A note to self......

do not take family pictures while teething....notice the death stare from Skelly.....

Eleven Months

Dear Skelly,
I cannot believe it has happened but you are now ELEVEN MONTHS OLD!!! This year has flown by and I am already thinking about your birthday party. We celebrated your eleven month old birthday yesterday by giving you your first taste of cows milk. Needless to say you were unimpressed. You are drinking from a straw sippy cup and loving it. Most of the time you seem surprised that something comes up and spit it out but feel like such a big boy to be doing it. Momma is happy and sad that this will be the end of breastfeeding. You have four full teeth and many coming in which is partly why Momma is ready to give you a cup now. :) Your new favorite food is blueberries. You ate a pint in 3 days! You love meat and beans and picking tomatoes from the garden. I cannot think of a food you do not like because you seem to be a eating machine lately.
Your big milestones are that you are cruising on everything and climbing stairs like a champion. You love to grab the gate at the stairs and scream and laugh hysterically. Dada just put up your swing in the backyard and we spend lots of time out there everyday. Momma is going to have one strong right arm from pushing you. You laugh like crazy when Dada swings you and pretends to let you hit him. The other day Uncle Butch came out of his house because he heard you laughing so loudly. Your Uncle Jerry also loves you so much. He is fascinated by everything you do and loves to tell everyone who visits exactly what you can do.
You just decided to start standing on your chair and think that is very funny too. You love the gym and have mastered climbing through tunnels, bouncing on the trampoline and crawling uphill on the wedge mats. Your favorite time is the dance party at the end where they turn on the disco ball and bubbles. You have become quite the dancer and stand up and shake your booty whenever you hear a Wiggles song. Your favorite is hot potato, Momma's is bears and Dada's is fruit salad. It is even the ringtone for when Dada calls.
You love to be naked and hate to have your diaper changed. It has become quite the battle to have you on the changing table. You are going to be sad when winter comes and you can no longer race around the house with your little naked bum hanging out.
We are leaving tomorrow for Massachusetts and I am so excited to take you to the beach. I cannot wait to see you crawl in the sand (and eat it I'm sure) and see waves for the first time!
Oh, my big boy I cannot believe how grown up you are. This summer has been an amazing blessing to spend with you. You have grown so much and we are amazed by you every day.
We love you with all of our hearts.
Momma and Dada.

The future's so bright I gotta wear shades....

teeth

Teeth are not fun....Skelly has been a miserable mess this entire week. Enough so that we thought he might have an ear infection. He was extremely fussy on Thursday. On Friday he fought a fever all day long and was cranky again on Saturday and Sunday....sound fun? So we thought with all this good cheer we should take our family pictures! I will post them soon but needless to say they will probably be used as a "this is what you shouldn't do" example at Picture People. Skelly was either giving the dead stare of extreme exhaustion and couldn't be coaxed into a single smile, even when the giant duck was dragged out or whining....awesome. Guess we'll be doing re-takes some other weekend. For the silver lining....he does not have an ear infection he is apparently just making a TON of teeth.....
where's the whisky? For both of us!

Recharged!

As much as I missed Skelly yesterday, the date day with J was WONDERFUL! I highly recommend that any new parents take a weekend away at some point. It was so nice to just hang out and talk and we had a blast at Great Adventure. We splurged and got a fast pass so we got to ride all of the roller coasters and went through the safari too. What a fun day and I feel so refreshed and recharged. We absolutely could not have done it without my cousin so we will be forever grateful to her for giving us a little time away. It was such a relief to be able to relax and have a good time and know that Skelly was being loved on by lots of family and friends.

missing him....

Skelly is visiting relatives today and tomorrow and I am a disaster already...I am so excited to spend some time with J. but can't believe I won't see my little baby until tomorrow night. I just have to keep on telling myself that he will be absolutely fine, smothered with love and attention and if he has a hard time sleeping, will not in fact stay up all night and will fall asleep eventually. Ten months later and this is the second time he has not been with his Momma and Daddy and I know that it will be much harder on me then on him...but just have to keep reminding myself of that. I miss you baby. Momma loves you.

I take it back!!!!

I totally jinxed myself....Skelly woke up at 11 until 12:45 then again at 4:45am.....ugh......