one year

The fastest year in the history of the Earth has just happened.  Seriously, this year flew.  I cannot believe my baby turned one year old last week.  We've had the most amazing year with our little family.  My son has a brother.  My other son has a brother.  I have the two most amazing children ever.  We love this little baby so much, and we thank God for him AND his birth parents every day.

My little man at one year old:

Length / Weight: We were at the doctor for his well visit today.  He is 30 inches, 23 lbs, 15 oz, and a head of 48 cm.  Everything is hovering around the 50th percentile still, with a small jump ahead in his length. 

Eating:  We have made the switch to whole milk now.  I was so sad to see formula go, because that's one step closer to not being a baby anymore.  I would gladly spend all that money on formula to keep him a baby, but at the same time, I'll be glad for the savings. :)  He's eating all foods except peanuts now, and loves to eat!

 

Sleeping: He was doing great sleeping, until we went on vacation a couple weeks ago.  He won't sleep well in other places, and two weeks of that ruined his schedule at home.  :(  He's also been sick with a fever (but we don't know why) and that has thrown things off too.  I so hope he'll figure it out soon and go back to his awesome sleeping.

 

Teeth: Tooth three and four popped through this month!  He now has two on top, and two on bottom. 

Wearing:   Size 4 diapers, 18 month clothes, and we finally found some shoes to fit him and those are size 5.  (!) 

 

Miscellaneous:  We have a walker!  A week and a half before his birthday, he gave up crawling for good and will only walk now.  Hence the need to find shoes ASAP - walking outside on bumpy terrain is hard on bare feet!  He had a great birthday, with ALL of his cousins there - from both sides of the family!  he was a master with his cake and I'm pretty sure he blew blue snot for a few days with as much frosting as went up his knows.  The traditional "aunt bath" where his aunts give the birthday kid a bath after they demolish cake was not a success.  He cried so hard he threw up in the tub - he's the first to do that.  Ha!

 

He had his well visit today.  He got put back on zantac for reflux to hopefully clear up some puking issues we have had - we're so hoping it's a medical thing that can be helped, rather than a behavioral thing!  He also got put on Zyrtec for allergies.  He's been coughing really hard for a few months and we're trying that to see if that helps.  There is asthma in his medical history, so hopefully the coughing isn't a sign of that...  We were also told to watch for words.  He is saying "voom voom" when playing with cars, but that's the only thing on purpose.  the doctor said he should be saying mama and dada and ball and words like that, but he's not worried *yet* because of his history of ear infections.  I told B-man he could help us with teaching him those words, and he took me very seriously - he wouldn't give his brother a ball until he said ball tonight! LOL!

We just got back from 2 weeks of vacation - when I get pictures done, I'll write about the trip. :)

Here's our little man at one year!

 

 

eleven

Eleven months old.  Next month he will be ONE.  The year has FLOWN!

Here's who our little man is this month:

Length / Weight: Just over 29 inches long, and we're going with 22 lbs, 8 oz, which is what he was with clothes on the week before at the doctor.  So that sounds good!

Eating: Still on Similac Sensitive, and most bottles are 6 oz.  He has found a love for mac & cheese, bread, and spaghetti.  I think he's a carbs man! :)  He likes to eat.

Sleeping: We can tell his ears are feeling better, because he has been sleeping through the night a lot again.  I'd say 2 out of 3 nights, he's STTN.  Hooray for that!  Naps can be anywhere from 2 shorter naps through the day (hour-ish each) to one mid-day nap that can last 2.5-3 hours.

 

Teeth: Still two teeth, though I keep expecting a top one to pop through

Wearing:   Size 3 diapers, but we bought 4's to try out when our 3's are gone.  He is wearing a lot of 18 month clothes, too.  In fact, that's all we ordered for summer clothes and they aren't too, too big on him! 

