11:11 Make a Wish

I wish Rowan could see how my heart quadruples in size when I see him walk or sign or say Mama. He makes me silly happy. I know I've said it here before, but this last month has been my favorite so far. What has happened this month to make it so awesome?

* Rowan, Grandma K and I went to visit Row's great aunts in Illinois. It was ridiculously fun and Rowan got spoiled something crazy. I thought I was a spoiled baby, but Rowan is putting baby Lauren to shame. Our family room is exploding with toys, his closet is exploding with cute outfits, and my heart is exploding with gratitude. There is something so heart warming about seeing other people love on the love of your life. 

We went to a petting zoo and Rowan only cared about one thing: pushing the stroller himself. Josie was a good sport to let him 

He is passionate about stairs. 

*
Balls. Balls. Balls. Rowan is obsesssssed with balls. The first thing we do every morning is come downstairs and play with his assortment of balls. We don't have any dolls around (cause they creep me out) but we let him play with them at the store. He likes to kiss and hug them, but he goes right back to balls as soon as he shares some sugar with those plastic demons. His ultimate favorite ball is basketball. I take him into the gym after I workout so he can watch all the basketball players. He will sit on the sidelines bouncing and chasing his ball around for about an hour (sometimes more). Row really wants to join the big boys on the court. He will toddle out to the players and wait expectantly for them to pass him the ball. Speaking of toddling…

We went to a science museum and what did we play with the whole time? Balls. 

Running at the pool with our ball

* Rowan learned to walk a few weeks ago! He went from proficiently crawling to walking in two weeks. TWO WEEKS people! Why does time go by so fast once you have a kid? I will probably wake up tomorrow at his high school graduation and wonder how I got there. 

* Cars. This is Rowan's other major obsession. We spend a lot of time pretending to drive Mom's car and crying because I won't let him play with our neighbors little red kiddie car. 

Rowan cruising with his bud. 

Cars are number one! The science museum also had this fire engine so we spent half our time playing with the balls and the other half driving the fire engine. 

* Sleeping has gotten massively better since he moved back to his room. Row was hanging in his crib in our room for the last 7 weeks so Sel could rest up real well for the blasted STEP. Row now sleeps in his room and has gone down without a single tear on those perfect porcelain cheeks for five days straight. He sleeps from 8pm-9am pretty much every night. I am about to mess this perfect sleeping schedule up by dragging him to a Girls Camp overnighter. Pray for me and my wild baby. 

* Imitating. Rowan has gotten the hang of signing and pointing to communicate this month. His faves are light, fan, milk, food and drink. He hasn't really expanded much on his signs, but he has gotten amazingly better at letting us know exactly what he wants. He loves when you imitate him be it opening your mouth, sticking out your tongue, or making a noise. 

* Momma. I have been elevated to a new level of adoration. It melts my little heart. He says Momma and Dada about the same amount now (tipped a little bit more in favor of Momma since he sees me 24-7). It does break my heart though when he cries (from his constant falling lately) and says Momamamammama over and over through his tears. He is also such a good kid. He loves to explore, but he makes sure to keep me constantly within eyesight. He will even look back at me over his shoulder when deciding whether to crawl up a flight of stairs or put so,etching in his mouth.

* he is such a sweet boy! He loves to hug and kiss other babies and even shares some love with mom and dad. I can't get enough of it. I hesitate to say he is cuddly because he typically likes to be on the move, but he certainly likes to be held and doesn't overly protest when I smother him with kisses. He also is still nursing which gives me a wonderful amount of bonding time each day.

*Nursing. I still love it! I mean, we went through a seriously rough patch from 2-4 months, but it's been pretty stellar from then on. I feel really lucky to have made it this far because I was super close to throwing in the towel when Row would arch away from me and scream like I was trying to feed him arsenic. Some people have kind of asked when I will stop and I don't have an answer for them . I hope to go as long as Rowan will let us. He also only has two teeth at this point so biting luckily hasn't been a deterrent. How awesome is it that I can feed my baby anytime, anywhere using only my body!? Super awesome. Rowan has started to grabby in public though. He will tug at my shirt when he is tired and has pulled down and up my shirt on multiple occasions.

Imitating my mouth opening

Trying to hijack my ice-cream

Playing with his Dad for the first time since January 

This is Rowan's longtime crush, Adelaide. He loves her. 

Maybe a little too much

 * Rowan is still unbelievably independent. He wants to do everything himself. He has finally gotten pretty good at feeding himself with a spoon, but usually gives up 3/4's in and dumps his bowl like this. I  try to care sometimes about the mess and then realize my life is too short to care. Laughing feels better than freaking out. Goodness knows I freak out about plenty of other things to care about messy food or peed on treadmills or sprinkles spilled all over the floor

* Diapers are this kids archnemsis. He cries every.single.time we change him. It's traumatic for us all. We play games while changing, we sing, we tickle, we play with blow-dryers and we still cry and roll away. Wrangling him down is near impossible without hurting the little tyke. SO I let him be outside naked in his pool as long as I can. I like to think it is helping, but it is probably just breeding a future of streaking. 

I love this angelic little guy. I truly am the luckiest mom around to have him.