Someone please tell me: how on earth did I get here?

11 months! 11 freaking months. What in the world.

life with max: eleven months I howsweeteats.com

I feel exactly the same as I have every other month about one thing. I won’t bore you with it since I’m such a broken record.

Well, nevermind, yes I will.

I 100% still absolutely feel like even though I have savored every moment (I really have, like nothing else before), time has gone by way too fast, I’ve missed things and I can’t remember the last 11 months. Like what is that!

This has brought new meaning to the expression (is that the right word?) of something happening a year ago but feeling like yesterday. I actually feel like I was just going into labor with him hours ago. I am ridiculously nostalgic about this time of year since I was preparing for him. I’m normally a very nostalgic and sentimental person to begin with, but this has thrown me over the edge. I said to Eddie, it’s like I’m in a good nostalgic depression, ha.

life with max: eleven months I howsweeteats.com

My heart and mind are still on overload about how much I just LOVE this little nugget. 11 months later, I can’t believe how much I love him and how much FUN he is. I adore spending every single day with him. It’s still so much different than what I thought it would be. I want to be with him all the time. It blows my mind that 12 months ago, I was saying I would have a nanny five days a week and things like that. If possible, I want to spend MORE time with him. I don’t even know me!

This snugglebug is still my favorite thing in the entire world. Oh and snugglebug he is – he’s currently in a very clingy phase at the moment and doesn’t like to leave my side (I say this as it’s 11PM and he is snoring next to me in bed, ha) and while it’s not exactly conveninent… it’s kind of wonderful to have him so snuggly. And cuddly. And loveable. GAHHHH.

life with max: eleven months I howsweeteats.com

So what’s new with Max right now… a mere two weeks before he turns one?

He is walking (sometimes running, which is hilarious to watch) about… 70% of the time now. He took his first steps on Halloween and then for about a week or so, he did the same, five or six steps here or there. Then one night, Eddie and I were both in the living room and I watched him let go of the couch and WALK ACROSS THE ROOM.

I’m like Eddie! Look! Hurry! And since “look! hurry!” in husband terms means let-me-scroll-through-the-rest-of-the-instagrams-I’m-looking-at-and-then-maybe-respond-to-a-text-and-THEN-look up, he missed it. But that night started the consistent walking, or what we like to refer to as an extra for The Walking Dead.

Hands out, bopping around.

It’s adorable.

life with max: eleven months I howsweeteats.com

Max is eating three meals a day now and sometimes even SNACKS! Of course, I say this after he sort of refused to eat dinner last night but, you know. His normal schedule right now is breakfast, lunch and dinner with his favorite foods being scrambled eggs, oranges (basically all fruit and even veggies), chicken, broccoli, PB+J toast, pasta and PIZZA. Yes, this babe loves pizza.

One thing he doesn’t seem to be into are slices or pieces of cheese. So perhaps I should double check that he is truly my child?

Um, also, if you follow Eddie on snapchat by chance, you might have seen that he likes burgers too. He really does like burgers – I’ve been giving him a small bite of my burger when we are out for the last few months.

Eddie took that to heart and last weekend, on men’s day out, ordered Max his own cheeseburger. For lunch. With fries.

Yes. He ordered our 11 month old child a gourmet cheeseburger (regular sized, errr, okay, kid-sized, but larger than a slider) with French fries. And a pickle.

I saw this first hand on snapchat, not because he told me or sent me a picture. Heeeeelllllp me.

No, but really, he ate a few bites and Eddie finished his burger.

I really love making breakfast, lunch and dinner right now. I mean, I obviously enjoy cooking very much (one would hope so, hello blog) but cooking delicious things for Max to try has brought more life and excitement into it, if that makes sense. There isn’t much I won’t give him, within reason of course.

Yesterday he was being very quiet and I found him sitting on the floor eating a graham cracker… from a box that he managed to pull out of the pantry without me realizing it. I swear he’s like, secret sneaky baby. And he was super into the graham.

life with max: eleven months I howsweeteats.com

Speaking of Eddie, Max compeltely LIGHTS UP when he sees him. If he wakes up before Eddie leaves in the morning, he is so excited he can’t take it. At night when Eddie comes home, he does this adorable I’m-too-shy excitement thing. And one day last week, he wanted to snuggle with Eddie over me!

He’s also really a chatterbox and constantly babbling. He LOVES to say “uh oh!” – or at least repeat the sound of my voice to “uh oh” – you know? He also repeats “thank you!” and “more!” and I really need to start being better about saying “no” because I’m sure that is next. He is constantly walking around with “mamamamamama” and “dadadadadada.”

He’s still a conscious adventurer, as I like to call him. He climbs all over the place like a maniac. He climbs on top of the couch and the fireplace and I think he’s manage to find a way to climb on top of the fridge if I let him.

But at the same time, he is just really… chill? He is very much go-with-the-flow. For instance, two weeks ago my mom and I had him at the mall from about 10am to 6pm (yes I’m serious) and he was fabulous. We obviously took a few breaks to eat and play and stuff like that, but overall he is just the sweetest. Now that he wants to move constantly, it gets a little trickier to take him out to places like restaurants and what not, especially if it happens to be later at night.

life with max: eleven months I howsweeteats.com

One thing he still has no interest in: sleeping. Thankfully he’s ridiculously happy. Sometimes he is so happy that I don’t know HOW he can be so happy all the time. I kindly reminded Eddie on the morning of Max’s 11th month birthday that it “has been 11 months since I have slept through the night!” I DON’T KNOW HOW I AM STILL FUNCTIONING. Seriously, motherhood is an amazing thing and I never knew I could do so much on so little. Ha.

Some of the issue may still be my choices because I nurse on demand, but after making myself crazy over googling and reading that I was destroying him by nursing him to sleep but also destroying him because I was sleep training blahblahblah… I stopped reading all that stuff and just doing what is working best for us at this moment.

After all, in thirteen years I’ll probably have to drag him out of bed, right?

The good news: I’ve only had a handful of meltdowns that are sleep-deprivation related. Win. I knew my lack of loving to sleep would come in handy some day.

And more good news: the new normal is still becoming more… normaler?  It’s still really hard to do some things, but others are easier. I just feel so freaking LUCKY to have him and don’t even know how I deserve him. This whole experience has been so much better than I expected, which I know sounds crazy, but it’s true. And don’t even tell me it’s just going to start going faster. WAH!