11 months

What?! He's almost a year. This blows my mind. The other day we were talking about how soon he will be one, then eventually he won't be our little baby, but will be the older terrorizing/protective/mischievous (and all those other thing that come with the oldest) brother and cousin. It's so hard for me to picture him like that. I feel like he just always has been and always will be in whatever stage he currently is in. It's hard to picture him in any stage other than the perfect stage he is in now.

It's hard for me to remember when he was itty-bitty and slept 22 hours a day. I didn't want him to get older. 

It's hard for me to remember when he was a month old and just layed in my arms and nursed around the clock. But  when he was a month old, I didn't want him to get older.

It's hard to remember when he was 3 months old and would lay on his blankets on the living room floor kicking his chicken legs, laughing and cooing all day long. At bath time, his legs created near floods in our bathroom from all the kicking. And I didn't want him to change.

It's hard to remember when he was 6 months old, sitting up on his own, beginning the adventure of discovering solid foods and the textures of peas and bananas. His faces were classic. He laughed at our silly faces too. I didn't want him to change. I didn't want him to grow older.

It's hard to remember back to 9 months when I was wishing he would just finally crawl rather than just rock back and forth on his knees. Then he started crawling. It was adorable to see a whole new world to open up. I loved this age and didn't want it to change.

As he approaches 1, I'm not sure I want him to change. I love this stage he's in. Babbling, pulling up on everything, walking along chairs, crawling like a maniac, loving and laughing all day long. I'm not sure I want him to change. But then I remember I have never wanted him to chance, but then I always love the little boy he changes into. Ok, baby boy. You can change, but just don't grow up too quickly!

At 11 months, these are the things he is doing, and, as always, I'm sure they will quickly change.

• He is finally babbling and it is the cutest thing ever.  He will just sit and talk to him self, or "converse" with us.  He says "ba-ba-ba" "ma-ma-ma" and "mom" the most. I wish I could say he knows my name, but I'm quite certain "mom" is just a noise to him, not my title. Soon.

• He is crawling like a maniac and pulling up on everything. Coffee table, the stroller, my legs, the refrigerator...it doesn't matter if there is a top surface for him to hold, even a wall will do.

• Not only is he pulling up, but he is walking along furniture.  When we were in St. Anthony, i think he mastered this as he crawled along the whole row of barstools (with my iPhone as motivation.)

• He stands extremely confidently with only a few fingers touching a table, etc. for balance.  We have seen him a couple times stand on his own, but only for half a second. 

• He has officially mastered the stairs.  At Derek and Jen's home last month, he climbed up a stair or two, but that was it.  A week ago when we were at the airport, he saw some stairs while Mitch was watching him.  I was on the phone and Mitch asked me if he could do this.  I responded, "apparently" as he was 5 steps up, no problem.  Once in St. Anthony at Grandmas, he was constantly climbing up the spiral stairs.  We would drag him back down on his belly to the bottom to help him learn how to go back down and he would just giggle, then start crawling back up.  At the sandbar, I would put him at the edge of the water and he would crawl straight for the stairs and up. over. and over. and over. Never figured out the going down part, but he was always cautious at the top and never tried to go down.  Rather, he would lay on the top with his belly on the ground and dangle him hands down and play with the pattern on the carpet of the top step.  

• He has become quite the wiggler, which has made diaper changes quite a wrestling match.  It is not uncommon to see a 2-man team take on these diaper changes.  One to change the diaper, the other to hold his upper body down.

• He loves all the new things around him--the light rail out our window, dogs as we pass by, strangers who will make eye contact with him, and recently has begun to love books.  He no longer eats the edges, but kind of flips through them. He still loves food, and is NOT happy if we are by him eating and he doesn't have food.  He will let out these high pitched screams until he is given food.  

• He is still eating 3 meals a day (nursing 4), with the portions rapidly increasing.  He mainly eats pureed fruits/veggies, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, and baby food pureed meats. We are slowly increasing textures and giving him some of our food--salmon, lasagna, breads... He loves being able to eat things like banana slices, peas, cut grapes, black beans, cheese chunks, and cheerios with his fingers.

• He is our little traveler, and by the end of the Idaho/Missouri wedding trip, he will have been on 10 flights.  He has done so well and adapts quite easily to his changing schedule.

