I wasn't really planning on doing monthly updates after he turned one, but he's just changing and growing so fast I want to keep all the memories I can....
He’s ridiculously tall. He’s grown like a weed the
past few weeks. Pants I just bought about a month ago are already too
short and every single one of his long sleeve shirts now barely cover
his belly. Literally overnight, all of his
pajamas were suddenly too small and I had to rush out to get new ones.
At his ear check last week he was 28 pounds 2 ounces.
He takes some time to warm up to new places and
people. He likes to sit on my lap until he’s got the lay of the land
down and then he wants to go, go, go. The daycare girls are always
commenting on how sweet he is. He’s very happy and
mellow until something makes him mad. He has absolutely inherited his
father’s stubbornness. The second you tell him “no” he wants do to it a
thousand times more and will try and try and try again until either a
huge temper tantrum erupts, or he gets his way.
So persistent, which is not something I’m used to because I am more of
the goodie-two-shoed type.
His most favorite things in the world are brooms,
shovels and the vacuum. Still. I went out and got him a toy vacuum, but
he’s not really thrilled with it. He likes his toy broom a lot better
and demands it every time we go downstairs to
let the dogs out. However, he still very much would prefer to use the
grown-up ones. He loves to color and play with play doh. I keep both in
the dining room closet and at least a couple times a day he goes to the
door, signs “please” and asks to “duh-lor”
or “doh doh”. We sit him at the kitchen table and he goes to town. He
loses interest pretty quick, but I love that he wants to be creative.
Since the weather has been nicer we’ve been going outside a lot more
and he just can’t get enough. We need some more
outside toys, stat! The little boy across the street is a year older
and has all the cool toys (don’t they all…). He even took David for a
ride in his Power Wheels Jeep! He loved it. He’s discovering climbing
and can get on top of his toy chest with no problem.
He still can’t get up on the couch, but tries hard. He also has started
trying to climb the baby gates (!!!) I’m not quite sure what to do
about that one… I just keep hoping and praying he doesn’t learn to climb
out of his crib for a good, long time! He's all boy and loves to be all kinds of rough and tumble. I am his own personal jungle gym right now and he finds it wildly hilarious when I pretend to hit my head on something.
In the past couple weeks his talking has really taken off. I can’t even
list all the “words” he knows. He can or will try to repeat back
anything that we say to him. He’s fascinated with body parts and
frequently likes to go around the room pointing out everyone’s
eyes, then everyone’s noses, then their toes, etc. He is careful to
include the dogs and cat too. The daycare girls say he chats all day
long and right now he really likes saying “hi” to everyone and waving.
He’s also started giving kisses. He’s very selective
with his kiss giving though. Most of the good ones go to Dada right
now. I get the cold shoulder lots of times. No fair!
We went through a bit of a rough patch with sleep a
couple weeks ago. Before the time change happened we went through a
week or so of him waking up a half hour earlier each day. We maxed out
at 4:15am. The time change saved us a little
bit but it was still a good week before he would sleep past 6 again. He
still is waking up a little earlier than what was previously normal but
I will take 6:15 over 4:30 any day. I’m wondering if he’s starting to
have night terrors because he’ll sometimes
wake up and immediately start screaming and I will see him “running”
back and forth in his crib on the video monitor. As soon as I go in and
pick him up, he immediately falls back asleep. I just really hope we
don’t have a sleep walker on our hands. He still
takes one nap a day from about 12-2 and sometimes he’ll zonk out for a
little bit in the mid-morning too, if he’s really tired. We don’t mind
the extra cuddles though.
Food continues to be an adventure. I know I'm lucky because he loves to eat, however he mostly loves to eat things like crackers, cheese, macaroni, more cheese and more crackers. Basically, if it's yellow-orange, he will down it in no time flat. He also loves oranges, yogurt, bananas and of course, cookies. Not so fond of peaches, meat, rice, oatmeal, eggs, vegetables of any sort except sometimes he'll eat green beans. We are trying peanut butter for the first time this week, so I'm hoping he likes that and we can start sneaking in some protein that way. And when he won't eat any vegetables? I give him one of those organic pouch baby foods with the fruit and veggies mixed. He LOVES them. I figure it's something, right?!
Basically, I love this age. I cannot get enough of it. He's growing so fast and testing his independence a little more each day. It's both making my heart soar and break, all at the same time. I love this little muffin more than I ever could have imagined and I cannot wait to see what is next.
The adventure continues....