At 11 months, Cole ...
- is still wearing 9 months clothes (although his pants are getting a little short) and size 3 diapers. He just moves too much to get chubby.
- is a very intense child. There is nothing calm or passive about his personality at all. When he laughs, it's straight from his toes and when he cries, I'm pretty sure the whole neighborhood can hear him. It's even crazy to see him clench his fists and shake his arms with excitement when Chris comes home. Or when it's lunch time. There's just so much feeling bottled up in one tiny little body.
- has really perfected his pincer grab. He's quite good at picking up small pieces of food from his tray and getting it straight to his mouth.
- knows how to open every cupboard door, pull out all of the boys' school books and even unlatch the baby gate if it's not locked. It only takes him figuring it out one time and he's got it mastered. This smarty pants isn't slowing down!
- crawls up the stairs with ease (when given the opportunity) but, despite our efforts to teach him, cannot go DOWN the stairs.
- Knows how to sign more, all done, eat, and nurse. He seems to be picking up on language really well.
- is starting to learn "nice touches". This was prompted by him scratching my face (and drawing blood) and pulling his brothers hair. I don't think he means to hurt people, he just doesn't know any better.
- gets upset when he's locked out of something (cupboards, the stairs, etc). He wants to tear apart everything he can get his hands on.
- gets upset when he's left out of the activity in the house. He hates being left upstairs while Brooks and Dad play basketball in the mudroom. I'm finding that Cole is very social and loves to be where all the action is happening.
- loves his Mama, but has really taken a liking to his Daddy. When Chris comes home from work, Cole will stand at the top of the stairs (trapped by that darn baby gate), and bounce and squeal until Daddy picks him up.
- is very calm around new people. He's always been this way, but it makes it easier to leave him in the church nursery or with a babysitter when I know he won't be crying the whole time. He loves having new places (and people) to explore!
- is becoming more comfortable walking along furniture. We even pulled out his walker toy and he zips right across the living room with it. Soon he'll be running. Oy!
- still puts everything in his mouth. The drooling has slowed some. He still has 8 teeth.
- is terribly difficult to get dressed. Or change his diaper. He's constantly rolling over, kicking his legs, and trying to get away. It's seriously like wrestling a wild animal trying to put clothes on him.
- sucks at sleeping. Remember how I said last month that he was finally sleeping longer stretches at night? Yeah, well, scratch that. We're back to waking every 1-2 hours every night. It's worse than having a newborn. I feel like night weaning may be in our future, just so I can get some sleep!!
