Eleven months old

Eleven months old. hmmm...not sure how I feel about this. Eleven months. The last month before he's one YEAR. A whole number. I better keep doing these monthly posts, though. It's the only thing that keeps me on task and guarantees a post each month.

At eleven months, Zane:

*Will walk as long as he has one hand on the wall, my hand, the couch, a toy, etc. But it's just for security, not support. He could take off and go if he was brave enough. He can stand forever by himself and has taken some unassisted steps.

*Crawls normally on carpet. On hard floors he crawls with his right foot and slides his left leg and bottom! Saving those knees, I guess?

*Pats his head when asked, "Where's your head?" and his belly when asked, "Where's your belly?"

*Likes to turn off/on light switches. When someone says, "Thank you" he mimics with the same connotation. Does the same thing with "Happy Thanksgiving!"

*His favorite hobby is opening and closing cabinet doors, bedroom doors, and drawers.

*Does NOT understand "No no". He goes right back to the places he just got in trouble for! What the heck? I have no idea how to stop this.

*Added "uh-oh" to his vocab.

See how he's grabbing that shoelace? He wants to "floss" with it. Guaranteed. He "flosses" his teeth with any string, yarn, cord, etc that he can get his hands on. Just a word of advice to you parents out there.....don't give your 11 month old dental floss to play with. Just sayin......maybe we learned the hard way, maybe not. I'll never tell....

This is Zane with his third? cousin, Hunter. My favorite Hunter quote of the day: His grandma (my aunt) asked him how he pees. I'm expecting him to say "in the potty" or "like a big boy". Nope. Hunter's answer: "Like a race horse!" HA!

Here is Zane playing with his new toy that Aunt Claudia brought to my mom's house. LOVED it! He played with it for hours! Thank you Claudia and Hunter for your hand-me-down toys!Here's a video of Zane playing peek-a-boo. Hunter walks in the house at the end of the video. Around 20 seconds. Please note how Z totally zones in on him and looks completely enthralled!



Now, let the birthday planning begin!

Halloween monkey, plasma cars, and that darned pumpkin patch

Surprise! Zane-O was a monkey for his first Halloween! Cutest little monkey I've ever seen! We didn't do any door-to-door trick or treating...just went to Memaw's and Mama Doot's. Aunt Lindsey, Uncle Erik, Nana, & Bo Joe all came to bring the little monkey goodies. Doesn't he look thrilled?

Here's our little family on Halloween. I really didn't want to use this picture because I look F-A-T, but it's the only one we took together. Besides, maybe everyone will focus on the cute little boy and my handsome husband. No more Halloween candy for me!

He's just trying to decide which tree to swing from first....

Having a monkey snack

Anyone got a banana?

So, moving on to plasma cars. Friday night we decided we'd go watch the Pulaski Academy and Little Rock Christian football game. We pulled up to a very dark, very empty, LRC football stadium. It seems we miscalculated and were a little early for the game.....as in, a whole week early! I felt pretty goofy because I had Z dressed up in his football sweater and hat. When we got back home, our neighbors were outside carving pumpkins and invited us over to play. Madison and McKinley have these cool plasma cars that were lots of fun!

And that DARNED Pumpkin Patch! You may have read my earlier hissy fit about wanting to take Zane to the pumpkin patch. On Saturday afternoon we decided to attempt another trip to that mysterious field full of pumpkins to capture pictures of our little pumpkin. We followed the signs...Pumpkin Patch 5 miles...Pumpkin Patch 2 miles...Pumpkin Patch 500 feet................

PUMPKIN PATCH CLOSED!

NO WAY!

I honestly did not believe it was closed and told Matt to keep driving! I would open a gate, climb a fence, do whatever it took to get into that patch.

Except that the next sign said "WATCH FOR ALLIGATORS"!

Maybe next year?

Ten months old

**Update: Z had his nine month checkup today (at 10 months). He got his first flu shot and put on a pretty good little show. Once again, Dr. Magee said that he's perfect!

Length: 29.29 inches (75th%)

Weight: 20lb 4.5oz (25-50th%)

Head Circumference: 47cm (90th%) He's got his daddy's "Bell Head"!

Happy early Halloween! I'm not much of a Halloween person, but I do love fall. I think we found the perfect little pumpkin this year, too!Today is Zane's 10 month birthday! That means only two months until he's....you know....not a baby!? (I know, that was some hard math I just performed, right?)

