Kemper turns 11 months old!

We are T minus 1 month from our baby boy turning ONE YEARS OLD!! This truly has flown by, even faster than Peyton's first year.  Its hard to believe that its already been 11 months. Our sweet Kemper continues to be such a blessing to our entire family.  He is sweet, sensitive, determined, and unafraid of physical challenges.  Here's what he's been up to the last month.

Sleeping:
Besides a few nights here and there where Kemper woke up to be soothed back to sleep due to teething, he continues to be a great sleeper.  His usual is bed around 7:30 or 8:00 and he sleeps between 11 and 12 hours straight.  He still sleeps with his white noise, in a sleep sac, and with his pacifier.  He prefers to put himself to sleep rather than being cuddled or rocked to sleep, which makes it very easy for us!  We toyed this month with cutting his naps down to 1 per day (as we thought he was showing signs he was ready), but we quickly realized that he indeed was not ready for this change.  So, that being said he is still napping twice per day for an hour and a half to two hours each nap.  He usually does ok to skip his first nap if we really need to be out and about doing something, but certainly much prefers to be napping twice per day.

Eating:
Kemper is our little picky eater.  Some days he eats great, and others he could take or leave food, including his bottle.  We are still transitioning to sippy cups, which he is doing better with, but we are not yet ready to ditch the bottle entirely.  I was just saying this morning though that I think I'll push the sippy cup even more, as I don't really think he would miss the bottle at all.  He's eating anything and everything, but really likes pickles, tofu, green beans, peas, squeezy fruit packets, and carrots.  His bottle is usually about 6oz, 3 times per day. 

Clothing:
Kemper is currently wearing 18 month clothing.

Doctor Visits:
Kemper came down with pink eye in both his eyes at the end of this month.  And of course it happened on a holiday (Peyton also got pink eye on a holiday).  John took him to the walk in clinic and got drops and he was much better after just a day.  Even with all the goop in his eyes and them watering all over the place, he was as happy as can be.

Milestones/likes/habits:

• Started saying "mama", "all done (sign language and sometimes verbally too)", "uh-oh."
• Started waving bye-bye
• clicks his tongue
• favorite toy is his golf ball
• really liked to play with (and un-tie) all the ties on his crib bumper
• wants to eat and play with anything his sister has
• loves the bath (and can't get him to stop standing up in the bath)
• Doesn't mind having water poured over his face while washing in the bath (total opposite of his sister in the matter)
• putting everything in his mouth
• starting to stand on his own for about 10 seconds without holding onto anything
• cruising around furniture
• trying really hard to get him into books (we try to read to him once a day), but his attention span with this is about 2 minutes if that.
• getting nearly impossible to get him dressed and change his diaper on the changing table and he is rolling over and squirming everywhere.
• still loves his uncle Todd
• This month, we are planning on taking away his pacifier all together during the day and only allowing him to have it while sleeping.

John Kemper is 10 months old!

Our sweet baby boy has turned 10 months, and just 2 months shy of 1 year old.  I never dreamed it could have flown by this fast, and I have already found myself trying to cherish little moments more and more as I know they won't happen for ever.  The other night, he fell asleep in my arms in the rocking chair, which hasn't happened for several weeks and I never wanted to let him go.  I would have rocked him all night like that if I didn't need to sleep myself.  Love those special times between my children and I.  Its equally as touching to witness John have these moment with Kemper and Peyton like the other night when John (who was holding Kemper) was smacking his lips, and Kemper was mimicking him.  John just about melted when Kemper did that.  So sweet.  John and I have sort of named Kempers personality thus far as being a sensitive, but daring boy.  He is pretty aggressive with what he is willing to try physically, but emotionally he is quite sensitive.  We love an embrace everything about this sweet boy and cherish all the unique differences him and his sister have.  Its one of the beauties of having two children and seeing them develop their own individual personalities.

Sleeping:

Kemper continues to sleep through the night, every night going to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and waking anytime from 6:30-8:30.  He is still sleeping in a sleep sac, with his white noise machine going and with a pacifier.  He still does a great job putting himself to sleep and often prefers is vs. being rocked to sleep.  He continues to take 2 naps per day, one around 9:30 and the second around 2:00, each lasting 1 1/2-2 hours.  We are feeling so blessed to be getting wonderful sleep with both our children!

Eating: 

We have become pretty adventurous with what Kemper eats, and we pretty much give him anything and everything that isn't a choking hazard (and of course no peanut butter still).  We worked tofu back into his diet with no problem, so I don't think he has any sort of soy allergy.  Some of his favorite foods currently include tofu, scrambled eggs, beets, cheese, and all pastas.  We mix pureed spinach into lots of his food as we did and continue to do with Peyton.  Kemper has enjoyed every vegetable we give to him, and eats lots of them, but he does not favor fruit at all.  If you put a cooked beet and a banana in front of him, he would always pick the beet.  We are working on it with him, and he will eat them, just not nearly as readily as vegetables. 

Kemper is still taking 3 bottles per day, from 6oz-8oz each.  We are attempting to work in sippy cups with him, but he hasn't been too hot on them yet.  He is making some progress with them, so we'll continue to offer them to him.  We made an effort his month to NOT feed his bedtime bottle to him in his room, and instead do so in the living room with all the lights on, noise going, etc. in an effort for him to not make a habit of needing to be fed a bottle before bedtime.  We will next work on cutting out this night time bottle and instead give him that milk during dinner. 

Clothing:

Kemp is currently wearing some 12 month clothing, but mostly 18 months.

Milestones/Big Events:

• "Touchdown" arms in the air
• Crawling on 12/30/2013
• Going from laying down in the bath to sitting up on his own
• waving bye bye
• bottom tooth to the right of his two middle teeth popped through
• right canine tooth popped through
• pulling himself to standing-everywhere!
• Fell out of crib onto hardwood floor.  The day before this happened, he had learned how to pull himself up in the crib in his sleep sac.  We already had the crib lowered to the middle level, and had talked about the fact we should probably lower it all the way.  I was at a Seahawks game with my mom and John was watching the game at his parents.  We had Katherine over to babysit, and she put him down for a nap and all of a sudden heard a big thump and a huge cry from Kemper.  John raced home and checked him out, and he was ok, but certainly a scary moment for us all!  Needless to say, we lowered the crib all the way immediately.
• Working on saying "uh oh" and "all done"

Starting to think of his first birthday plans!!!