ELEVEN MONTHS!!!

And here’s another post from your Papa!

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Riyaan, you’re a month away from being 1 year old! You are 11 months old today, and the countdown has begun. Let’s share what’s been happening over the past month.

How You’re Moving:

Early in your 11th month, you got to spend a week at Dadi’s and Babaji’s house, where you finally had access to stairs. Obviously, you went for them the first day there and now love climbing up stairs over and over again.

You also started walking around the place with your fun push walker, and are now cruising along furniture as well. In the last few days you’ve been trying to stand up on your own, and you can go from crawling to squatting with your hands and butt off the ground, but can’t quite straighten up your body yet. You’ve also been bear crawling with your knees off the ground since you scraped your knee on a toy ankylosaurus a few days ago.

What You’re Saying:

You learned how to say “ba-ba” for bye-bye and wave enthusiastically, and it has become your and our favorite thing. I also think you’ve been calling me “ba-ba” for Papa, though I can’t be certain of that yet. You’re definitely imitating everything, and getting at least the first sound of most words that you repeat. You recently started playing with a balloon and calling it “ba-bo.” Your favorite sound of the month is probably “dede.”

How Naughty You’re Becoming:

This is some new behavior that is really keeping us on our toes! You peed at the foot of the stairs on Ishu Dada’s bunk bed (partly our fault for letting you crawl around naked in his room).

You broke one of Mama’s houseplant pots and made a mess with all the soil. You switch from eating your food voraciously to suddenly not wanting it and throwing on the floor all around your high chair. You also like to squish your food with your hands before putting it in your mouth. And worst of all, you’ve discovered the toilet! Already 3 times we have turned our attention away from you for 5 seconds only to hear splashing sounds coming from the bathroom and have to go racing to get you out of there.

What You Experienced:

You got to crawl around in the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park and scream “Pah-Pah!” as you enjoyed splashing the water. You attended your first play, “Corduroy” at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and were actually pretty engaged and quiet until near the end.

You even went to the movies with Mama and Ishu Dada to watch Sing. You slept through a good amount of it though, so you’re not quite ready for that yet. 

One of the strangest things that happened was your 2-day nursing strike while we were in San Ramon. Your teeth have been coming in rapidly and many at a time. All of a sudden one evening, you decided to bite down on Mama while breastfeeding, and were unable to drink your dudu no matter how much she tried. You gave her quite a scare because she wasn’t ready for it to end so suddenly and not on her terms. So you can bet she was very relieved and emotional when after 2 days, we decided to try nursing you while you were half asleep and that did the trick! Probably something about reverting to your natural instincts instead of continuing your new behavior. We’re happy to report that you’re now back to normal and drinking away like nothing happened.

How You’re Playing:

You’re still as playful as ever. You’ve been giving me high fives happily, and I always get the biggest smiles and little giggles when you first see me enter your room after waking up. The new silly face you like to make is raising your eyebrows, opening your eyes wide, and making an O shape with your mouth with your tongue sticking out.

You still enjoy playing catch with your ball, but you can entertain yourself by throwing the ball and then crawling after it over and over when no one else is available to play. You’re learning how to clap your hands, though sometimes you forget to hit your hands together and instead start hitting your lap or chest. You get so much joy from eating, and seemingly even more joy from reaching out and feeding me whatever you have mushed up in your tiny hand.

When you were a newborn, we would have never predicted that you would grow into such a rolly, naughty, loud, silly little boy. You have really announced your presence to the world and have not let Second Child Syndrome push you down. Your giggles, funny faces, and random sounds keep us entertained. We cannot wait to celebrate your 1st birthday in just one month!