Sixteen Months

16 Months

• Oh boy, you are growing up so much. You are turning into quite the explorer. You figured out how to climb up on chairs, which quickly lead to getting up onto the table, which naturally lead to running around and dancing on the table. The couch isn't safe anymore. You will use the pillows as a step stool to get up and then will walk the couch and end tables like a baby ninja warrior, or find yourself perched on the windowsill, soaking up the sun like Mowgli. 
• Langauge is still behind, but both me and dad swear you say, "nah nah nah nah boo boo" to get us to chase you. I have heard you say shoe twice, but mostly you just point to stuff and grunt "uff". You understand us really well though. 
• You favorite thing right now is drawing. You will sit on my lap for 30 minutes drawing. You love the markers the best because it is fun to take the caps on and off. I love watching lean in close to the paper and concentrate hard  on the task. It is so cute. I laid out a huge newspaper end roll on the kitchen for you to draw on. Even though it was three feet wide, you still ended up drawing on the tile. 
• Church is a crack up with you. It doesn't bother me one bit that you wander around (which you do a lot). I think it is as a secondary entertainment that keeps other people awake. The other Sunday though, Dad was on call and it was just us. Right before the sacrament, I noticed you had a poopy diaper. If I took you out to change it, I would miss the sacrament. I decided that we could wait the 15 minutes. Well, that is when you wanted to wander the most. Oh boy, you were a walking stink bomb. I was so grateful that people were wearing masks. 
• List of things that you like: food-cheese, curries/asian food, marshmallow mateys; book-The Hat, Dear Zoo, Tap the Magic Tree; indoor activity-coloring, playing with the tea set and taking baths; outdoor activities-playing in the rocks

 

One.Three Years

 1.3 Years

• Christmas finally came! The day that you can ripe all the paper that your heart can handle. Obviously, you still don't really understand what the mean means, but you did enjoy the cereal and candy you got in your stocking. Santa gave you some painting activities along with some snack cups (huge hit with you!). Dad and I gave you magna tiles, which quickly got snagged by your older siblings. They were getting frustrated because you kept wrecking their creations. We had to tell them that it was your gift and wrecking them was your way to play with them. We got you some new leggings, which hopefully won't get holes in them so fast since you are walking now. We also got you a cute unicorn touch and feel book. 
• We left for Utah right after lunch Christmas Day. You were doing well in the car, just kept handing you more snacks. About three hours into the trip, I was smelling something funky, like a poopy diaper or something. Well when we finally pulled over, I went back there to unbuckle you and discovered that you had thrown up all over yourself. A piece of dried apple must have triggered it and we didn't even notice. So sorry about that. You did well during the crazy trip, though you didn't really want to see other people. You were really clingy to me. What can I say, you are really a momma's girl.
• Language is going slow with you. You still just saying mama, dada, and papa (puppy). Your are getting the hang of sign language though, which has been helpful. You can say all done, more, eat, and thank you. You understand us pretty well, so I think you are just a late bloomer is all. No worries. 
• You are super attached to your pacifier. I know we need to drop it here soon, but I am struggling with knowing when. Just this last week, I decided to take it away during the day. I have to put it in a drawer when you wake up, because if you see it at all, you start asking for it. It is cute to see you get so excited when I say, "lets get your pacifier!" You are also only taking milk in your bottle, but I love the cuddles when you wake up, so I am in no hurry to give that up.
• The other day, I took you and Millie outside to play. Every time we go outside, it is ever a walk in the stroller or I end up holding you the whole time. Today, we were steady enough on your feet to walk around and play on your own. Oh boy, you loved it. We brought out the dump trucks and played in the rocks and also brought out the chalk to draw. You still won't keep your gloves on, so we can't stay out there much longer than 30 minutes because I don't want your hands to freeze. We then headed down the hill to the play structure. You thought you were hot stuff walking down the driveway with me. Since then, I find you by the door wanting to go outside. That day made my mama's heart so happy.

