Let's Eat: 11 Months

We have started to work with utensils. I usually pull out two, one for me and one for him. I let him hold one and I will "stab" the food for him, but he is capable of brining the fork to his mouth (and making it!) no problem. When he tries to stab the food, he more like moves it around the tray. We are a work in progress.


Schedule:

6:30 am/7:30 am: Wake, 4ounce bottle,

*banana/Plum mish mosh breakfast pouch, get ready for school

I don't always give him solids/pouch in the morning. Actually its probably more likely that he doesn't get food in the morning. I am thinking that I should start doing it more often as we know weaning off of milk is coming.

9:00 am: Snack (puffs, fruit, or wafer cookie) & 4 ounce bottle

11:00 am: Lunch (meat, vegetable & fruit) & 4 ounce bottle

3:00 pm: Snack (puffs, fruit or wafer cookie) & 4 ounce bottle

6:00pm/6:30 pm: Dinner (meat/eggs/fruit/vegetable/yogurt)

6:45 pm/7:15 pm: 1-4 ounces of bottle

I decided mid-month to take down all of his bottles to 4 ounces. I noticed that on the weekends it was a real struggle to get him to drink the whole thing. And as any breastfeeding mother knows, watching your hard earned milk go down the drain is painful. And to be honest, I am down to my last 100-150 ounces I have in the freezer, so wasting it was literally killing me. I asked school what their thoughts were and they were all in, since they had been having to take several tries to get him to drink all of it as well. I haven't passed this by Dr Pass, but in a month he will need to wean anyway, right? For now this is my plan, unless he seems hungry again, then I will reassess.


I am continuing to watch what I put on his plate, as he will house the fruit and skip the veggies if the choice is there. I am still putting new items or items that are not his favorite first and then working towards the fruit to be dessert.


I have been trying to feed him new things so he doesn't tire of chicken. Keep in mind these plates are FULL. Some nights he eats almost all of it. Other nights Layla gets a bigger helping. Once he starts dropping everything on the floor, I know dinnertime is over.

Within the next day or two we will have burned through our entire deep freezer stash of breast milk. I thought I would only make it through May, so G's schedule change of less milk helped get us until now. I know I should be excited, happy and proud to have made it this far, but for some reason coming so close to a year but not making it makes me sad. I just had a discussion today with friends about how funny things are. Things I thought I would care/not care about vs the reality of those things now while living it. Even when I was pregnant I knew that I wanted to breastfeed, but also knew that if it didn't work out for me, that was ok. Formula works too. But once I was on a roll with it, it became super important to me to keep up my supply, and to save, save SAVE. I know that last breast milk bottle will be a sad one for me to see go. But we are growing up and soon bottles all together will be a thing of the past.



Left: Tacos, Spanish Rice, Grapes, Guacamole
Right: Beans, Cilantro Lime Rice, Crockpot Chicken Fajitas, Guacamole & Blackberries



Clockwise:
Pasta Milano, Broccoli, Grapes
Southwest Quinoa with Beef, Spinach Cakes, Strawberries
Turkey Sausage, Rosemary Garlic Sweet Potatoes, Scrambled Eggs, Blackberries
Pasta with Sauce, Chicken Parmesan, Peas
Crockpot Ribs, Mandarin Oranges, Corn, and Cinnamon Roasted Butternut Squash
Chicken Pot Pie, Blackberries and Strawberries



Clockwise:
Pulled Pork, Rosemary Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, Strawberries
Meatballs, Cheese Ravioli, Garlic Bread, Mushrooms, Grapes
Chicken Stir Fry, Blackberries
Oven Baked Chicken, Green Beans, Fruit Medley, DeeDee's Pasta
Hard Boiled Egg, Broccoli, Grapes, Sweet Potatoes, Mushrooms
Sloppy Joe's, Spinach Cake, Pureed Butternut Squash, Banana, Strawberries
Cucumber and Hummus, Garlic Roasted Red Potatoes, Lemon Pepper Broccoli, Chicken, Strawberries
Pork Potstickers, Broccoli, Parmesan Sweet Potatoes, Raspberries
Meatballs, Sweet Potatoes, Blackberries, Mushrooms and Pasta with Italian Dressing and Carrots

Lots of sweet potatoes and chicken, but we are expanding our horizons. Its fun to meal plan for all of us and seeing G grow up in the kitchen.



