11 month updates

So little J is now 11 months old. Time really does fly & he really does become more & more grown up & independent every day.

He now weighs 23.6 lbs, not far off from last months 24.0 lbs, but is now in the 50-75% & his length is still 30", but he is now in the 50-75% & his head circumference is 19", which puts him in the 90-95%, the highest he's ever been for head circumference.

His eating patterns are still the same basically. He still eats breakfast, lunch, & dinner all followed by a bottle of formula/milk. And in between breakfast & lunch he has a bottle of diluted juice. I had started mixing a small amount of whole milk into his formula. It is recommended at one year of age to switch them to whole milk & I don't think it's a good idea to just switch suddenly, so I've been doing a gradual transition & he's doing really well with it so far, except for the fact that he has a lot of mucous/boogers. And I do mean A LOT. So I started looking into alternatives: rice milk, almond milk, & goat milk were the first to come to mind. Rice milk doesn't have nearly enough fat (fat is still very essential to the development of the brain & nervous system, which develops mostly in the first 2 years of life), almond milk just didn't even come close calorie wise in comparison with whole milk & formula. The goat milk was the closest match. Not only is he doing great on the goat milk, no boogies &/or mucous, but he REALLY likes it as well. I also got him some goat milk kefir & I'm thinking of giving one bottle of this daily. They had a plain one & then a blueberry/pomegranite one, & another one (mango/pineapple/something like that). I got the blueberry pomegranite one & it is sooooo good--I gotta go back & get some more for both of us! Little J REALLY likes that one too. I also got some goat milk yogurt for him as well, since he LOVES yogurt. We haven't tried it yet, but it's from the same company as the kefir so I'm sure it's yummy. I love that they don't add sugar. Goat milk is lower in vitamin B12 & folic acid than cow milk & formula. But I found a liquid supplement that has both together & I can just add drops to his bottles of it.

I was struggling with him not wanting to eat fruits &/or veggies since he's moved to finger foods. And I have finally found an amazing solution & I can't even express in words how happy I am about it. First I brought home some freeze dried bananas from "just tomatoes, etc" brand. There is no other ingredient, JUST banana. He looooved them. Next I brought home strawberry, then mango & pineapple & even peas. He looooves all of them!! Yes, even the peas! There's a few other varieties & I'll be sure to bring some more, but I am so thrilled about this. They are very convenient & great snacks to keep in the diaper bag & they are so healthy & not processed. No added sugar or preservatives or anything. I will definitely be recommending these to other moms needing finger food ideas.

We started buying "overnight" diapers this past month. Every morning his diaper would be totally soaked. His skin was usually quite wet as the diaper couldn't possibly absorb anymore. And sometimes the diaper had leaked & his pjs or bedding were wet too. So his regular diapers are 21 cents (why is there no cents symbol on keyboards anymore????) each & the overnight diapers are around 30 cents each. So they are a little more money, but we only use one each day & it's so much better for his skin. The overnight diapers are amazing, not maxed out on absorbency at all in the morning. I had assumed that as time went on he would possibly start producing more & more urine during the night (as the pattern has seemed to go so far) so we decided to just try this out & it's working great for us so far. I do have to buy them at WalMart (the cheapest price I can find for them), whereas I buy the regular diapers at Costco.

I bought his birthday present already. I had told hubby I wanted to get him one of those toys that they can walk behind & push or also sit on it & ride. He agreed that that would be good for his first birthday. A few weeks ago I was at WalMart & saw one on sale for $25 & I also noticed it was made by Fisher Price. I must admit that little J is very rough when playing with his toys & the Fisher Price toys have held up to his abuse so far, but some other brands have not. So I've gotten to where I prefer to buy Fisher Price brand gear & toys. Hubby has noticed the same thing. So I came home & told hubby about this being on sale & that we could get it really cheap for his birthday. Hubby agreed & a week later or so I went back to WalMart & got it, thankful that the sale hadn't ended yet. It's regular $44 & I've seen others for even more money than that. There are a couple that are cheaper, but they are smaller & not Fisher Price. We don't buy much for little J, he is far from spoiled. We really aren't in a financial position to do so even if we wanted to. I don't think he minds or even notices though, he is happy with what he has & often plays with other objects, like boxes, etc. I did get him a pair of sandals at WalMart. He is very warm-blooded & I remember last summer I couldn't even put socks on him, his feet were all sweaty. And this summer I'm sure he'll be walking at some point, not to mention he already walks in the walker & I don't want him walking barefoot outside, so he needed a pair of shoes. We had bought him his first pair of shoes (size 3) & then my brother in law bought him his second pair of shoes (size 4) just in time as he was outgrowing the ones we bought him. So I got the sandals a little big (size 5) hoping that they will last the whole summer & then in the fall/winter he'll probably have outgrown the pair my brother in law got for him & we'll have to buy another pair then.

A while back my brother had suggested that little J needs a ball to play with. This was after watching a video of little J throwing his rattle on the laminate floor really hard. He loves to throw all his toys on the laminate floor really hard to hear the noise it makes. But I did give him a ball (a raquetball) to play with & he LOVES it, he entertains himself for hours with it & he will also play ball with other people (rolling it & throwing it back & forth), which I think it totally amazing.

Every day he gets a little more independent & a little more grown up. It's exciting & sad at the same time. He's still doing the "your baby can read" program & we still work on Spanish & do Bible studies on a daily basis. I'll be posting a new YBCR update soon also.

That's all the updates I can think of for now.......