Not only does he keep getting bigger and smarter each month, but he gets funnier! So maybe I'm a little biased, but I really think he is the funniest kid! He knows that he's funny, and does stuff just to make us laugh! Our all time fave is still the good ole Popeye face!What a stinker! He loves "Pumpkin Bear" that you see in the picture. KayeKaye gave it to him. Pumpkin Bear usually stays in the carseat, but made an escape for picture time. Z knows that PB stays in the car, and as soon as I put him in the carseat he is reaching for it. When you squeeze its hand, it laughs (in a kind of creepy way) and says "Happy Halloween". Z thinks that's pretty funny and learned how to make it work by biting its hand.

Zane and Pumpkin Bear

Zane and Frankie

You want me to what? Sit down? No, thanks!

At 10 months, Zane:

*Finally has somewhat of a schedule: Breakfast, play, bottle & nap, lunch, play, bottle and nap, play, dinner, bath, bedtime!

*Consistently goes to bed around 7:30 or 8. He usually wakes up once in the early morning (4 or 5), takes and bottle and goes back to sleep. As luck would have it, if it's a morning that I work, I wake him up by putting him in the car...around 7:15. Of course, if it's a day I'm off.....and want to sleep....guess who's up at 6:30?! Zane-O! Ready to play!

*Still scratches everything! He's got some kind of weird obsession with different textures.

*Calls all dogs "Lola". And "Lola" is said in a deep voice. Different than other words, such as "Dada". That is said in a really sweet, high pitched voice.

*Will pat his head when asked where his head is.

*Will wave his hands in the air and "Call the Hogs!"

*Fake coughs on demand

*Growls and pants like a dog.

*Will eat anything you put in his mouth or on his high chair!

*Loves his stuffed lamb. Well....loves to bite her face, anyway!

*Pays close attention to detail. Rather than pull the dogs' tail or ears, he will gently pinch one whisker or toenail. He seems to always pick out the smallest little detail on things.

*Pulls up, crawls, wants to walk SO badly...and can do it if he holds onto something with one hand, and can stand unassisted for about 30 seconds.

Sorry for the long post...probably boring to everyone but me. I just want to remember what he was doing at this age! Recently I got some good video of some of the funny things he's doing and will try to post them later.

Love this kid....especially when he looks like this:

The Pumpkin Patch

I bet you clicked on here and expected to see pictures of our cute little family at the pumpkin patch, right? It is that time of year....and all the good moms and dads are taking their kiddos to pick out the perfect pumpkin, go on a hayride, and take cute family pictures on a hay bail.Well, that's exactly what you WON'T see here! Why? Because 'life' gets in the way. Let me explain...

Friday morning started out perfectly! Matt and I were both off of work on the same day! That only happens about one day a month at our house (that's no exaggeration). Zane had only been up once (at 5am, took a bottle, went back to sleep) and then slept til 8! This meant that mommy & daddy got to sleep til 8, too! That hasn't happened since Pre-Zane! Matt brought Zane to our bed and we all had snuggle time. Then we ate breakfast together--all three of us!

After weeks of raining, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful fall day. A perfect day for Zane's first pumpkin patch trip! Now, we just need to clean up the breakfast mess, get everyone bathed, Daddy run some errands.....oh, yeah, then Zane needs his nap.....that lasted 2 hours....and then he's up, so back to getting ready for the pumpkin patch...We're all dressed and ready....oh, wait....Zane's hungry. Got to feed him lunch...and clean that up...oh, my! It's NOON?! But, but....I've got to be at my hair appointment (that I've had scheduled for a month) at one.....and Dad's got to be at the airport at 1:30. So....no time for the pumpkin patch, huh?

And then I acted like a third grader, complete with slamming stuff on the counter, throwing a dish towel in the sink, and tears. CAUSE I WANNA GO TO THE STINKIN' PUMPKIN PATCH AND LOOK LIKE A NORMAL FAMILY! We're always so busy, and work crazy schedules, and just never have time for 'normal' stuff. Later that day, my great neighbor & friend, Jaime, told me that, "Guess what? That is a normal family! Something is always gonna come up!"

