Andrew is 11 months old!

Well, Andrew is 11 months old as of a few days ago and it is time for the obligatory post (which is also serving as a little journal for him).

This has been a busy month again for Andrew. I guess every month seems busy when you are such a little busy boy.

We spent a lot of the month at doctor's offices - he saw 5 different doctors in 3 weeks! Thankfully, it was mostly all good. He got his helmet off (HALLELUJAH!), though this was at more of our assistance than the doctors. This, of course, led to his first obligatory hair cut since his hair was done to his nose. We cut it a little short, but it's hard to cut a baby's hair when he keeps crawling away.

He also saw his pediatrician about his eating, who was alarmed about his tonsils, but the ear/nose/throat doctor said he was just fine. Of course, this was after putting a scope down his nose to look at his throat without any anesthetic. Let's just say Andrew did not like that very much. He just has some irritation from reflux, but is otherwise healthy.

We also saw the "feeding team", who reassured us that Andrew seemed to be doing just fine. He could have gone from gagging and throwing everything up to refusing to eat, but thankfully he really likes to be independent and feed himself. And he'll "eventually swallow". We also got some easier to swallow food (which unfortunately resembles cheetos to me) and some more things to play with and feed himself with to help desensitize his mouth some more. Unfortunately, weaning doesn't look like it'll happen as early as I hoped. But, he seems to be swallowing a little bit of food now. So, we only have to clean up the 95% of what we feed him that he spits out.

Andrew also unfortunately had a relatively high fever (102-103) for a week that didn't really respond to medicine. So, he was understandably cranky, but otherwise healthy.

Wheew ... but really, this was a good month, doctor's appointments withstanding. Andrew is crawling at an amazing speed. He is EVERYWHERE and into EVERYTHING. Most especial favorites - cords, laptop computer, outlets, cook books, dishwasher, Joe's food, trashcans, bathtub, and baskets of toiletry samples. As soon as he hears me open the dishwasher, he crawls at lighting speed to try to play with all the utensils. Anytime we leave the pantry or bathroom door open, he also rushes there. If the door isn't completely shut, he climbs up on it and then pushes it until he opens. He also does this in his bedroom, but ends up pushing his bedroom door shut and gets stuck in there and starts crying. But all this crawling means he plays pretty independently by himself.

Andrew is very tough. We were worried that when he got his helmet off, he would hit his head and cry all the time. But no. He rarely cries when he gets hurt. He cut himself on the finger at a friend's house the other day, and we didn't notice until we saw all the blood. Unfortunately, he also is a tough guy to other babies. He is still biting other kids. We got a "No Biting" book at the library, which while cute, obviously is a little over his head.

Andrew is babbling all the time and says Mommy and Daddy (mostly Daddy) all the time. He says what might be a few other words, but it's really hard to say at this stage. He also figured out how to scream, and screams whenever he doesn't get his way. I can see this as a preview of the tantrums to come.

Andrew thinks that the cat Joe is his best buddy and they play together a lot. Andrew will grab the cat's toys and dangle them in front of Joe and just laugh and laugh and laugh. It is really cute.

We are really having so much fun with our little boy. We can not believe that he is almost 1 year old!!! Yikes, how the time flies.