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

two for one

I was finally able to get a shot that lets us see his two new little white friends.  Don't worry, I was straddling him while pulling down his lip, and still managed to keep his mouth in focus on my camera.  That might have been the most difficult shot I have ever captured.  ;)

Here are some of my previous attempts.

As you can see, he is still keeping a smile on his face, even while cutting two teeth at the same time.  I won't say that it hasn't been difficult, but that part was rather short lived.  Now he is interested in eating or at least chewing on something all. the. time.  

I can't wait until he can give me a nice big toothy grin for the camera!

we have an eight-month-old

Still. no. teeth.  Not even swollen gums or little white bumps.  The only indication we have that he might someday grow some teeth, is that he loves to chew on things with his lil' gums.  Drool yes.  Teeth no.  

He is still a really good little eater.  He gobbles up pretty  much everything I feed him (including the things that he didn't really like at first), and if he starts to make faces, I can just mix in a little bit of something I know he loves (like yogurt) and he does great!  He is much more interested in self-feeding these days, and loves his "mum-mums" and yogurt puffs.  Hendrix also really wants to eat what we are eating......he seems to think that if it comes off our plate it must be better!  Sometimes we let him have some.  :)  His newest recent foods are papaya, asparagus, and chicken.  yum

No crawling yet either.  He is pretty content to sit and play.  He does do more leaning forward these days, but hasn't made any efforts to get up on all fours.  His lack of mobility doesn't seem to frustrate him yet, so I guess I will just be patient and appreciate that I don't have to worry about his safety as much right now!  We have been looking around for some 'good-looking' baby gates (do they even make these?) for our stairway!

His hair is getting so long!  I find myself brushing the front hairs to the side so they don't hang down so close to his eyes....and then he has a silly baby "combover".  He definitely takes more after his daddy with his hair as I just plain didn't have any until I was almost two.

He has a fascination with pulling off his sock(s).  Usually it is just the left one, but sometimes both of them.  Of course, they go straight to the mouth when they come off.  :)  He is most definitely in the learn-about-the-world-by-tasting-everything phase.

His other favorite things right now include:

• playing outside.....he loves to sit on the grass, be in the stroller, look at the fish in our pond, and play on the playground equipment.
• spending time with riley and gabe - he loves watching them just run around full of energy, and is especially smitten when they talk to him, sing to him, and read to him.  He is all smiles when we walk in the door to their house each morning.
• car rides....he either falls asleep immediately, or he sits back there just babbling to himself.  so cute.
• bathtime.  i can't believe how much can change in such a short time.  You might remember that he hated baths.....now he adores them. 

I don't know that I can pinpoint anything as his particularly favorite toy.  He does have the same couple in his diaper bag usually so he plays with them alot, as well as the same few in a toybox in his room, or downstairs, etc.  I guess this gives him alot of variety and maybe it is helpful that he doesn't have just one toy that he can't live without.

On the other hand, he adores his blankie.  Absolutely adores it.  He likes to hold it, eat it, and bury his face in it.  He sort of forgets about it while he is awake and happily playng, but the minute he starts to get tired, he wants to know where it is.  I washed it the other day while he was busy playing, and when I gave it to him fresh from the dryer, he seemed rather displeased that he didn't recognize the spit-up smell on it anymore.  Don't worry, the smell returned within a few short hours.  The corners are starting to fray a bit, so I might have to do some blankie magic one of these days........in the meantime, we need to make sure we don't lose that blankie!

He is a busy boy, and he keeps us really busy.  What a joy being his mommy is!