My Baby Boy

Is fast disappearing before my very eyes! Today will be the third full day of no nursing. He wasn't that into it anymore, and I don't think I was making enough for him. He still wasn't sleeping thru the night, so I decided to switch to all bottles and see what happened!

Last night he drank TEN OUNCES before bed (when he nursed he got more like 4) and SLEPT FROM 8PM till 7AM! (Insert chorus of angels singing "Hallelujah!" here) Another contributing factor was that we moved his crib out of our room. Now all 3 kids are in the same room! Surprisingly it has worked like a charm. Remember all the struggles I have getting Molly to fall asleep? Well ever since we put Wyatt in their room, both girls go silently to their beds, and fall right to sleep! This is of course after a major lecture on how they were the BIG girls who needed to HELP Mommy and Daddy. And they were so LUCKY to get to share their room with their SWEET, little brother. The first night Matt and I looked at each other in disbelief (after all 3 kids were sound asleep in less than 5 minutes) and thought "Why didn't we do this sooner!" The second night, same success. I hope I am not jinxing myself by posting about it.

So no more nursing, and now he's sleeping thru the night...yes my baby is growing up! He is 29 days shy of his first birthday and these past couple weeks he has been doing new things left and right. He stands all on his own now. He even looks around and claps his hands when he does it. So cute. No steps yet - but the girls and I have him "walk" between us with his walking toy every day.

He has also started to talk a lot more. Most of it is babble, but DaDa and Dog are quite clear. He points at everything and says "Aht's dat?" Or when I'm on the phone he'll pull up on my legs and say "Oooh dat?" Yesterday in the car, I let the girls have some Nilla wafers on the way home from the grocery store and Wyatt hollered out "cook-cook" over and over. We of course had to reward him with a cookie.

He is picking up new signs almost every day. He regularly uses dog, milk, airplane, motorcycle, helicopter, night-night, more, all gone, ball and bird. Yesterday we started teaching him cookie! I love watching the girls teach him to sign. It's amazing for me to sit back and watch him learn from their little hands and enthusiasm!

And maybe this shouldn't have amazed me so much..but the other day he picked up a little Hot Wheels car out of his toy box and began "driving" it around on the floor. Along with the motion, he also made a "zoom zoom zoom" sound with his mouth!! I was like "What the? Where did he learn to do that?!" I think there are some things boys are just born knowing how to do.

He is completely done with jarred baby food. It's been a pretty easy transition because he is a great eater. I just give him whatever I have made for the rest of us, cut up really small, and he usually gobbles it all up. This week I discovered he is a fan of salmon and broccoli! He also loves cooked carrots, green beans, lima beans, applesauce, and pancakes. He holds his sippy cup by himself, but still needs some help tipping it up. And he drinks from a straw like a pro.

I think my favorite part of watching him grow is seeing him play and interact with Megan and Molly more. He crawls around following them from room to room. He always wants to be where the action is. He has learned that he can make them laugh by making raspberries with his tongue or a funny face. Sometimes he will do this and then laugh at himself. So I guess he's learned what a sense of humor is too! When the girls get down on the ground and play with him, he literally tackles and crawls on top of them, all the while screaming and growling. This makes the girls giggle even more.

Finally, and maybe best of all, when I am putting him to sleep and rocking him in the chair, he holds my face with his little hand. When I say "Give Mommy a kiss-kiss" he leans in and plants a big, slobbery, open mouth smooch on my lips. This of course buys him 5 more minutes of songs and snuggles!

It is fascinating and fun to watch these developments. A little sad for me sometimes, as I know he is my last baby. But I think that makes me savor every moment even more.