Miscellaneous: He's taking steps!  So far, he's up to 7 at a time.  He laughs and claps for himself. :)  he LOVES to be outside and gets upset when his brother is out there without him.  While outside, he loves the sandbox and the water table.  He can play forever in the water table!  (same with baths!)  He likes to play with balls, and in fact at a garage sale the other day kept squirming to look at the collection of basketballs.   There just happened to be one his size, so guess what we came home with.  :)  He is still quite the talker!  Chatters constantly.  

Love that little boy!

ears, programs, and steps - oh my!

By Tuesday last week, little b's ear was having bright orange drainage.  Our school nurse happened to be working in town that day, so I took him to see her.  She said it was time to call the ENT.  I took him over on Thursday last week, where he ended up having to have his ear suctioned out because the infection had totally packed his tube.  The poor baby didn't cry until they put the drops in his suctioned-out ears but it was short lived, as when I was I was able to pick him up he was OK.  We're now on ear drops 2x/day for 10 days, then 1x/day for 10 more days, as well as an oral antibiotic 2x/day for 10 days.  *sigh*

B-man had his kindergarten program on Wednesday last week.  It was so cute, and I was glad my school was done for the summer so I could attend! I can't believe that Wednesday afternoon, he'll be a 1st grader.  Where did the time go??

And the baby has been very brave in letting go of things while he's standing.  You can tell he wants to walk soooo bad - this weekend he'd stand and get mad because it's like he couldn't make his legs go!  This morning, however, he took three steps from me to Josh!  He'll be figuring it out so soon!

those darn ears

The ENT told us when little b had his tubes put in that if we saw some yucky drainage, he had another ear infection.  Only about 10% of kids never get an ear infection again with tubes.  10% get them just as frequently.  And the rest might get a few but they are less frequent and less severe.  I was hoping we'd be in the 10% that didn't get them ever again, but yesterday morning proved that wasn't so.  B was the first to notice his brother's left ear was wet.  Josh wiped it up, hoping it was just water.  By the time we got to church, it was yellow drainage and was draining so much that it was dripping on his shirt if I didn't get it wiped quick enough.  His ear quickly crusted up.  Gross.  So we started his antibiotic ear drops.  He's not a fan of them, but the nice thing is, he can't throw them up or spit them out like he does with oral antibiotics now! :)  We'll keep an eye on it and hopefully the ear drops take care of the problem.  (And another nice thing - we know it's an infection, we have the drops plus lots of refills, so we can save $45 by not having to go to the clinic!)

He had been running a low fever off and on for a day or two... he was also chomping on his fingers hard so we thought he had another tooth coming in.  He still might - his two teeth he has, came at the same time during an ear infection.  Could this kid be one who gets an ear infection every time he gets teeth?  Ugh!

But hey - we set a new record - 6 weeks without an ear infection instead of his "normal" every two to three weeks since January, before he had tubes.  :)

ten

TEN MONTHS OLD!  Holy schmoly.

Length / Weight: 29 inches long, and 21 lbs, 10.5 oz.  I believe he is now bigger than two of his 18 month old cousins. :)

Eating: Still on Similac Sensitive, and most bottles are 6 oz.  He's been STARVING at night still, so we've been trying to feed him more before he goes to bed, but he falls asleep.  So he's still waking in the middle of the night. 

Sleeping: Like I said - he is till waking in the night because he's hungry.  And he's for real hungry - sucks down a bottle in no time flat! 

 

Teeth: TWO teeth now!  The second one popped through within 5 days of his first one.  It was a rough week - two teeth, an ear infection, and a stomach bug.  Poor kid!

Wearing: Size 3 diapers, and we're wearing more and more 12 month clothes.  I had to find him some new 12 month jammies - apparently B didn't wear them because I cannot find any in the clothes we kept!  Hmm... and who would have ever imagined that size was so hard to find in the store?!  Couldn't find them ANYWHERE in the mall or at Target.  Ended up having to order them online!

