11 months old!

Tyler, you were 11 months old on December 28th!  Wow!  You are only a month away from your 1st birthday...this mommy better get to planning!  I am excited to celebrate having you for a year, but sad at the same time that I feel like you will no longer be a baby!  You had a very exciting month, as we were very busy with Christmas!  It was your first and I hope all of the pictures I took will show what a special time it was for you!  Your Daddy let me buy a new camera (that snaps pictures as fast as I could've hoped for!) so I didn't miss a beat for all of the excitement! 

You weigh right around 20 pounds when I stand on the scale with you.  We will find out your exact measurments at your 12 month appt, but not until February.  You are walking/running all over.  You started walking backwards too...too funny!  You love for us to chase you and then you run and laugh!  You are eating more and more solids and want to feed yourself!  It is a mess, but we are letting you (most of the time :-)

You follow me all around the house and hold your arms our for us to pick you up...love to be held these days!  I am trying to get you to say more words.  This last week you said "up" and I can tell you try to mimic us.  You mimic us with a lot of things like sneezing and coughing.  It cracks us up! 

You are sleeping pretty well.  I think some more teeth are on their way, but our nights haven't been too disrupted.  Usually down between 9 and 10 and up at 7 when I am at school, but sometimes will sleep until 8 when I am off. 

I have been trying to give you your milk in your cup during the day and just the bottle at night.  It is going just so so.  You LOVE your bottle!  We'll see if we can make it.  You guzzle your milk when it is in the bottle, but not so much when it is in your cup.  My only concern is to make sure you are still eating enough and getting the right amount of milk. 

Your first Christmas was a busy one!  Christmas Eve we were at Grandma and Grandpa Haertling's to open gifts and then went to Great Grandparent's Kryger's house.  This was the year we were going to Christmas Eve Service in Nashville at our church, but with you and your cousins, we opted for 7:00 service instead of 11:00.  You were ok, you only napped for about 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon...not near enough for you.  But because we were on the go that is what happened.  I was not going to let that happen the next day...you needed your nap.  So my theory was we worked around you. 

Christmas morning we opened presents with you at our house from Santa!  You did the best with us at home.  You actually took the time to tear the paper and look what was in the wrapping...so much fun!  Santa brought you a doll, stroller, ball, alphabet handheld toy, and some clothes.  I think you were so focused at home because there were no other distractions.  Then, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Kania's to open with them and your cousins.  You had  blast playing with them!  You got a chair that you absolutely love!  After you nap we made our way to Great Grandma Kania's.  Then, you napped some more and we headed to Hoyleton to the Suedmeyer Christmas.

On Monday, we went to celebrate with the Haertling's at Great Grandparent's house.

You saw Santa for the first time in town before Christmas and did not like him at all!  But, did see Santa at the family Christmases and did ok..with me holding you!  I had the best break with you!  We just played and played at home. 

For your first New Year's Eve, we had planned to just stay at home, but were invited last minute to go to the Storey's house.  You got to go and play with your friends Braylin, Brewer, Brody, and Bowen.  Finley could not come, so you were the only girl!  You are going to have to keep up with the boys quite a bit I think!  We were in their basement and could not keep you away from the stairs!  They had a room full of neat toys, but you could have cared less...the stairs were your choice!  Mommy and Daddy got their workout!  It was funny though, if we had one of the guys sit there, you would not go near them...you just are not sure about most guys.  Since all the babies were at the party, we didn't make it to midnight there.  You did fall asleep as soon as we got in the car, and Gram had called and said they were all still out at Aunt Joyce's, so we thought we would ring in the new year with them and just put you in the spare room to sleep.  However, you really wanted to party too, and woke up as soon as we stopped the car.  So, we let you ring in the new year with us!  It actually was fun and you were in a good mood even though it was so late!  We stayed just a little past midnight and then went home and got you to bed.  I am so excited about spending 2012 with you!  I can't wait to see the fun that the new year will bring us with you in our lives!  I know we have many memories to make!  We love you so much and are so happy you are in our lives!  Happy 2012!!!