• He has discovered his tongue and loves sticking it out.  I will look over at him playing with toys and notice his tongue is just hanging out.  Its adorable.  His chin is paying the price though as it is a little red and broken out.

• He plays hike and seek with us.  We will crawl away from him to behind the couch or kitchen island and he will come searching for us.  He also will try and quickly crawl away from us in play if we start chasing him on our knees.

• He also had his first injury this month when he stuck his little hands between the oven drawer (which he loved to pull out and crawl through so I taped shut--sharp inside edged) and hot oven.  Apparently if you get your fingers back far enough the heat of the over escapes. He ended up with two decent sized blisters on his right hand.  We put them under the water quickly and he stopped crying.  He was totally fine after that and didn't let him burns slow him down at all.

We love our little guy and can't believe how fast he is growing up.  It breaks my heart, yet brings me so much joy.  He will always be my little baby!

Perfection

Sometimes when you are waiting for dinner to be ready and the light is perfect, you have to grab your camera and child and have an impromptu photo session.  Love this guy. And I love that he was beyond photogenic tonight. And on top of that, I get to count this as his 11 month photos as it was 3 days past the 21st!  So many things just lined up perfectly. 

So, here are the rest of the photos that weren't in his "11 month" post.

Big Basin Redwoods

Our Saturday adventure this past weekend was perfect. We slept in a bit, had pancakes for breakfast, got ready, then hit the road for the Big Basin Redwoods.

Hudson napped on the drive, which was perfect as it prevented him from experiencing nausea like I did.  The road we took to get to our destination was unreal.  It was by far the most windy road I have ever been on.  The road didn't have a middle line, as it wasn't really wide enough for 2 cars, and bikers were all over.  The good thing about this road is that it was in the middle of a forest.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  Specks of light would break through the trees every now and then, but it was mainly filled with a soft, golden glow filtering through tree tops.  I wish I had taken a photo, but the though alone of pulling out a camera made me even more car sick. The forest was filled with redwoods, trees whose branches don't start for a ways up, so we just saw trunk after trunk.  These trees grow tall and wide, so we saw some hefty fellas.  Many curves in the road went around these giants, or rather between them, thus narrowing the road even more.  I must admit I had a few freak outs as we passed cars coming in the opposite direction, while rounding a corner and having a biker on our side, and going between trees.  Im surprised we didn't die. And I'm surprised I didn't loose my breakfast.  Hudson woke when we were a little ways out, and cried for the last 2 miles.  The carsickness hit him and it broke my heart.

When we arrived at the park, I jumped out with Hudson.  We desperately needed fresh air.  Colby went and paid for parking at the ranger station and I told him I would meet him in the lot and we'd just walk over.  Well, long story short, the main lot was full and there were signs pointing to what we thought was a back lot. Colby kept driving, and I started freaking out when I realized he was passed the lot and out onto back roads that split in multiple directions.  I had no clue where he was.  Our phones had no service (and mine was in the car...I had myself and Hudson.). I had no idea how I would reunited with Colby or if he even realized he had just left me stranded.  Not the 50 foot walk to the car I had envisioned.  Eventually Colby came driving back down the road I was walking up and I started crying.  I had just borrowed someones phone to unsuccessfully call Colby and I was terrified.  (as i type this, I realize I sound ridiculous, but really, it was scary and Colby agreed that it would have been tough finding each other.)

I got back in the car and we found a parking spot back in the main lot. Figures.  We had lunch at a picnic table then heading out into the woods.  The first part was more of a nature walk--a .5 mile loop through the biggest trees in the park.  We saw "Mother of the Forest" and "Father of the Forest"; both were over 15 feet wide and over 320 feet tall.  These things were huge!  "Mother" actually had a hollowed out bottom and we stood inside it.  It was kind of eerie, actually.  After the walk, we headed back on the trails.  I'm not sure how far we hiked, but once we could hear a constant buzz of mosquitoes and knew it was approaching dinner time, we turned around and headed back.  It was so breath-taking and beautiful back in the woods and smelled of pine, one of my favorite scents.  Without cell service, we could really just enjoy each others company.  Hudson was seriously such a trooper.  He was packed around in his backpack (I carried him about half the time!!) and just took everything in. He was so giggly and cuddly while I had him, which was fun.  He also discovered the joy of pulling my ponytail.  That was fun--not. But it actually kind of was because H is kind of adorable when he discovers new things like pony-tail pulling. Hudson fell asleep toward the end and slept rather peacefully for about 30 minutes--just enough to get him through the day until he conked out for 40 minutes of our drive home.

