn't do that at home (he naps that long at daycare, too).

When we saw him Sunday morning, it felt like he grew up tremendously since we'd last seen him Friday evening. He's basically walking like a mad man now. He still stumbles a bit and if he's too tired he will still plop to his butt and crawl where he wants to go, but he walks most of the time! It's pretty funny, though, cause if he's walking along furniture and lets go and starts to walk on his own, he'll still walk sideways or at an angle.

He also didn't take very big bottles, which could either be because he was distracted for whatever reason...or...he's naturally weaning himself off the bottle. I feel like it's the latter.

Oh, and he totally doesn't like processed, pre-packaged food! Certain things he will eat...sometimes...but he definitely prefers homemade. Which means I'm gonna have to find recipes and cook more. Oy!

Saturday night, my family took him out to eat with them. Apparently, he was a wiggle worm! My brother, Morgan, had a blast with him for sure. Saturday during the day, my mom took him swimming at my grandma's. Hopefully I'll get to see pictures of that!

Here are some shots of our big, big boy!

He loooves his aunt Jessie!

Holy Moly, 11 Months!

Wow! I can't believe we only have one more month before he turns one year old! As Sean put it: "It's been the longest shortest year of my life."

Here are some of my faves from his 11 month shoot:

I don't know any of his weight/height stats, but he is meeting milestone after milestone! He's getting better at walking...venturing out from the couch to the ottoman fairly easily. I've been trying to get him to walk longer distances by holding a ball or Mr. Owl (his owl security blanket that he loves) and scootching back as he gets closer. That seems to work ok, but if I start out at a far distance, he'll drop to the ground and crawl.

He'll sometimes say "Hi!"...and ball is "Bah! Bah!" (he does use it appropriately). He will say "Dadda" or some version of it, but he won't say "Mamma". That seems to be pretty common...I wonder why? Speech therapists, any thoughts?

He can sign for milk and is starting to do "all done!" I plan on working on more signs over the summer. I've done "mamma" and "dadda" here and there...as well as "yes" and "no". This isn't signing, but he likes putting his arms in the air when we say "Sooo big!" (photo #2 above is him doing this), though most of the time he only does one arm...not sure why, haha.

He is going to be a climber for sure. He's already climbing the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs! Good thing he really can't go far there. There's no middle bar. I would not be surprised if he eventually uses his Leap Frog activity table (that I got for $20 off Craigslist, thank you very much) as a step stool!

He has 6 teeth now...4 on top, 2 on bottom. Thankfully, so far, teething hasn't been too hard on him. The main thing is he doesn't eat as much as he usually does when they're trying to come in.

Tomorrow is the last day of the 2011-2012 school year!! I'm so excited to spend more time with my boy and plan his first birthday party. I will also be watching friends of ours son. He was born in late December, so he's not quite sitting on his own 100% yet and he's not crawling...yet. It should be interesting, but I'm up for a challenge! The main thing I'm concerned about is Roan getting jealous. Or them not napping at the same time, haha. Wednesdays the baby will go with someone else & I will take Roan to daycare so I can clean, run errands, etc. I won't be getting much, if any, help from Sean because the insanity of turnover is right around the corner, so I'm hoping Wednesdays & the weekends will keep me sane. I know being away from Roan so much is going to be hard on him, too. But that's the life of a commercial painter.

That's all for right now! Off to make more First Birthday Party plans!