13 months

Hello!  Just another day in the freezing cold place we call home!  These sort of days call for lounging in pj's and playing on Mommy and Daddy's bed.  Mommy would say this is why she doesn't bother making the bed most days.

My sister was getting her hair cut recently.  I sat nicely in this chair that was just my size.  I overheard my mom and the hairdresser discussing my hair and when I should get a hair cut.  I was relieved when Mommy said, "Not today..." 

A fun thing we've been doing lately on Tuesdays is head to open gym at the local gymnastics place.  I love crawling and walking all over.  There are so many fun things to do.  My sister loves this place too. I can't wait until I'm a little bigger and can do all the things she can do.

 

More fun at open gym!  The only bad thing about it is that it only lasts for an hour.  The last time we went I was super sad when it was time to go. 

Meal times with me require a lot of patience and a lot of scrubbing!  I'm getting insistent on feeding myself, even foods that really aren't finger foods like applesauce and cottage cheese.  I like to hold my spoon in one hand, and use the other hand to actually shovel the food into my mouth.  The spoon is just for show.

More fun on Mommy and Daddy's bed. It's one of my favorite things to do. I love crawling all over, bouncing, and then snuggling on pillows.  I'm a really really snuggly guy.  I love to be cozy.  If there is a blanket on the floor I will drop down and snuggle up to it. 

 

My hair still looks like this a lot of the time.  Some days it is calm, but most of the time like this.  It's always a conversation starter wherever I go.  Everyone always says, "I love your hair!"

 

One night we tried to go to Dickey's BBQ.  It's a favorite, sort of quick place we like to go to.  Megan likes it mostly for the free ice cream. Anyway, we pulled up to Dickey's BBQ and it was closed! So Megan picked Old Country Buffet instead (probably for the same reason...the soft serve ice cream machine!)  OCB is a great place for me. I love all the different food choices. I kept trying to eat my food off the plate in the buffet line.  Apparently that's frowned upon. <Mom's note...It's not frowned upon, it's actually against the law! Food safety first!>

 

The pictures don't really do justice to the mess that occurred at OCB.  More of that self feeding applesauce and cottage cheese again.  And lots of macaroni and cheese. 

 

 I'm equal opportunity when it comes to playing on beds. Megan's bed is pretty fun too.  Mommy prefers this as her bed is against the wall, and also has a bed rail so it's much easier to keep me safe!  Plus she has so many toys in her bed. 

 

I went to the doctor for my 1 year checkup!  I was very brave for the blood draw (My hemoglobin was great!) and I did cry for my shots.  Megan had her 5 year checkup at the same time so it was a full morning with lots of consoling.

 

Here are my stats! 

Height: 31 1/4 inches (90th percentile, estimated to be at least 6 feet tall as an adult)

Weight: 23 pounds 10.5 oz (80th percentile, I've lost some weight since my pneumonia)

Head circumference: 18 1/4 inches

 

What else is new with me?

• I now say "Hi!" Add that to my other words: Mama, dada, kitty, alldone,
• I still take two naps per day.  Usually 1.5 hours in the morning and in the afternoon 1.5-2 hrs depending on how busy I was that day. 
• I'm still sleeping through the night most nights. I'm teething so I've had a few wakeups but other than giving me my pacifiers that had fallen out of my crib, haven't needed any sort of "intervention
• Speaking of teeth, my two front teeth are finally coming in.  The two on each side of my front teeth will be here very soon.  I'm not the happiest camper these days!
• I'm walking everywhere now.  It didn't take me long to go from a few steps, to being able to walk to another room.  I'm not a very good judge of a "clear path" and trip over toys, etc a lot but if there is an actual clear path, I do pretty good. 

Here is a video of me walking!  My sister is my biggest cheerleader!

 

One Year Old!

Happy Birthday to Me! I'm One Year Old! 

 

But let's back up to Christmas because, let's face it, I haven't blogged in awhile.

 

 I had a very nice Christmas.  I thoroughly enjoyed taking the ornaments off of Grandma's tree.

 I thought Megan's new duck puppet was super tasty!

Mommy, Daddy and Megan went to see Frozen one night so I had Grandma all to myself.  She gave me a nice bath.

My hair sticks up even when wet!

 

 I made out well with presents.  Between Santa, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and my parents I got a good new stash of "boy toys". No more playing with Megan's purses.  Well ok.. I still like her purses.

But don't I look manly with my new Chuck the Truck?!

 

I have been scooting along furniture quick quickly for the past month. 

I've also been enjoying more and more "big kid" food.  Macaroni and cheese is a new favorite

We went on a fun trip to Wisconsin Dells.  I had a fun time at Buffalo Phil's sporting my cool hat.