Miscellaneous: We had to get tubes in his ears this month.  The poor kid.  I blogged about that already so I won't talk about it much.  He follows B EVERYWHERE and loves to play with him!  He still also loves baths!  And mango smoothies.  He ate most of mine the other day!  He's getting faster at walking around the furniture but hasn't let go yet.  He likes to play with balls, and gives high 5's now.  And his stories - ohmygoodness, his stories.  The kid talks constantly, and throws hand motions in with this stories along with facial expressions, voice changes, and lots and lots of laughter!  His little personality cracks us up!

big day

It was a big day for my B-man. He came home from school announcing that he could now tie his shoes - something we have been working on for FOREVER! He said he used his free time at school today and worked on it enough to master it. Once he sets his mind to something, he does it! I've been watching his demonstration all evening. :)

And to a lot of you this next thing might make you think "um, that's not a big deal". But it IS, in our house with a child with SPD. My boy, who will not eat meat, tried hamburger tonight!! We had tacos and he tried the hamburger. He didn't like it, but HE TRIED IT! Baby steps. So proud of him for trying. He's never even attempted to try before.

<3

tubes

My little man had tubes put in his ears yesterday. We thought we were going to the ENT for a consult only on Monday, and the doctor wanted to do tubes the next day since there is no ear infection currently. He was concerned with the 5 infections in 3 months.

So, we got it done yesterday morning. We got to the surgery center at our 6:30 appointed time (for our 7:30 surgery), but nobody was there! We had to wait for someone to show up and unlock the doors. And then waited another 10 minutes in a half dark wait room for the receptionist. How strange! But we finally got in and got our pre-op stuff done and found that b now weighs 21 pounds even.

B1 took this harder than we thought he would. He did not want to let his brother go with the nurse. And in the wait room he curled up with me saying "I miss my bry-bry". 15 minutes after we left him with the nurse, we heard b2 cry and B went and sat by the door so he could be right there when the nurse came to bring is back to recovery. He booked it back faster than any of us! He was really worried about his brother. <3

The poor baby was very tired and grouchy but slept 11 hours straight last night. Hopefully today will be a better day. We are hoping that without ear trouble now, he will remember how to sleep again. He had been sleeping through the night until he started getting infections... Maybe this will make him feel better!

brotherly love

When little b gives love in the form of hugs and kisses, he always has a big "awwwwwww" with it.  Just now, he came up to B-man, who was sitting on the floor, climbed up on him, laid his head on B-man's chest and said, "awwwwwwww".  He gave B-man a hug in his own way!  He then hit patted B-man on the head.  B-man once asked why his brother hits him on the head, and I told him I'm pretty sure that's little b's way of showing love - like when we pat the baby on the back.  Only, he doesn't know that patting hitting on the head and patting on the back are any different. :)

After this hug just now, B-man broke into the biggest grin and said, "He loves me!"

I love those boys.

nine

This poor kid.  He celebrated 9 months with another ear infection.  I blogged about that already, but I thought it was worth mentioning in his 9 month post because he also celebrated 8 months in the same fashion.  *sigh*

 

We have a 9 month old!  What?!?!!  Here's who my baby is this month:

 

Length / Weight: Not sure on length.  He has his well baby visit later this week.  At last weigh-in (8.5 months old), he was 20 lbs, 5.5 oz.

Eating: Still on Similac Sensitive, and most bottles are 6 oz.  He's been eating a lot of table food this month and loves it!  Ham and potatoes were a hit on Easter, but he's loved anything we put on his tray.  That's such a change from our older child!

Sleeping: Sleeping has been crap this month because he's been teething and has an ear infection.  We are very tired.

 

Teeth: We can add this category in this month, because the kid has his first tooth!  It popped through yesterday!  It's his bottom right tooth and it's so cute!  Tiny little thing.

Wearing: Size 3 diapers, and we're moving into the 9-12 month clothes now.  I bought some 12 month jammies at a second hand store this past weekend and we have to stuff him in them - I think maybe they shrunk a bit?