Well, we were all dressed and ready, so we took few pictures on the front steps instead. I am very thankful that I got to spend the morning with my two boys, even if my plans didn't turn out the way I'd hoped! Maybe we'll make it to the pumpkin patch one day, Zane! Just know that your mom & dad gave it a valiant effort!

Lately...

Lately, Zane has been nothing less than an angel. He is such a sweet little boy. He will deliberately give kisses. Big, open-mouthed kisses. When Zane woke up Friday morning, Matt went and got him and brought him to our bed. He sat him right between us. He crawled up to Matt and gave him a kiss. Then, he turned to me, placed his little hand on my cheek, and gave me a kiss. Probably the sweetest moment of my life. I want to bottle it up and keep it forever.Lately, Zane has learned to sleep. I can't begin to describe what my life has been like regarding the sleep issues we've had since he was born, but to sum things up...until about a month ago, he was still getting up every TWO hours. Every.Single.Night. And I was a crazy, psycho, sleep-deprived, emotional, looney tune. To put it mildly. But lately, Z's been going to bed around 7:30/8 o'clock and sleeping until 4:30/5. He'll take a bottle and then go back to sleep until 7:30 or so. Heavenly days! I feel human again!

Lately, Zane has been crawling all over the place.Lately, he's been pulling up on everything.Lately, he keeps at least one bruise on his head at all times....because, what pulls up, must come down....Lately, he loves the puppy dogs. He crawls around following them. He growls at them. And he pants. So, lately he sort of thinks he's a dog. And he calls all dogs "Lola". Lola continues to be his favorite word. First thing out of his mouth when he wakes up in the morning. First of about the, oh, five thousand times he says it in one day.Lately, his favorite toy is this Baby Einstein thing. He pulls up on it and chews on it. He's also figured out how to turn one of the gadgets to make animal sounds.
Lately, I've felt incredibly lucky to be Zane's mom.

Zane's first work of art?

Zane decided that our bedroom door would make a great canvas for his first art project! Now that we have a crawler, the adventures have begun. He crawled over to the door, got his hand in some grease that was on the hinge (I have no idea why it was covered in grease???), and made a pretty little picture on our door! See the cute hand print? No worries, though. It's nothing a little Magic Eraser couldn't fix!

A few pictures of our little monkey....

Still loving the Popeye face! As Matt said tonight, "It will always
be funny--no matter how many times he does it!"

Nine months old

April 08 - December 08.....longest nine months of my life. December 27, 08 - September 27, 09.....fastest nine months of my life! I now have a very busy, mischievous little boy on my hands. He is pulling up on everything and LOVES to "walk"....with the assistance of someone holding his hands. Today he actually crawled for the first time! He's been getting on all fours for awhile now, but hadn't actually conquered the crawl until today.

Proof of mischievousness:

Zane has seven words in his vocabulary: hi, bye-bye, mama, dada, ba-ba (bottle), Lola (Matt's parents' dog, his all-time favorite word....he says this, um...about 500 times a day), and Pay-pay (Paisley, one of our dogs). He calls Emma, our other dog, "Lola", too. He also waves bye-bye and puts his hand to his mouth to blow a kiss. We're still working on the "blowing the kiss" part.
He eats pretty much anything we're eating. His faves right now are waffle and fruit for breakfast, refried beans, avocado, and gnocchi. The only food I've found that he really didn't like was zucchini. Most kids would spit it out, right? Nope, not Zane! He just sits there with his mouth open and cries! So I either have to get it out with my finger or get him something to drink to wash it down. It's just down right pitiful!

His favorite past times are "walking", playing with his LeapFrog table and SillyTown toys, and cell phones and remote controls. He LOVES to be outside. Total boy. He has books that are "touch & feel", where the animals are fluffy or leathery or sticky. So now he tries to feel of the pages of every book. He's a pretty smart little cookie.
He's just now starting to get on a schedule....like, where most 6 week-old babies are...that's where we're getting to now! HA! This kid does NOT require sleep, but we're getting him to bed pretty consistently around 7:30/8pm. He usually wakes up once during the night. Then he gets up early to start his day -- like anywhere from 4:45 to 6:15am! Yikes! He hates sleep so much that he has started hitting himself in the head when he gets sleepy. What in the world? Surely that's not normal behavior!?

He makes his "Popeye face" on command and it is still the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life! All in all, he's a pretty sweet kid and we've decided to keep him around for awhile. :)

The End