Taylor Lake

It's been a little cooler this week, so Little Man and I have gone to Taylor lake every day so far.  We usually start our morning by walking Daddy to work and then heading to the park for a while.  We head home for a snack and some play time.  Then we walk to the lake and stay there until lunch time.  My little guy could stay there for hours.  He will go sit in the water at the edge of the lake and throw the wet sand or stir it with a stick.  He will also sit in the sand for a long time playing with some of the sand toys they have at the lake.  One day there were some big kids building a structure in the sand.  Little Man held my hand and walked right over to them.  He sat down and started helping them fill a bucket with sand.  He would look up every once in a while at one of the big kids and wave to them. 

He played by himself for the longest time while I sat in the grass and took pictures.

I will have to pick up some beach toys when we go to the beach in North Carolina!

I bring a change of clothes and change my little guy at the beach before I put him back in the stroller and head home.  On this day he was so worn out from all his outdoor play that he looked like he was going to fall asleep on his changing mat (notice the arms above the head).  He actually did fall asleep on the way to the beach and on the way home on this day.  I had to take him out of his stroller and carry him both times so that he would nap at home.

12 Months Old

I can't believe I'm so late getting such a huge milestone on the blog!  My Little Man turns 13 months old today, but this post captures the month before he turned 12 months.  So much has already changed....

Little Man, you are one year old now!  It blows me away to think about all that you accomplished in your first year.  You are a speedy little crawler and although you're not walking yet, you are very comfortable on two feet.  You are so chatty and "talk" as you go throughout your day.  You are a great eater, excellent communicator, and have a fine attention to detail.  I've said this before but your eyes tell us so much about you - they tell us if you're smiling, proud of yourself, making a joke or the wheels of your mind are turning and you're processing something new.  You are so sweet and lovable, a spunky little jokester who makes us laugh a lot, and you have such a curious and determined mind.  We are so, so proud of who you are.

One of my favorite newborn photos.  My snuggly little baby.

Over the course of the last year you've lived in two states and two apartments, and you've already been to New York, Indiana, Minnesota, Utah, North Carolina, Florida, Illinois (some of these places a few times), and in the Colorado and Georgia airports. You've flown on airplanes for 7 of these trips; round trip this means you've been on a total of 31 different airplanes.  You are an excellent traveler.

On our way home from Minnesota when you were just two months old.

I remember thinking to myself just a few month ago, "It would be great if Little Man slept through the night 80% of the time by the time he turned one." And since you were still waking up 2-3 times a night, it seemed like a lofty goal.  Baby boy, you sleep through the night 100% of the time now.  Way to go!

You were so little!

Even with all the growth, I love that some things have remained - you were a sweet, happy baby who loved to be held and we now have a sweet, happy one year old who loves to be held.  Now when I think back to all those sleepless nights where you would only sleep in our arms, it's clear to me that you were trying to tell us right from the start, "I'm going to need a lot of hugs and cuddles!"  And now as a one-year-old it's one of my favorite things about you.  Sweet boy, you love to be held: you regularly come up to me and Daddy and rest your head on us to initiate a cuddle, and you let me rock you for the longest time before bed.  These things seem to be a high priority even for a busy little boy.

And here's my big one-year old Little Man!

One year stats:
Height: 29.25," 22nd percentile
Weight: 18.5lbs, 9th percentile (I don't think this is accurate since it's less than what you weighed the last time we were at the doctor.  You were very upset and trying to crawl off the table while the nurse got the measurement so it's very likely it's not accurate.)
Head: 74th percentile

Here's an overview specifically of the month of your first year:

Likes:

• Trucks!
• Balls!
• Putting lids on containers (and taking them off)
• Cuddling - you crawl over for hugs, or to rest your head on us.  You will also rest your head on soft things like blankets or pillows.  You are such a snuggly little guy.  One Sunday at church, you just sat on my lap the whole service with your head resting against me.  Momma loved it :).
• Animals - you point and shout if you see a squirrel, a bird, a dog, a horse - all animals are really exciting to you.

You picked these two pieces out of a basket full of containers!

Dislikes:

• The church nursery - you now cry as soon as we enter the nursery
• Too much attention from strangers
• Getting cleaned up after meals

Helping Daddy hang your new bookshelves.

Milestones:

• You and Momma played in the rain for the first time.  There was a downpour one warm afternoon, so I took you out to show you the rain.  I decided to let you experience the rain, so I stripped you down to your diaper and ran around in the rain with you.  You loved it!
• I have started putting you down in your bed at night awake more often.  For the last few months, I was rocking you to sleep, not necessarily because you needed it, but because I realized how fast you were growing up.  This month, you seem to want to wait until you are in your bed to fall asleep.
• You are signing even more now, and starting to use more of the actual signs rather than your universal sign.  The most helpful one is "all done".  You use it to tell me when you are done nursing, when you are done eating, when you are ready to get out of the bath, and when you are done getting your diaper changed :). 
• You really look at the pictures in your books now.  I can see your eyes scanning the pages and you point out things you find interesting.  You usually point to the same things in each book.  You especially love showing me if there is a picture of a ball.
• You talk in a very conversational style now.  You will look directly at the person you are talking to and speak in a "sentence".

