Eleven Months

You hold your hands up high over your head, reaching toward me with all the love in the world. You say, "Umph" or "Utta," which are your perfectly adorable versions of up. I lift you up and you bob your head back and forth against my puckered lips until you have reached the appropriate number of forehead kisses.

It is the very sweetest.

Getting Audrey cuddles in the morning

11 months old-blurry, but adorable

You have a new obsession with yellow squash sauteed in olive oil with cracked black pepper. You want to hold wii remotes and tv remotes and cell phones. You like to eat books. Your favorite toy is a long wooden stick with a round piece on the end that is supposed to hold stacking toys. You just like to chew on it and wield it like a medieval weapon. You would gladly crawl off the edge of the bed or down the stairs or off the climber or into the deep end of the pool if we weren't on high alert at all times. After four tries we may have an adventurous one.

You are a busy fellow

You look so serious here as you play hit the pesto lid with the rolling pin

smiley baby

You love to play open shut with doors and cupboards.  You love to empty out anything at your level. You used to only play with the bottom drawers, but like the layers in a rain forest, you are finding the top canopy of our house and open the top drawers, too. You go to the steps and bang on them so we can help you up, but you really only go up one step so far. I know that'll change quickly. You also love to play up, down where you sit down then pull yourself up. Over and over. You are easily entertained and love to bang on balls or pesto jar covers or blocks with your wooden weapon or a plastic rolling pin. When the hit object pops up in the air you giggle and giggle. Oh, the things we will do to make you giggle.

sooo big

You are hungry and like everything we feed you. Your favorites are breastmilk, watermelon, avocado, banana, sweet potato. . . who am I kidding? You like all of it. You sometimes touch the food on your tray, but really don't like the texture of things. You will gladly pick up a fork and put that in your mouth like a proper gentleman. You seem to favor your left hand these days.

playing with the big kids at camp wapo-you were a good obstacle

You are beautiful. Those cheeks and eyelashes and kissable lips. That smile and roly poly tummy. People always tell us how beautiful you are. It's not unusual for people to think you are a girl. They thought the same about your big brother, Elliot. A lot of people also ask if you're always so happy. Yep. You are. Keep you fed and cool and you're good to go. Even when you're up past your bedtime, you just roll with the punches. We feel so very fortunate about that. Well, about all of it really.

You wake up between 5:15 and 6:30. We play, you have breakfast, we play some more, and then it's naptime at 9 or 9:30. You sleep between one and two hours and then it's up for more play, maybe some errands. Lunch is between 12 and 1 and then you go down for your nap around three hours after you woke up from your morning nap. We sing songs and play and go for walks and hang out until dinner time. Then it's usually baseball or softball or something. Bedtime is anytime between 7:30 and 9. You are up anywhere from 1 to 3 times throughout the night. It's not ideal, but it is what it is. Guess what? You're worth it.

I nurse and rock you to sleep and I stare at your precious, calm, beautiful face, and I breathe in the best of the day. You have added so much to our lives. We have no idea what we did without you, our boo boo sha-roo. Our sweet Lou. Our boo boo. Our choochie face. Our goose. Our Asher boy.

In case you ever wonder.