T-1 mo and my BABY will be ONE!!

rocking the dawg gear for a fall walk:)

In 1 month my BABY will be 1..unbelievable..

here is what Ben is up to at 11 months…

• You wear 12-18 month clothes (can still rock some 6-12 tops) and a size 4 shoe.

• You are eating mostly table foods these days (favorites are bananas, oatmeal, blueberries, strawberries, peas, cheese, yogurt, applesauce, stir fry, pasta, bread!, etc.). You love to share treats and bites with mom and dad too!

• You LOVE to drink water! you drink at least 18 oz/day from your sippy cup and also love to drink out of a straw or share from our "big cups" In addition to water, you still nurse once each night.

• You sleep roughly 10-11 hrs/night (you still wake up at least 1x per night you stinker!--sometimes 2-3-ugh!) and still take two naps (1-2 hours each). To fall asleep, mom hands you your binky and your blankie and we cuddle for about 1 min before I lay you down. Sometimes you fall right to sleep and other times you like to reflect on your day aloud and sing and bang your binky on your crib but you have gotten SOO good at just laying down and putting yourself to sleep within 5 min or so.

• you LOVE puppies and dogs and see them regularly on walks. you make your signature all-animal noise (sounds most like a moo) and try to pull at their ears, fur/hair...get ready Toonces..He'll be back in town soon! Below he is playing with the ciaralante's new puppy:)

• I hate to admit that your first word is definitely "da-dad" you know who he is and love to wait by the storm door for him to get home from work. You and your daddy have a cute little bond. You love to play with him and you can point him out in any picture; however, you occasionally label a lot of other things "da-dad" as well. You say "mama" a lot but usually when you are sad or tired or hungry-not necessarily to refer to me :(.

• You can go up stairs but you haven't quite figured out how to come back down:) you especially love climbing up stairs at playground.

• a leaf can entertain you for a whole 1 hr walk!

• You have started to use objects for what they are intended for. When I finish brushing your hair or mine, you always reach for the brush for the finishing touches. you love to "talk" on the phone and hold it to your ear and you like to point the remote at the TV and press buttons.

•You love to point and have used this new trick to request anything or everything that you may need--its pretty smart:)

•When we put our hand out you have replaced your "high-fives" trick with just putting whatever you have in your hands or near you in our hands--which is sweet and obedient but we miss your frequent "high-fives"

•You have 6 teeth through the gums now, 4 on top and 2 on bottom :) and you LOVE to brush your teeth. In fact when Dad or Mom are brushing their teeth you insist on joining in on the fun!:)

•Ben, you are so sweet and silly and lots of fun!

•You definitely understand "no" and are starting to make more word associations. You are so obedient and almost always respond to some simple instructions:

"come back ben", "No-no", "put it back", "open up", "say hi",

"wave to ____", "come here buddy", etc…

•You LOVE buttons!!

• You cruise all around the tables, couch, anything you can hang on to but are not yet standing on your own. you are quite fast when cruising around furniture or with sweet walker you borrowed from Brady (Thanks Low's & Staller's for hand-me-down toys--between friends and nephews Ben's a lucky boy!)

• You can sign for "more", but aren't super consistent.

•When you hear music (and aren't distracted) you put your arms straight out and move them up and down--kinda like a frankenstein move--its awesome:)

• You love playing ball with anyone--or alone--but ESPECIALLY with dad! you have gotten pretty good at "throwing" a ball and can hardly wait for us to throw it back and usually start crawling toward us before we can even pick it up. playing catch or shooting hoops are favorites!

• You love to be picked up especially when Im cooking and you have to "help" or at least see whats going on up there!

some more misc. pics of ben at 11 mos...

first snow:)

stuffed in carseat in new puffy coat from Aunt Meg!

gooooo JAKE!

all bundled up..its finally getting cold in KY! Monkey Face is still your constant companion:)