Miscellaneous: We have a crawler!  He's so fast at it!  And he can pull up to his feet on furniture and also now walks around the furniture while holding on.  He prefers his toys to be up higher so he can play with them standing up.  He loves his music table this month!  Little b also had his first Easter.  We took both boys to an egg hunt, but he wasn't impressed.  He hated the grass.  The Easter Bunny came and hid some big eggs for him and that interested him a bit, but next year will be much more fun. :)  We had his first Spring Break this past week and after my parents came for Easter, we went to visit Josh's aunt and uncle for day, then spent a few days with my grandma.  When we got back home, his other set of grandparents came for the weekend!  ALL of his grandparents in one week?!  Our kids are lucky!!  Little b now nods yes as well as shakes his head no, and it's super cute!

so smart

Little b is brilliant.  He can nod his head yes now and he really seems to understand our questions.  "Was your brother playing with you?" yes. "Do you want to eat?" yes.  "Should we change your diaper?" no.

Tonight, here was my conversation with him:

Should we go swimming when we go to Disney World?

YES (lots of nodding for that one)

Should we ride some rides when we go to DW?
Yes

Should we meet Mickey Mouse when we go to DW?

No

Oh, OK - should we just ride the rides?
Yes

Should we have your birthday there when you turn two?

(thought for a while...) Yes

He's a brilliant kid! :)

ear infection 5

Little b has had a low grade fever off and on for a few days but he also has that tooth about to pop through. But, he was still up 3 times last night, his cheeks and nose are rosy and he has a 100.3 fever. Fever going that high (not low to mid 99's), not sleeping, and rosy nose and cheeks made us wonder if he has another ear infection. He gets rosy cheeks and nose with those. (Weird but helpful!) So since it is Friday, and with his history, J brought him to see the dr today. Sure enough, ear infection 5. Right ear for now. The clinic is calling the ENT for a tubes consult for us. My poor little baby. :( Guess 2 weeks ear infection free was just too exciting! :)

easter

Happy Easter from B1 and b2!

sweetness

One of the million things I love about my baby: the way he snuggles into my arms, eyes shut because he is sooo tired, yet he is still talking because he is trying not to fall asleep. ♥ (I sure wish I knew what he was saying... It sounded so sweet!) 

He has the sweetest little voice.  I can't get enough of it.

His big brother had a rough day today.  I think he was tired, and that turned into being naughty. All day long.  At one point he was in my lap sobbing after getting in trouble once again.  We were sitting on the floor while he sobbed and I hugged him, and little b crawled over, pulled himself up on his brother, and gave him a huge kiss on the cheek.  That sweet, sweet boy.  Brought tears to my eyes and helped stopped B's.

(did you catch that - he's officially crawling now!)

oh, brother

We have seen a lot of "brother-ness" happening in the past week or so. Little b has figured out how to pull himself to standing on the front of furniture, meaning he can always find his big brother. He pops up wherever big B happens to be!

With that comes little reaching hands to steal Cheerios from big brother's bowl, toys from big brother's hands, etc. Big B didn't even get to take a bath by himself last night. The baby made his way into the bathroom, stood up on the side of the tub, and was even reaching over to touch the water!

And when big B gets out his (toy) semi truck full of matchbox cars, he immediately has a shadow to contend with - little b doesn't seem to mind that it takes him 3x as long to get up and down the hallway chasing that truck! Big B is very patient and drives it very slow so the baby has a chance if catching up.

Yep. The big brother - little brother play relationship has started. And we love it!

time flies

I'm always saying time flies when you have fun.

Today I asked my boys how they became 8 months and 6 1/2 years old already. Brecken, very seriously, replied, "you've had fun with us."

I may have teared up. I love that kid.

eight

If March comes in like a lion or a lamb, so does 8 months.  And this one came in like a lion.