Our little Superman!

 

• Daddy went to a conference for 10 days at the end of this month.  You and I stayed really busy going to Ivanhoe's with our neighbor, touring the fire station, going to story time at the library and going to a strawberry festival.  This is such a fun age, because I felt like I had a little buddy to hang out with while Daddy was away. 
• We transitioned you to a big boy convertible car seat.  You look much more comfortable in it, and I think you can see out the window a little better.
• You are very content in your stroller.  We have started a tradition of going on five-mile family runs on Saturday mornings and you seem to really enjoy it.  You keep the music going on your little radio and just settle in for the ride.  You don't even need your paci.
• You signed up to participate in the library summer reading program.  You still love bringing books to me to read to you.
• You love to "share" your paci with us and try to stick it in our mouths.  You also like to offer us food and try to feed us.
• You have started squatting while you play.
• You don't like to be left in a room by yourself.  If it go into another room, I can be confident that you will be right behind me.  This is advantageous when I need to change your diaper.  I will say, "Elias, Momma is going to go into your bedroom and get things ready for a diaper change.  Please meet me in there in a few minutes when you are ready." I will go into your room and just a minute or so later I will hear fast crawling down the hall and then see a cute little face peeking into your room.

On your actual birthday.

• You had some non-family babysitters watch you one night after we put you to bed.  You slept so well for them and didn't even notice we were gone.  They commented on what an active little sleeper you are.
• You have gotten very good at drinking water out of your sippy cup, and are slowly starting to consume more water.  You throw your head back dramatically each time you need water.
• You love to climb and push things.  I expected the climbing, but the pushing always makes me laugh.  You will get really low and then push as hard as you can if something is particularly heavy.  You love playing with the new house we got you, but sometimes we catch you trying to push it over.
• You have started looking at me in a certain way if you want to make sure something is ok.  For example, if you drop a toy and it makes a loud noise or you are about to climb on something, you will give me a quick glance like you want to see if it's allowed.
• You know what it means when we say "off-limits," and are pretty good at respecting our command.  The first thing you learned not to touch was the carbon monoxide detector which is plugged into an outlet in our hallway.  It has to be low to the ground since carbon monoxide sinks, but it is at a very tempting level for you.  A loud alarm will go off if it is pulled out of the outlet, so it was important for you to learn not to touch it.  The first week that I told you it was "off-limits" you would point to it every time we passed it, as if you wanted to go over the fact that it was off-limits.  I would tell you what it was, remind you it was off-limits and then move on to something else.  Now you totally ignore it. 

An evening dip in your pool.

• You have figured out that your voice will echo if you talk into a cup.  You will hold one up to your mouth and make sounds into it.  We will hear you talking into a cup as you ride in your car seat, and it always makes us smile.
• You finally have your 2 top teeth coming in.  Just like the bottom two teeth, I only noticed because I saw them poking through.  You don't seemed bothered by them at all.
• We have started noticing that you cross your feet when you are content.  We especially see this in your stroller and when you are asleep.
• You love to laugh, and sometimes we catch you laughing just because you hear other people laughing.  For example, one evening Daddy and I were pushing you in your stroller and something made me laugh out loud.  You joined in, and we heard the sweetest laugh coming from the stroller.
• You are very comfortable walking if someone is holding your hands.
• You are always surprising me with what you know based on what you've observed us do.  For example, you know all your favorite food containers and will ask for "more" when you see them.  One day I was going to give you juice, which you haven't needed (for your tummy) for months, and you got so excited when you saw the bottle. 
• You will try to put a hat on your own head or put your shoe close to your foot to show me that you want it put on.  You will take my sunglasses and put them on my head (since that's where you usually see me wear them).
• You still love the park, but your favorite thing to do there now is to climb the stairs.

You love climbing the stairs at the park!

 

You also love climbing UP the slide :).

Your schedule for this month continued to stay consistent with the previous months.  After months of tweaking your schedule, it's nice to stay consistent.  However, you were fighting your naps towards the end of the month and waking up very early in the morning, which left us wondering if you were getting ready to drop your morning nap.

6-:00am - 7:00am wake up (at the end of the month you were getting up at 6:00am!!!)
6:00am - 7:00am nurse
10:00am morning nap
11-11:30am wake up
11:30am nurse
12:00pm lunch
3:00pm nurse
3:30pm afternoon nap
4:15pm - 4:30pm wake up
4:30pm nurse
5:30pm dinner
7:30pm bath and get ready for bed
8:00pm bedtime

You are so precious, Little Man!

 
Happy birthday, Sweet Boy!  We love the little person that you are.  We love being your Momma and Daddy.  And we love you to the moon and back.