Okay, this one might get me a little emotional. This can't be Nolan's last official month as a baby. In a few weeks, when people ask me how old he is, I'll say "one." We've started planning his birthday party and I think it is going to be so cute! It is going to be sock monkey themed. I went back and forth for a long time on whether or not I wanted to invite friends or just family, and I think I've finally decided on family only. Buddy is starting to get a little fear of strangers and this is his day...I want him to have fun. I also want to be able to focus on him and not on hosting this giant bash that he will get bored and be uncomfortable at. He will be surrounded by his favorite people and I can spend my day loving on him. It will be perfect! Next year when he knows what friends are, we'll invite his pals to his party.
He has changed so much over the last month. I looked at my calender where I keep note of major milestones and he only met one since my last post, but his personality is developing like crazy. He is turning into a little boy. He is so vocal and talks all the time. He'll attempt to hold conversations with us by responding "yeah!" to anything we say to him. He yells for me whenever he needs something or I'm out of his view. If I go around the corner in the kitchen, he'll go to the doorway and say "Ma! Ma!" until he can see me again, then he'll start laughing. He does this funny thing when he gets really excited where he'll put both of his hands up by his face and gasp really loud. He will do it over and over until we start laughing, then he will too.
He is a cheesy little one. He can be sitting on the floor minding his own business, but as soon as he realizes someone is watching him he will scrunch his whole face up, close his eyes, and smile so hard it looks like his head might explode. He flirts with everyone he sees. We were at dinner a couple of weeks ago and he was leaning around me and giving this shy smile. I turned around to see this adorable little girl in a high chair smiling back at him. This continued through our entire meal! The little girl's mom and her friend just loved Nolan. I told him that if he were older and had a pen, he would have left with all three of their phone numbers that night.
He hasn't grown much. He is still mostly in 12 month clothes and size 4 diapers. He is finally starting to become more experimental with his eating which I'm thankful for. I was starting to worry that he was going to be picky like his dad! Bananas are his absolute favorite. He loves them. He tries to take huge bites though, so when we sit down to eat one I make sure it is something I'm ready to battle over. He won't eat it if it is cut up into bite-size pieces, so I just have to help him through it to make sure he doesn't try to bite off a quarter of the banana at once.
I mentioned that he met one milestone this month, and it was a big one. On December 16, he started to pull to a standing position! Since then, I haven't been able to keep the kid down. He will pull up on everything he is able to. He has even started to let go of what he is holding onto and stand unassisted for a second or two. He is able to get on his tiptoes (mostly to look over our baby gate to see where the toys he dropped ended up landing.) I feel like he will be walking sooner than I'm ready for.
He still lets me rock him to sleep at night and I will do that as long as I'm able to. I know some people say it creates poor sleep habits, but he has no problem putting himself to sleep if I lay him down awake so I'm not concerned. I love that time with him. He will lay in my arms and look up at me with the sweetest tired look in his eyes. He loves to run his fingers through my hair. I tried rocking him with my hair in a ponytail once and he was so fidgety until I let it down so he could touch it. It calms him down and melts my heart a little.
I love that monkey so, so much. He is my best buddy. I still can't believe that next time I do one of these updates, he will be a year old. Time...feel free to slow down whenever.