We took a different "less windy" route home, which was still quite windy. Again, I got sick.  Hudson's ears had altitude pressure he couldn't relieve, so once we got down from the hills, we were all much better off. With it being past 7, we decided to stop for dinner. Our alternative was scrambled eggs at home. Apparently I need to grocery shop. We ate at Pacific Catch and it hit the spot.  I really enjoyed being out to dinner at a sit-down place and couldn't really think of the last time we had done that just Colby and I (and our tag-along Hudson). It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

Hudson vs the Kleenex box

Nooks and crannies

Hudson doesn't like to take the easy road, apparently.  If there is an opening somewhere, H tries to get through it.  Here he was trying to get through these 2 chairs.  I'm still clueless as to why he was even trying to do this.  There wasn't really anything on the other side he was trying to get.  He crawled from the front, around to the back side and in between them and tried to get through. Funny kid.  The life of a 10-month old...

San Francisco

Keeping on track with our 12 weeks of adventure, we headed into San Francisco this weekend.  We drove in rather than taking public transportation and parked up by pier 35 at a flat rate garage for $15--a great rate for the area. We really didn't have a plan for the day.  Alcatraz tickets were sold out online, but we thought we would see if anything was available in person.  If there wasn't anything, we could do Pier 39 and explore some of the city. We checked on tickets.  Sold out until July 29th.  Guess you really have to plan ahead on that one.

We headed over to the pier and walked around for a bit out to the end and looked across at Alcatraz and the Sea Lion docks.  Because it's summer, there was only one sea lion!  We ate sourdough bread bowls with soup and sandwiched for lunch then headed over to look at a WWII Liberty ship and submarine, then walked over to Ghiradelli Square.  I wasn't feeling very great, so scratched my determination of splitting a Ghiradelli sundae with Colby.  I guess we will have to do that another trip. 

As Hudson woke up, we walked down to a park on the shore and played for a bit. We seriously contemplated hitting up the Dodgers vs. Giants game and headed back to the car to drop off our stroller.  We looked into tickets through the giants site and craigslist and decided to head to the stadium to see if we could find anything from a scalper.  As we waited for the street car, we decided it wasn't a guarantee to get tickets (and we were already an hour late--knowing Hudson wouldn't last a whole game anyway) and would rather take the opportunity of having our car in the city and driving around to explore.  I am so glad we did!  

We headed over to Lomard street--the windiest street in the world--and drove down that.  We waited a bit for our turn, but really enjoyed the street and the views of the city from atop Nob Hill. We then headed over to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.  (see video from both in the below post.)  It was kind of neat to drive across such a monumental landmark of the state and US.  We went to the overlook area on the other side and got out for pictures.  Fog and wind had rolled in and Hudson wasn't a happy camper about the situation.  We headed back across the bridge,and checked off one of my bucket list items--a kiss on the golden gate bridge with my forever love--romantic, I know.  I envisioned a nice sunny day accompanied by a stroll across the bridge, but a quick smooch with the Husband while he was driving fit much better into our situation. I digress. As we went to pay our toll, we headed to the carpool/discounted lane and then realized as we were at the booth that it was a FasTrack lane only and noone was in the booth.  The sign said proceed, so we did.  We are hoping we don't get a ticket in the mail!  It was an honest mistake.  We looked and realized no one was in any booth, so they either weren't collecting tolls, or its all electronic and rather than a ticket in the mail, we will get a bill.  Only time will tell.

We were ready to head home, but as we were getting back to the city, I caught a glimpse of the Palace of Fine Arts.  I really wanted to see this, but wasn't sure where it was.  We swung by and loved it (and the beautiful swans)!  It was a beautiful and immaculate monument.  We were surprised to read it was originally built in 1915 as a structure that would last only a year for a fair.  Later it was rebuilt to be permanent.  We decided we would love to live in the cute row homes across from the park.  A little out of our price range, though. Just a guess. As we headed home, we made a final detour to see the Painted Ladies on Postcard row.  The drive home was quick--about 30 minutes.  Not a bad drive at all.  We had such a fun day and Hudson really was a trooper through all of it.  He got in his first nap on the drive there, then took an hour nap in the stroller while walking around.  He is really quite the adaptable child.  I guess we will keep him around. ;)