Gosh. Eleven months. This time last year, I was in North Carolina preparing to photograph my last wedding before baby, putting the final touches on a gender neutral nursery for our little surprise bambino, and anxiously counting down the days until Josh returned home. I was excited and nervous to welcome our child, but I had no clue how that event would change me and change our lives. More love. More work. More joy. All more than I could ever have imagined.

In the past month, Miles has become infinitely more active and infinitely more exhausting. He's curious, smart, and fearless.

He tries to have entire conversations with us, but we can't understand a thing he's saying except for mama and dada. He has some words that he repeats... it's just a matter of us learning his language to figure out what he's talking about!

He's been practicing standing up on his own and will try to take a step but hasn't quite gotten the hang of that yet. He's always on the move and has recently discovered how to climb on furniture by himself. He also enjoys diving over me or his dad if we're lying on the floor.

He (and the whole family, unfortunately) survived his first stomach virus, though we're still trying to recover from the effects that had on sleep.

He'll mock just about anything you do and has become an expert at bye-bye and patty cake. If you tell him he's done a "good job," he'll applaud himself. This boy gives the sweetest, slobbery open mouthed kisses, but only to mommy and his stuffed animals. If you ask him "How big are you?," he'll respond by emphatically raising his arms above his head.

He'll often fake cry if you tell him no - he has the ability to be very dramatic when he wants to be. He has begun vehemently resisting diaper changes and being put in the stroller and requires lots of distraction to get him to cooperate --- hoping he grows out of that phase quickly!

He loves drinking water on his own out of a straw cup and continues to love all kinds of food. New, recent favorites have been clementines, butternut squash, and the roasted chicken that we had on our trip to Haarlem.