Thursday, September 27, 2012

Eleven Months (and a few weeks...)






Whew! What. A. Month. I am a couple of weeks late posting this 11 month (I still cannot believe he is 11 months old) update, but we have had SO much going on around here - most of it not fun. Since getting his tubes on August 27, Luke has had THREE ear infections, a cold, and pneumonia - scary stuff. It turns out that one of his tubes was blocked by fluid, so we had to go to the ENT and get that suctioned out - so sad. I don't know if he just picked up some germy germs at Mother's Day Out or just when we were out and about, but suffice it to say that Luke's immune system has gotten a good workout over the past three weeks! I am so grateful to have a pediatrician that is cautious and takes us seriously - he really cares about Luke and does everything he can to make sure we are doing everything we can to keep him well.

To top it all off, I got strep throat over the weekend - mama just cannot be sick - ever! K was sweet enough to take Luke on a little father-son escapade, so I got a few hours of solid rest, but it was a rough time! Fortunately, I think all of the Burlesons are on the mend - hopefully we can keep K from getting sick and we can head into October all happy and well.

As for that little 11 month old boy - wow. He is on the move and is SO close to walking! He will let go and stand all by himself and has taken a few little tentative shuffles. I don't know how the timeline goes, but I think we are close to having a walking boy!


One of his favorite things to do is to open and close doors/cabinets and to take everything out of the cabinets. He likes to climb into certain cabinets and into the refrigerator - I think he could play in the refrigerator all day if I let him. We put cabinet locks on the cabinets that have dangerous stuff in them, but left him a few doors to open!


He is LIGHTENING fast when he crawls and loves to crawl outside in the grass and in the driveway. Dirt/pinestraw/rocks/bugs don't seem to deter him at all and he just loves to sit in the grass and put his hands through it. I am so glad that it is finally cooling off around here so that we can spend more time outside. There are several parks that I really want to explore and some long walks that I want to take. He still loves his Bob Stroller and just goes into a kind of baby trance whenever we go on a walk. One of the funny things he does when he crawls is to hold something as he crawls around. It really doesn't matter to him what the object is, but he usually has something in his hands while he is scooting around!


Sleep has been a little hit or miss lately - with him not feeling well, it has been tough to keep him on any kind of structure. He hasn't been napping very consistently and it makes me wonder if he is trying to drop one of his naps. When he has felt well, he has slept through the night, so that gives me great hope for the future. The garbage trucks and other construction vehicles in our neighborhood seem to come through during naptime every day, so that has made it tough for him, as he wakes up with those very loud noises!


And, speaking of noises, Luke has been making all KINDS of sounds and noises! He has finally started to babble very consistently and it seems like he is trying to talk to us. I am having him evaluated by Early Intervention to see if he has some sort of speech delay, as he isn't really associating words with objects quite yet. With all of the trouble we have had with his ears, I am not certain that he has been hearing well. Once we got all of the fluid removed from his ears last week, his babbling improved dramatically - I hate it that he might not have been hearing us well all of these months!

One of my very good friends is a speech therapist and she assures me that he will catch up quickly if he does have a delay, so that is good to know. In the last week, he has started saying "Mama," although I don't know if he is saying it to me or just saying it (although I know what I want to believe!) He does look to some objects when we name them (light, kitty, ball, diaper, drink) and points to things he wants, but just isn't quite into saying anything quite yet! He follows commands sometimes, my favorite one being "Give mama kisses" and then getting sloppy kisses from my sweet boy!

He is not a big eater (other than nursing) these days. He still loves finger foods and will eat almost anything we put in front of him, just not in large quantities. He is still refusing to be spoon fed, but we still try most days to see if he will take it. So far, no luck. He also still refuses to drink anything but water from his cup. I don't know how long I will nurse him, but it doesn't look like we are going to be stopping anytime soon (although I have heard that babies sometimes just decide all of a sudden that they are done!). His favorite things are hummus and flatbread, spinach, green beans, chicken, carrots, bananas, graham crackers, waffles, and cheese. He really does like a large variety of foods, so I am very grateful for that!

Because of his sicknesses, he has dropped a little weight this month - I am hoping that he will put some weight back on, as he seems a little spindly compared to his usual chunky self. I think he weighs around 20 pounds and is close to 30 inches long. He is wearing mostly 12 month clothes, a size 4 diaper, and fits into a size 4 shoe (although, much to my mother-in-law's chagrin, I don't put him in shoes quite yet).

Diaper changes continue to be an Olympic event. He just takes off as soon as we get his diaper off, so we have to come up with a strategy for that. I have gotten lots of advice about baby "discipline," so I am trying to figure out what we are going to do - there are so many options - just need to figure out what works best for us!

He loves to read his books and loves to play with his toys. He has a little basketball goal that he just is obsessed with - he loves to put the balls through the goal over and over and over. We also got him a little walk-behind toy that he just adores. He can now steer it all over the house and has figured out how to get out of corners/dead end streets/etc. He has figured out how all of his toys work and loves anything with buttons and lights. He has figured out how to get his sound machine off of the table in his room and loves to push all of the different buttons and listen to the different sounds. He also loves to drop things through the bars of his baby gates and watch them bounce down the stairs. Speaking of stairs, he loves to climb the stairs - we have to make extra sure that those gates are latched tightly!

We are in the process of planning his first birthday party - hard to believe that it will be taking place two weeks from Saturday - I think it will be a good time, but there is much to do!

This little man continues to be more joy than we ever thought possible - the absolute light of our lives!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

First Day of School!



So today was the big day! Luke started a Mother's Day Out program at our church - he will go on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 until 1. I have been a nervous wreck, worrying myself crazy about how it would go today. He has only been away from me a handful of times and never for more than 2-3 hours at a time. He always seems to enjoy being around other people and goes to anyone who wants to hold him, so I figured that he would be okay, but STILL!!!!!!

I packed his bag last night, got everything labeled, made his lunch, and got all teary as I saw everything sitting out on the counter. I made sure that he had a change of clothes, diapers, sippy cups, snacks, pacifiers (although he won't take one), a bib, and his cold pack.

We got there right on time and I took him into his classroom. It was so cute! They had all of the kids' names on little apples on the door. He had a little cubby for his bag and other things, and had a special bulletin board with his name on it where the teachers can write anything that I need them to know. His teachers are Mrs. Christy and Miss Linda and he seems to really like them! Mrs. Christy has been keeping this age group for 20 years, so I feel like he will be in very, very good hands! He crawled right on in and started playing with the other kids. I gave him a quick kiss and left - SO hard! I cried just a little, but pulled myself together before it got too bad ;-)




I met two of my friends for coffee at Panera (we had all dropped our babies off this morning) and I felt much better after that. I ran a few errands and then it was time to go pick up my boy! When I got there, he was being held by Mrs. Christy - she said that he wouldn't eat :-(, but that he had taken a good nap. She said that he did eat a few of his snacks, but wouldn't eat his baby food or drink his milk - I didn't expect him to, so that wasn't a big surprise.

We got in the car and he babbled the whole way home - it was like he was telling me all about his day. It was so cute! He didn't fall asleep for about 2 hours, so he must have been really wound up. Of course, no long nap this afternoon - he slept for about 45 minutes and then he was ready to go again!

I think this will be a good time for both of us - I need to get back to the gym and do the errands that are getting to be a bit tough with an active baby - I missed him like crazy and am glad that we have a few days before Tuesday rolls around!