11 months old!

B,

You are 11 months old today! Almost a 1 year old. I can’t believe it. When the pumpkins start arriving in the grocery stores, the mornings turn cooler, and the smell of fall scented candles fill our house I remember the time leading up to your birth like it was yesterday.
You are a spirited little boy and a pretty typical “boy” for those people I talk with. You like to find anything and everything that you shouldn’t find and make a mess with it. I like to chalk it up to you exploring your world. You really are a very curious one! You have such a fun personality. Your smile lights up a room and you can turn it on and off whenever you please. You are a tough cookie with strangers and it still takes you a while to warm up to new people. I think it’s very charming. You weigh close to 23 pounds we think (done on our home scale) and you seem to be getting taller everyday because you can reach more and more things. You are a pro at “walking” around the house holding on to furniture, wall, and anything else you can find. You are able to stand on your own for a few seconds, but you much prefer to crawl everywhere. You are getting quite difficult to take shopping. You aren’t too content to stay in the cart and just want to be held by me or crawling around. My best bet it to go quickly and distract you along the way! You have no problems eating table food, but you are very picky. Mhh, I wonder where that comes from : ) Every once and a while you will try a new food, but you seem to like your favorites: strawberries, blueberries, oranges, peaches, cheerios, and the squeeze pouches of veggies. You also sometimes eat cheese, yogurt, oatmeal, chicken, eggs, grapes, raspberries, and some other random things. You talk up a storm! You point to objects and say you own words. The ones we understand are: yaya for water, dag (with a soft d sound) for dog, da-dee for daddy. You will occasionally say mama, but not too often. You love swinging in the swing outside and you will crawl to the window and point and talk until I take you out. We go to gym class, swimming, and you just started MOPS on Fridays. You are a busy boy and it’s nice keeping you busy since you are so active.
You are almost my little toddler. I can’t wait to see what this month will bring. Love you B bear.