{10 & 11 month happenings}

I lag. Let's just get that out in the open right now (as if you didn't know, based on the post that has been sitting below this one for MONTHS now - ugh). I have been wanting to post a 10-month "Ollie update" for a long time, and here we are with a serious delay in posting a 10-month AND an 11-month update. Sigh. Ah well.

Moving on...

My little bug has been doing so many new things over the last couple of months. He is a crazy crawler and even goes up the stairs (crazy kiddo). He pulls himself up on things all day long. He is into everything and is much more work to entertain these days, but it has been so much fun watching him grow and learn.

Here he was at 10 months old....

...and here is my big boy at 11 months old (with his big boy haircut - never-mind the bed head ;) )....

He is becoming BIG before my very eyes. It's been a crazy couple of months for this mama who is missing her tiny baby boy but is loving her growing adorable little man.

New stuff . . . . .

**Oliver got his hair cut for the first time (the current look is in the above 11 month photos). His hair was getting a little bit (a lot)  CRAZY, and it was falling in his eyes when crawling, so it was time.

Here are a few before shots of his crazy (adorable) mop....

And here are some pictures of hair-cut day.....

(she actually went back in and cut more off of the top & back after these photos were taken, so the end result was quite a bit shorter than the above pictures)

I love his new 'do. He definitely looks older, and I do miss his crazy baby hair, but I am happy with how he looks (in fact, he is almost ready for another trim - lol).

**He has 2 teeth on the bottom and one on the top (with a second top tooth poking through as we speak). He has been a bit more fussy as these teeth come in, but nothing too awful. We rely on his teething necklace and Hyland teething tablets (dissolved in water), and have given Tylenol a couple of times to make night time tolerable. All in all, he is getting through it ok.

**He is a MUCH better eater these days. He really likes baby food now (especially the greek yogurt ones and the meaty options, like chicken noodle, chicken with rice, turkey vegetable, apple chicken, sweet potato w/ turkey, etc.) and is loving eating big boy food. So far he likes avocado, banana, chicken, rice, beans, crackers, ravioli's, peaches, pears, tortillas. It has been so fun to watch his face after he tries something new.

**He is in love with drinking water from a sippy cup. We started this at around 7 months, but he has really gotten the hang of it in the last month or so. He also loves the ones with straws. Funny enough he will not drink out of a sippy cup that has a soft tip/nipple. If it resembles a bottle nipple in any way, he wants nothing to do with it. His favorite cup is actually the take-n-toss sippy cup :/ I have bought several top-of-the-line cups, but he prefers the throw away kind. Go figure. Silly baby.

**This week we stopped using the baby bath tub (finally) and moved into the bug tub with a no-slip mat. He LOVES it and I can tell he feels so much more free. He has always loved the bath -- it has been his happy place ever since he took his first bath almost 1 year ago -- but now I can tell he loves it even more. See....

**Sleep = hit or miss. Some nights he sleeps 6-8 hours straight and then a few more after a feeding. Other nights he wakes up every 3-4 hours. I still breast feed throughout the night if he can't be calmed/put back to sleep by just rubbing his back or rocking him. I think his teeth are bugging him, so I am ok with the night-time feeding for the time being. Whatever helps to make my guy less fussy/in pain I am game for.  On the other hand, he is getting better at napping. He takes at least one 1.5-2 hr nap, and sometimes another 1/2 - 1 hour nap. :)

**We have switched Oliver into a "big boy" car-seat. I researched all of the convertible carseats out there (and believe me, there are a TON of options), and although the tried and true Britax was my initial choice, after looking into it a little bit more, we decided to try something different - The Recaro ProRIDE. Recaro is a company that specializes in race car seats/seat belts, and these seats get rave reviews, so we thought we'd give it a shot, and so far so good. Oliver loves having more room and I can tell that he loves the fact that he can see outside better :) I plan to do a separate post focused on this topic because so many moms are faced with the overwhelming choice of which seat is safest, most comfortable, etc. and I learned a thing or two during my research. So far, we are super happy with our choice. :)

**Oh...also, he can "high five" and give a "kiss", and loves to turn the pages when we read to him. Super cute!!

All in all it has been a great couple of months. Here are a few more photos of our guy just to be sure that you really soak him in ;) hehe!

And on one final note, my sweet husband was finally ready to say farewell to our beloved Bear. Her favorite thing to do was swim, so he felt that the perfect final resting place for her would be in the ocean. We went to the Dana Point harbor and let her swim free.

On the way back to the car, I found the heart shaped rock that Bear sent to us to let us know that she is ok. We locked it away in her box and will keep it always. We love you sweet Bear, and miss you everyday xo

xo

-L