12 months = one year

Now that my little peanut had his birthday I suppose it is time for a little 12 month update.  How long do I still refer to his age in months before it just becomes 'blank years old'? Another thing about toddlerhood that makes me a lil' bit sad...

Hendrix is getting better and better with his walking and balance and recently mastered getting himself to a standing position from the middle of the room without pulling up to anything. It has now been a few days since i have seen him crawl and I think those days may be over.

He weighed in at 21 pounds and 5 ounces at his one-year-well-baby visit and was super brave about his shots (all 6 of them....whew!) though he was really getting grumpy with us by the time we got to the finger prick for the hemoglobin test. Who likes to have their finger poked and then squeezed???
His doctor was really impressed with his achievement of developmental milestones, and said a couple times, "I think this kid forgot that he was born early!"  That was super encouraging.  He is only in the 25th percentile for height while in the 50th percentile for weight, so he might be short like his momma.  poor kid.

He is doing awesome at being apart from his mommy as he is going to the babysitter two mornings a week.  We have successfully finished our second week of that routine now and he barely cried when I dropped him off this morning. My good friend, who has a daughter very similar in age, is the one watching him and that sure has made it easier for me to leave him.  It's been a month of changes for all of us, that's for sure!

He is doing alot more talking. In addition to his earliest vocabulary of mama, dada, kitty, dog and ball; he has added hot (he learned that at his birthday party while being warned not to touch the fire), go and uh-oh. 
In addition he has started babbling something that sounds like 'ah ee ah ee' over and over again while he is playing...not sure the meaning of that yet.

He still loves his signing movies.

He is busy. While visits to the library used to be relaxing, now I have to watch him like a hawk or he just disappears. He is so quick.

Another favorite activity right now is drumming. He likes to pound kitchen utensils on bowls and pans to make racket.  Since that has been so much fun he has also found other items in his toy box to experiment sounds with. His newest instruments have been his wooden puzzle pieces - he loves banging them like cymbals.   

He also likes to sing opera when daddy occasionally plays it for him. He really gets into it and is hilarious!

 What a little musician we have! Lol

Oh and we finally had a breakthrough with sleep habits! He is sleeping all through the night in his own bed! Hooray! We did have to use the crying it out method of sleep training, and it was painful (especially for mom and dad) for a couple nights but our perseverence and consistency paid off and now he is soothing himself to sleep which seems to be better sleep for him and obviously for us too.  It was so worth it!

He has discovered drinking fountains and now we can't walk by one without stopping to take a drink and do some splish-splashing.

He has recently started 'panting' when he gets really excited. It sometimes sounds like he is hyperventilating. very silly.

He loves stairs.

He loves slides.

He loves playgrounds.

He got his first haircut the day after his birthday.  If I had let my hubby pick it would have been months ago so he would never again be mistaken for a girl, but I had a hard time parting with those little curls that were finally starting to form in the back.

I did it myself, and no, he didn't sit very still.  

That is why it isn't very straight. ;)  

It is nice to see his eyes a little better, and I know that it will grow back. 

Won't it?!?!

Oh and is finally getting some top teeth - four of them all at once. Wowzers!

He may be a toddler now, but he will always be my sweet, baby boy. ;)

 

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

party week, day three

today is my birthday.  


for those of you who have been keeping up, yesterday was my anniversary, and the day before that was my husband's birthday. 


we have this one really big party week every year, and during it we have far too much cake, enjoy some presents, but most importantly, we make time to spend together just having fun. ;)


the kids (i nanny for) threw me a nice birthday bash yesterday.

 hendrix is becoming a pro at opening presents which will serve him well as he celebrates his own birthday before we know it!

the kids were enthusiastic about giving me their gifts and it was a lot of fun to feel special and loved!

aren't these smiling faces just adorable!?!?

then we left our little muchkin home with a baby-sitter (who is a sweet friend of mine), and enjoyed a very special anniversary date night.  

it was so fun to go out to eat and to a movie and not have to pack a bib or sippy cup.  

i love my cute little hendrix, but i love a few hours alone with my hubby too. ;)

now i get to celebrate my birthday with my own little family tonight, and my parents and siblings tomorrow.  

it's a great start to a new year!

oh, and if anyone is wondering, i am still twenty-something. ;)

Padded Little Seat

Hendrix started wearing his fuzzibunz cloth diapers over the weekend.  They are so cute and super soft, and I think you can tell by the contented smile tugging at the corners of his mouth that he likes them. :)  So much so that he pooped like 5 times in a day and a half (when the last time before that had been almost a week).  

I am really glad that he finally fits into them, though he definitely needs to have the snaps on the smallest setting.  He is growing lots, but still a little guy.  

I had done a great deal of research about cloth diapers before Hendrix was born, and had actually purchased them before his arrival.  I was convinced that I wanted to do this because I wanted to save money (in the long run.....after the initial expense), and I wanted something that was softer and nicer on my baby's bottom. 


Here are some things that I didn't learn in my research:

• The small size diapers say they are supposed to fit a 5 pound baby all the way up to a 22 pound baby, and yet they most definitely didn't fit my baby until he was almost 9 pounds.  Yes, the snaps make them very adjustable, but his skinny little legs didn't fill up the leg holes enough to keep the leaks out at first.
• These diapers make his bottom so much larger because of the padding that my baby has jumped a size in pants overnight.  It is really cute that he is "bottom heavy", but if you plan to cloth diaper you should keep that in mind when buying clothes and go a size larger on the bottoms.
• I know that the fleece is super soft, but I didn't also realize that it is super warm.  The first night he wore one to bed underneath his onesie and then jammies, when he woke up in the middle of the night to eat he was sweating!  You can shed a layer of clothing with these dipes.
• The diapers really are easier to use than disposable diapers.  My husband even admitted to that (by the way he is on board with me in this endeavor which is a great blessing).
• The laundry piles up faster than I could have ever imagined.

All that to say that I am very pleased with how it is going so far. :)

Other highlights over the weekend include taking Hendrix to his first ISU tailgate,

(If you didn't already hear about the outcome of the game, you would be better off not asking)

celebrating my father-in-law's birthday,

and after lunch, we left Hendrix with my folks (this was the first time to have a baby-sitter) while we went to see the play that my sister-in-law did the sound design for.  Hendrix had a great time with his Nana and Aunt Hannah, but I missed him lots!  It felt weird to go somewhere and not have to unload the carseat; and also to be carrying around a purse instead of a diaperbag!  :)

We got back the pictures that we had taken last week and there are soooo many good ones!  I need to sort out my favorites still, and then I will post them for you.  In the meantime, here is one to get you started!

And today was another start to another work week.

I love my job!