The Olson Family: 11 Months!

Is it really possible that we're 24 days away from Peyton's first birthday?! Words cannot describe how this makes me feel. Scared, happy, sad, excited - all these emotions mixed together makes for one confused mamma! You sure have a different perspective of life when you become a parent, for so many different reasons. But there's never a day that goes by where I don't feel incredibly blessed by this little angel.

Now for the fun (& not so fun) stuff!

At the beginning of the month, sadly Peyton got his first ear infection. After his ear infection (supposedly) went away, I'm pretty positive he got bronchiolitis. He had a horrible, deep chest cough for a good week or two, that turned into a mucusy, broken up cough, just as I was about to take him to the pediatrician again. We held out thinking he was getting better since his cough was starting to break up, and thank goodness he did. He's been well with NOTHING for about two weeks and I hope he stays that way.

He started telling us when he's full. He'll push the bottle away or shake his head back and forth when he's full, and I'm so happy for this. We've always been told since he was a newborn that they'll just stop when they're full of milk or food, but this kid never refuses anything so I found that hard to believe.

He started pointing at things. He's getting pretty good at putting the bottle in our mouths (he finds it funny when we "drink" from his bottle) and "sharing." He likes to pick something up and hand it to you, so we call it sharing, although I'm not sure if that's what he's doing. :)

He had his final cranial band appointment mid month. Which reminds me, it's been about 3 1/2 weeks since then, so maybe we'll go another 3-4 nights with it and be D.O.N.E.! Steve and I noticed that even since his final appointment, it's improved. I'm glad we had it shaved down one last time and continue, because I do think it's gotten even better.

He started to finally hold his own 8 oz bottle. He knows now to tilt his bottle and sippy back in order to get more out. Around that time, he went crazy and started accomplishing a lot of milestones that I wrote about here. He's going from tummy to sitting up like a pro and is starting to pull up on things, although he can't quite pull himself all the way up yet. I'm finding him sitting in his crib, but not standing.

He's definitely responding to his name and "no." He knows what words mean, when I say doggie he'll look for Ginger, etc. It's gonna be tough for me to know when he's using his words though. I think that's the one thing my motherly instinct is going to be challenged with. He's been saying "mom, or momma" and "Daa (like dad) or Dah (like dog)" but really calls everything "Da." I just can't tell if it's in context or not.

Speaking of "no," he's become a little stinker when it comes to eating and his Partner-In-Crime, aka Ginger. Ginger knows she can get some yummy stuff when Peyton's in his highchair, and Peyton knows she's all his during this time. So Peyton will take his slimy food filled hand, tease her, and then put it outside of his highchair so Ginger can lick the living crap out of it. Who knows how long this goes on for before I notice, and in the meantime I'm sure that hand of his has gone in & out of his AND Gingers mouth repeatedly.

This is where it's gotten funny lately: Peyton and Ginger both now know that this isn't okay. I now know that this will happen every.single.time. As soon as the scene is about to happen, I sit and watch... I sit and watch Peyton get all excited that Ginger's coming over to him, I sit and watch his little hand come out over his highchair for Ginger to lick, THEN I sit and watch him look up at me with the most innocent look on his face, WAITING for me to say, "NO GINGER! EH EH EH PEYTON!" Then I sit and watch him pull it back inside his high chair and carry on. This boy knows what my reaction will be and he's testing me! I need to start working on my poker face, because he's gonna crack me up with the things he does and I'm gonna have to stay strong.

When I was pregnant, I was in Border's one day reading pregnancy books, when an older woman came up to me and we started chatting. She told me about a book she swore by, and it's called Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline. Just from the title, I knew that would be a book I had to get. I haven't gotten it yet, but I think it's about that time!

11 Months!