It started last week when little b caught a nasty cold.  It was *just* a cold until the weekend when the fever wouldn't go away.  Josh took him to the doctor this past Monday, where he was diagnosed with an ear infection in his left ear.  He was prescribed zithromax, which is a 5 day dose.  Today was day 4 of the 5, and he isn't feeling any sort of better - in fact, he seems worse.  He's so clingy, glassy eyed at times, and his cough is enough to scare anyone - so deep and so phlegm-y and  nasty.  I was hoping there wasn't fluid in his lungs.  We took him back to he doctor today where not only is his left ear infected still, but his right ear is infected now, too.  So, on to another antibiotic - his 4th in his short little life.  We go back to the clinic in two weeks and if it's not clear then, we will be referred to an ENT for a tubes consult.  

Nevertheless, here's who little b is at 8 months: (I did manage to get an 8 month pic - see below - It's not his normal happy, but he does serious very well too!)

Length / Weight: Monday he weighed in at a whopping 19 pounds, 13 ounces.  When I measured him at home, he was 28.5 inches long.

Eating: Still on Similac Sensitive, and most bottles are 6 oz.  We moved to fruits this month.  He loves those too! He likes apples, bananas, apple/banana/strawberry mix, but wasn't too impressed with peaches.  We only tried those once, though - maybe next time he will like them.  He's also been eating a few table foods, like a french fry while we're at a restaurant, an apple slice, and some of the Gerber puff cereal things, which he likes.  He also discovered Cheerios this month and likes those too!

 
Sleeping: He usually gets up once at night to eat - somewhere between 1 and 3 is his norm lately.  Depending on what time he eats is when he wakes up for the day - sometimes 6:00, sometimes 7:30.

Wearing:  Size 3 diapers, and size 6-9 month clothes.  We would like to put shoes on sometimes, but his feet are a bit fat and won't fit in most shoes! I *think* 3.5 is a close size.

Miscellaneous: He is still a mover and a shaker!  He has taken a few "steps" on his hands and knees, but then puts himself back on his belly to army crawl - I think because its faster for him.  He can get anywhere he wants to! He discovered that there is a hallway in our house and down it are some ROOMS to discover!  And he also figured out that if he goes past the living room, there's a kitchen and that's where we are when we cook! :)  There is a picture of his brother when B was 2,  at the lake, framed in the hallway across from little b's room.  Every time we leave his room we have to stop and look at the picture - he LOVES to look at it!  He's also now clapping - on his own, when we say yay, and when he hears the word clap.  And shakes his head no!  It's so cute.  He has only done it once at an "appropriate time" - he pushed his bottle away while shaking his head once.  The other times it's funny.  Like at the pharmacy today I asked him if we should get him feeling better and he said no.  Lol!  He can pull up to sit on his knees, and if you put him on his feet to play at a table of some sort, he can stay there and play.  Such a big boy!  And his facial expressions - OMG, they kill us.  You can't help but crack up at all his faces.  There are plenty of them!  But they never seem to come out when the big black camera does. ;)

He continues to be amazing and we couldn't be more in love with BOTH our boys!

We have the beginnings of a crawler.  Little b has done awesome at army crawling and everyone that sees him do it is highly entertained, but this past weekend while in a huge hotel lobby with carpet for traction, he got up on his hands and knees and instead of just rocking like normal, took about 3 teeny tiny crawls.  I had to laugh at one point - he was trying SO.HARD to go, and he looked under himself at his knees, then sat down and patted them like, "Hey, why aren't you going anywhere?"  :)

Big B had a great time this past weekend as we traveled to the regional basketball tournament.  Josh's team didn't make it this year but we went anyway - as much as I would LOVE to bring his boys, I look forward to the family time too - the first time in months we've gotten to spend a whole weekend with Josh by ourselves. It's kind of nice.

Big B also got to sign up for elementary kid basketball this week.  He's beyond excited.  He wants new basketball shoes.  And we had to buy the shorts that were not included in his entry fee like his jersey was, because heaven forbid his own basketball shorts don't match the jersey!  He also asked his daddy if he would please coach his team.  I noticed he did not ask me. LOL!