 The water park was so much fun.  It was just like one giant bathtub but with better toys!

 Taking a little break from the water.

These little bubbly water fountain things were my favorite. 



On New Year's we went to a special kids party.  I was ok with this party.  I would have rather it been about an hour shorter. 

 No high chairs at this party so I had my dinner in my stroller.

Waiting not so patiently for the big ball drop at 7:45


Meal times can be quite messy these days!

 

Mommy and me at the New Year's party.  These next couple pictures got a bit out of order and were being stubborn about moving!  Below is me at Buffalo Phil's.  Mommy asked the waitress if we could get a "little cup" of shredded cheese for me to eat.  This is their version of a little cup...

 

I spend a lot of time scaling the stairs.  I am very quick!

 

A fun time of dress up.  Everyone got involved on this day. 

 

Me in my Tigger sweatshirt that Mom and Dad got me at Disney World when I was still in Mommy's tummy. 

 And the main event...my birthday!  My party was supposed to be on my actual birthday but a silly snowstorm came.  So we celebrated with just our little family on my birthday and had the party the next day.  I still got to open presents and got to eat a cupcake so all was well.

 My birthday cupcake!

 I was really impressed with my cupcake.

 Starting to get messy.................

I kept slurping frosting off of my fingers.

 

My birthday party theme was "Submarines" so Mommy made these little Twinkie submarines as party favors.

 I was a little excited to tear into this box!

Alex was excited to play in the paper.

 

It was relatively warm on my party day and we had fresh snow to play in.  It was great!

 My first sled ride!

 Daddy kept throwing snow at me and I thought it was HILARIOUS!

Love my sister and love being in the snow!

 

 Time to party! I did not like my party  hat and it was off in about 2.2 seconds!

My submarine birthday cake!

 

 Time to try my smash cake......

 MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

 Time to get both hands involved!

 

 And I got a little too much! All done!

 

 Opening presents with Mommy

I got a new car for my birthday.  Megan has fun driving me around the house. It was intended to be an outside toy for this spring but as it turns out it works as a decent indoor toy when it's brand new.  We do lots of laps when Mommy is desperate for something to do with me and keep me contained!

 

It took me a year but I finally found the Tupperware cabinet!

Mommy ordered me a custom submarine onesie.  It has a propeller on the butt!

 

And my name on the front. 

 

 More car rides! Love my car!

 Playing with all of my new toys.

And sometimes a cardboard box is even more fun than the actual toys.

 

 

Daddy had to take a work trip to Ireland.  Toward the end of the week we were getting pretty desperate for something to do.  It was also way below zero and we were home bound which made it an extra challenge.  So Mommy let me take all the diapers out of the bag and throw them around.

Trying my best to comb my hair!

 

We got a football cake for the Super Bowl. I was pretty happy to have cake again.  So happy that I finally did the "sign" for "more".  I was rewarded with a little more cake and now I sign more all the time for everything. "More" bouncing , "more" books, etc etc

 

Here's me goofing around with Mommy

 

 

Here's what I can do at 12 months:

• On my birthday I wasn't really taking any steps.  Now that we are 2 weeks into being one year old I can take several.  I can walk from one couch to the other.  I'm getting more and more confident each day.  Next blog I'll have a walking video for you!
• I still only have 2 teeth. I have 5 that look ready to erupt any day now.  Mommy thinks the two front teeth are poking through now.  We will see!
• I got a cold that turned into pneumonia last week so that is two confirmed cases of pneumonia in my short life and several other respiratory illnesses.  Two medications and lots of nebulizing and I'm much better now.  Megan got to use the nebulizer too as she's the one who started this whole coughing business.  She just reads a book during the treatment. I like to cry (unless you sing me songs continuously for the 10 minute treatment).
• I'm pronouncing words more clearly.  Kitty now definitely sounds like "kitty" and not "ithe"and I say "MAMA!"all the time.  My newest word is "llama llama" as that is my favorite book in the whole world.  We read "Llama Llama Hopity Hop" a lot.
• Speaking of books, I recently started really liking them and I will grab a book, crawl over to someone with it, and sit on their lap to read it to me.  It is quite adorable.
• I am just starting to get the hang of drinking out of a cup. Not well enough to give up bottles yet.  That is a work in progress. 
• I am finally sleeping all night consistently.  Even while sick and waking up coughing, I put myself back to sleep.  Cue the "hallelujah chorus"
• I still take two naps a day and go to bed around 8 or 8:15 at night and sleep until 6:45 most days although some days I sleep until 8.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason to this.