Ollie at Eleven Months

11 Months.  Can you believe it?  We're obviously having fun, 'cause oh boy, time is a-flyin'.  Steph assigned, no wait, she asked me to pen Oliver's 11 month post.  And she wanted me to mention that we're late on doing so.  (What did she think would happen if I was in charge?)

Oliver is cuter by the day.  He remains little, which only adds to the cuteness.  He is starting to plump out though, as you'll see below.

As you can see, he's a toothy little baby.  That leads to a distinguishing characteristic for this month - Ollie is a biter.  He'll occasionally bite me, usually my clothes, and it's not a big deal.  But he bites Steph like it's his job.  He especially bites her shoulders and legs.  Her legs when she is paying attention to something other than him, and shoulders when she is holding him.  Not sure why on the shoulders, because she's already holding him.  His bites don't just leave marks, but leave raised welts.  Don't let this cute face fool you...

because he bites.  Here is is attacking the "O" in a piranha-like frenzy.  Or just biting it, but there's less drama in saying it that way.

He likes to be thrown up in the air, very unlike his brother.  And whenever he hears any music, he breaks into dance.  His primary dance move consists of squatting down and bouncing up and down.  If he's in his carseat he either bounce his trunk, or he's started to bounce his head.

The bad part about 11 months is that he's still having seizures.  Fortunately they're all still breath-holding related, keeping hope that they'll be outgrown.  But they're still heartbreaking, I'll admit it.  His anti-seizure medicine isn't apparently doing much.

Ollie is quite ambulatory.  He walks around everywhere.  He just wanders around the house, from place to place, looking at things.  He'll pick up something, suck on it/bite it for a bit, then move on again.

He's also started climbing, as this baby Buckeye is demonstrating.

The boy has a sweet tooth.  One more reason why we don't need a paternity test.  Here he is in a cupcake coma.

He remains an exceedingly sweet baby.  He still makes me very happy because when I get home, he gets super excited and flails his arms and legs wildly, and if he's being held, grunts loudly until he is put down on the ground.  He then baby-sprints over to me, and throws his arms up, wanting to be held.  Then he usually has another outburst of excitement and flailing once I'm holding him.  Warms my heart, every single time.

Baths are one of his favorites.  Splashes and also enjoys standing up and then sitting back down in the tub.  Over and over.  But his favorite favorite thing is his little blanket, and if not available any soft thing.  He holds it up to his face and then sucks like he has a pacifier in his mouth.  Not sucking the blanket, just "air sucking," with the blanket in front of his face.

You can see why he's so loved around here.

Here's a series of walking pictures.  He has that fantastic arms-up-in-the-air-for-balance baby gait.

He's finally getting some good baby rolls on his legs.  Communication-wise, besides "Dada" and "Momma," he can say "Hi," "Bye," and "All-done."  In reality, he says "Haaaaaahh," "Baaaaaaahh," and "Aaahh dah," but we know what he means.

Whatever minor hassle his health has proffered, and the subsequent lack of sleep because we can't let him cry it out at night, is subsumed in how much we love this boy.  More and more every day.  His cuteness and the joy he brings to our home astounds us every day.  We're lucky to have this boy.