12 Months

He's around 30 inches long and 22 pounds.

I was pretty naive to say that the 11 Month mark would be the end of milestones. I started wanting to write about new developments about a week later! Plus, to make a long story short, I ended up not getting professional portraits done after all, so I have photos to share.

As for his feeding, he is now on whole milk, and I only give him 3 sippy cups a day. The cup holds 7 oz. and I fill it up. His last meal is his dinner, which he usually eats with us. I now give him whatever we're eating for dinner, or at least leftovers from the night before if at all possible. If he's fussy around dinner, I'll give him a few oz. of milk in a cup with a straw while he is in his booster chair. I try to avoid going over 24 oz. of milk to encourage him to eat more of his solids. He no longer gets anything to drink in his room; all of his food is eaten in the living or dining room. I wasn't sure about dropping the bedtime sippy, but he made the decision for me by weaning himself of it. He just stopped drinking it at about 3 weeks ago. After a few nights of wasted milk, I decided it was time to drop it. I wanted to drop it anyway, due to worrying about teeth decay, so I was relieved that he made that transition so easy. We now brush his teeth just about every night.

As for sleep, the afternoon nap is still good for him, but optional. He'll get fussy if I skip it, but not too horrible. Sometimes, I keep him awake until noon and he'll get a nice, long nap, around 3 hours, and that's the only nap of the day. Mostly, though, I'll give him a nap in the morning and again in the afternoon, with a total of 3-4 hours of sleep. He sleeps about 10-12 hours at night. He is still crying it out, and we still check on him every 10-15 minutes of crying until he falls asleep.

He is still "talking" about the same amount, with "dada," "uh oh," and "_an" (fan) being his words. I'm trying to talk to him as much as possible, but I'm still forcing it. The more he talks, though, the more talking to him will be natural and the more I will chatter with him.

He has started dancing a little, and it is so adorable. He's climbing and running, and picking up the smallest pieces of yard debris that the dogs track in, ugh. I'd say that there is very little that he can't do, but I said that last month and he surprised me soon after, so I'm going to keep an open mind there:-)