Other than that, things have been soooo busy.  In fact I had to go to work Monday in order to have time to sit down and write an email to my family.  How bad is that?!

the observer

I'm constantly amazed at how smart little b is.  We found out just how observant he is this week.  We put recessed lighting into our living room (hooray for no more dark living room!!!).  The lights are ona dimmer which is nice.  I thought I'd put the lights on super low while I fed the baby in the middle of the night after they were installed.  Little b got so distracted by the lights that he couldn't eat.  And he wasn't just curious about them - he was ANGRY at them!  He laid there, pushed the bottle away, and shouted away at those lights with an angry face as if he was saying, "HEY! I know you weren't there last night - what are you doing there now?!?!"

We ended up having to go in his room to finish eating and go back to sleep. :)

I thought it might just be because the lights were on (low) and he didn't like it shining.  However, the next day, his daycare provider told me that she changed the picture above the changing table and he spent the whole diaper change shouting at the picture in the same way - "HEY! You didn't look like that YESTERDAY!" 

So not only does he observe, but he clearly does not like change and shows it with some fantastic shouting and angry faces.  Ha!  It's quite adorable actually!

in other news...

In Brecken's pretend basketball games, we've had what I thought was everything: pretend concession stands, announcing of names, high fiving his imaginary team mates, "goodgamegoodgamegoodgame" afterwards while shaking hands of his imaginary opponents, tip-offs, etc. Today, something new: a pretend bloody nose during the game. Oh, my child! LOL!

seven months

We celebrated little b's seven month "birthday" by receiving his birth certificate in the mail! What great fun that is to see our last name and J and I listed as his parents.  Love that.

Length / Weight: We had to go to the doctor again today, so I have an official weight.  The poor baby had another ear infection this month and we had to go back and make sure it was gone once and for all.  It is... for now.  Anyway, at home when I measured him he's now 27.5 inches long.  At the doctor, his weight was 18 lbs, 10 oz.  

Eating: Still on Similac Sensitive, and most bottles are 6 oz.  We started vegetables this month.  He's a huge fan! He doesn't even make a face of "oh, that's different" when he tries something new, he just gobbles it up! Two exceptions: my homemade carrots, which I think was a texture thing he didn't like.  Three bites and he was done.  The Gerber carrots though, were delicious!  The night I steamed and pureed peas, he had whole body shudders and refused.  B and I laughed SO.HARD at him.  We tried again the next day, and he ate a bowl full.  He had been crabby the night before, so as B said, "He must not have liked them because of his attitude."  LOL!  He eats jarred green beans because I don't know how to make those right, and I've made him pumpkin, squash, and sweet potatoes in addition to the peas.  He loves them all!

Sleeping: He still isn't as awesome at sleeping as he was before Christmas, but we're getting there.  I don't think he's actually HUNGRY when he wakes in the night - just needs something to suck on maybe.  He won't take a paci, so we've given him a bottle of water in his crib.  He's found that and put himself back to sleep 3 out of the past 4 nights.  

Wearing:  Size 3 diapers, and size 6-9 month clothes.  We found out that we can't really use hand-me-downs from his brother anymore - B was so small that his 6-9 month stuff is mostly summer attire, and it is definitely not summer weather yet!  Darn it, Mommy has to shop. :)

Miscellaneous: He is a mover!  The kid is constantly on the go.  He's fantastic at rolling to get places now, but he doesn't need to do that often because he's army crawling!!  I swore the kid would be "real" crawling before 7 months old, but I was a bit off.  He's close - rocking on hands and knees, but can't figure out how to go yet.  So for now, army crawling is his mode of transportation and he's quite good at it!  Sticks that left arm out and gets his feet dug in and he's off to the races!  He's also very close to being able to roll into a sitting position.  And his laugh - oh, his laugh.  It's amazing.  Usually he laughs at his brother.  They love each other so much!