Eleven whole months!

Our little monkey is 11 months. As in only ONE month from being ONE... as in kinda not a baby anymore?? Not ready to accept that yet AT ALL. He sure is fun though... and busy. Whew! I am a few days late in posting this, and actually have BIG 11 Month news... As of 11 months and 1 day James is walking. Yup! And so so proud of himself. We are loving seeing him figure out this big new milestone and also realizing how much he can get into fast. We are in for a busy summer for sure :)

Another huge accomplishment in the past month was sleeping through the night. Jay and I finally came to our wits end with our lack of sleep and one night around 3 AM decided something had to change and fast. So we found (totally by the Lords doing) a sleep coach. She was the biggest blessing to our family. She, via phone, helped us come up with a sleep plan for James that worked with our family. She spent about 3 weeks walking us through a gentle sleep training plan to get this little man some much needed rest. Jay and I knew that not only were we sleep deprived, James was too. It wasn't healthy, and we wanted him to sleep as much so that we could also rest, AND so that his little brain could develop. It took about 3 weeks of fairly intense devotion to sleep training and some HUGE help from my mom, but we are happy to report that James is sleeping like a champ. We even went away last weekend and kept his schedule, but he was in a pack-n-play and not at our home and he still slept through the night. Amazing. I would highly recommend our sleep coach if anyone is as desperate as we were!

James is still loving to eat and really has fallen in love with feeding himself this past month. We have yet to find a food he doesn't like. He is still in size 4 diapers, made the jump completely to 12 month clothes. We still can't make the sippy cup thing work for him. He isn't into straws either and will just chew on them not suck water. Hmm... thats our goal over this next month to get him drinking more water from a cup. He is still nursing about 6 times a day with a dream feed night time feeding.

We are into all things shaped like a ball. Anything that resembles a remote and also books! This past month James has really loved flipping through books, especially anything with a texture. He is saying "Mama" and "Da" and "Ball" and "up" and "more" appropriately. LOVE. He seriously is the most smily little thing. Jay and I think he is going to be a little jokester too. He will already play little games pretending to hand a toy and turn away and giggle. Loves peek-a-boo and will cover his own eyes or turn his head away to play. CUTE. Just want to freeze time and hold off on these babies turning 3 and 1 in a few short weeks.

Some other highlights from the past month:

Sleep Training! 

St. Patricks day picnic outside with sister

Celebrating Gram's birthday!

First time in the pool... and LOVED IT! Definitely planning to spend our summer in the water!

James, Thanks for another fun month. Thanks for learning to love to sleep. It is SO appreciated. We can't wait to see you walk even more. You bring a smile to our family and we could all (caroline especially) just squeeze you up. You're the best and we couldn't be more thankful for you!