Grayson Daniel: 11 Months

Estimated Measurements:

Height: 31 inches

Weight: 25.5 pounds

eat still loves food. duh. His palate is expanding, and the pickiness he displayed last month has gone away. I hope that it stays that way. There are things I have given him that he hasn't been so fond of but overall I would say that he likes most things and is willing to try anything we give him. It will sometimes tae 2-3 bites before he has decided on if he will continue to eat it or not. I have taken down his milk intake since he is dropping and sharing with Layla less than he used to, and bottles were not being finished. More to come on all that on my "Lets Eat" post tomorrow.

sleep No real update on the sleeping front this month. Still sleeping perfectly 6:45 pm - 6:30/7 every day and about an hour and a half nap daily at school.

play On.The.Move. Like a madman. He crawls at super speeds, and a lot of the time he bear crawls everywhere. So funny. Most of the same favorites - j's guitar, his little guitar, blocks, jeep/dump truck, reading, bathtime, walks, etc. He loves the water table, pulling up on things and starting to cruise around. He loves to play "phone" with anything and everything. He has even started to chat while he is playing. (where do they learn this stuff?!) He's pointing at everything and we are identifying the objects for him. Fans/Lights on the ceiling have sparked his interest all over again. Really anything hanging form the ceiling. Every day when we leave school I let him touch the tissue puffs hanging from the ceiling in the hallway. Shhh don't tell anyone. Of all the toys he has, he currently loves to play in his bowl/cup/utensil cabinet or play with an empty brown paper bag. 9 times out of 10 he has a plastic fork or spoon in his hand while crawling around. Opening/shutting doors is also a current favorite while also playing with the springy doorstops wherever he can find one.

miscellaneous

• His nickname at school is Mr President since he waves and smiles to everyone. They say he even responds when they call him that
• He has started to throw fits and have a little temper. Diaper changes/Clothing changes are the worst. But he seems to really only do it to J&I. He's much better with my mom or the other day Amber put him  in his swimsuit with no problem
• Loves to dance
• Any time he hears clapping he does as well. Which means on the weekend his golf clap has been perfected. He will be ready for a trip to the Masters in no time
• I am sure every thinks their baby is smart, but I have a smarter cookie than you ::Insert laughing/cry emoji here::
• "Helps" to brush his teeth and hair
• Mimicking everything you do and sounds you make
• He's been sucking his lips - he has at least 3 teeth that are making their way in. Currently we have 8
• High Fives, Blowing Sugars, Giving Real Sugars, Waving hello/good bye are all on repeat.
• Loves to play "Where's Grayson" aka peek-a-boo or "How Big is Grayson?" and he reaches to the sky. Its so sweet.
• We are in between size 3 and 4 diapers. Size 3 still fit snuggly, and we are using them at home until we run out, but at school he is wearing size four.
• Obeys commands - "Give Mama your Paci" Understands the concept of "No" but still working on "Come Here"
• So much chitter chatter. I cant wait to it fully makes sense. Right now we are consistent with Mama, Dada, Layla, Ball, Ba Ba and Dog. Although ball and dog are intermixed for a lot of objects.
• 95% he is still sweet, sensitive little babe. But we are definitely starting to see fits, tears as he gets a mind of his own.
• 
  

Weekend Things

Weekends always seem to fly by, yet the week crawls on through. I know I am not the only one who feels this way! Am I right?


This weekend was so good to us. Friday we laid low (we always lay low on Friday, who am I kidding?!)

Saturday morning we went to our favorite breakfast diner and got G a pancake the size of his body. Followed by a nap for the whole family, swimming with friends & G's first sleepover at DeeDee ad Chief's while Mama & Daddy enjoyed a night out at the Rangers Game

Sunday was full of errands, cooking/meal prep for the week, etc. All of the typical Sunday "to-dos" But we capped off the night playing with G's new water table. That might be his birthday present. I mean, he doesn't get the concept of birthday or gifts yet, why not start celebrating a bit early??

Besties V

Now that G is on the move big time, Layla doesn't quite get to choose when they interact anymore. Their playing together has truly turned into playing. G will get her toy hold it and "throw" it for her and she will scoop it up and bound off a few steps, stop, turn around and squeak it for him until he starts to chase her. The sweetest yall.


And sweet Layla girl is so patient. Sometimes I wonder if the sugars he's giving her are bites, but we would never know because she doesn't move a muscle and just lets him continue to climb over her like a jungle gym.


Her name is one of the very few words that are clear. She makes him giggle like no one else can. Some nights are full of delirious laughs well past bedtime.


He loves this dog, yall.