One.Two Years

 1.2 Years

• I am added two photos this month because I didn't get a cute one of just you so I am added the Christmas Sunday photo of all of you. But you took a selfie of yourself, so I thought that I had to add that. You are very interested in my phone and often steal it from me the moment it gets within reaching distance. You are quick to slide it over to the photo part. There are burst of over 100 photos on my phone because of you. It is gross if you find it after eating a treat because then you leave it all sticky.
• You took your first steps!!!! After Thanksgiving, we busted out the chocolate chips and had you practice walking between me and dad. One day (Nov 29) you stood up in the middle of the room by yourself and took a few steps towards me without me prompting you. It was so exciting. I can't get you to walk whenever we want you too. It has to be on your terms. We keep telling ourselves that anyway you are just going to take off, but you still prefer crawling. At last, Dec 19, we were at the Jones's house for a piano recital. I put brown boots on, which I never have you wear shoes. During the recital, there were lots of plates with food on them on all the couches and chairs. You would walk between couches to eat all the food. Since then, you have been a walker. 
• Christmas has been fun and challenging with you. We purposely choose a spruce so you wouldn't grab it (success!) however, whenever you get a chance to be by presents, you ripe open as many as you can. We couldn't have any presents under the tree, so I kept them all in my room so I wouldn't lose them. Well, one gift for dad got open three different times. It has been really fun to share treats with you (you love egg nog) and watching you play with the little people nativity set. 
• Food has been harder this month. You either love a dinner and eat platesful (like spaghetti and broccoli) while other dinners you throw it all off your tray. Mowgli loves those days! Some things that you always love-oatmeal, bananas, applesauce, pb sandwiches, cooked peas. Those are my go-to. You have learned the word "all done" and it trying to say more. When you see food that you want to eat, you open your open like a little bird and squeal real loud. Then you are eating a food you love, you grunt "yum" the whole time you are eating it. 
• Some of your favorite things in life-mom holding you, your pacifier, wrestling with dad, making messes, sneaking into Maggie's room, baths, going to walks, and cuddling up with a bottle of milk.

One.One Year

 1.1 Year

• We celebrated Halloween this month. Maggie convinced me to get you a kangaroo costume with you being our little Joey. I was nervous that you were just going to rip the whole thing off in two minutes, but you ended up really liking it. It kept you warm while we went out that night to trick o treat. 
• You are standing so much this month. When Mille first told me that you stood up, I didn't believe her because she treats everything you do like it is a major milestone. Then later that night, you were holding onto my leg when you let go and straighten up. Since then, you have stand up so many times. You love sitting on the step down in the livingroom and going and down with sitting. 
• Dad and I have been working on getting you to walk, so we started the chocolate chip game with you. We will pass you back and forth (really it is holding onto our finger and then you falling into the other's lap). You get a chocolate chip for trying. You love the game. Your big siblings will get involved and try to play with you.
• You have been going back to waking up around 5/5:30 each morning to have a bottle of milk and then you will go back to sleep. It's not my favorite thing. I don't know what to do to get you back to sleeping through the night. Naps are hard, because days you want to go down for a nap around 10 but then you will have a hard time going for a second. I don't really know how to schedule my day, so good thing most things are canceled with COVID so we can have flexible days.
• You are still a big mess maker. You rarely play with toys. You do love exploring places and pulling things out of drawers. You keep getting into my side table and pulling out the Christmas cards. A few people will end up with crumpled photos.

One Year

 One Year

Oh my goodness! How has a year gone by so fast. I have a tradition that on birthdays, instead of making a list of your milestones and funny moments, I like to take a moment and write you a love letter. I really love you. I know I tease that Dad had to beg for the last two, but really, you are exactly what our family needed. 

You bring goofiness. Whenever I try to get you to say "mama", you will say "papa" and then laugh at me, every time. 

You bring strength. When you want something, you will crawl over three laps, belly flop over a pill, scale the side of the couch, climb up onto the table, just to get a book that you know you aren't suppose to have. I will take the book away from you and then the process starts all over to reach the other table for another book. 

You bring extra love. When you wake up in the mornings, you love to cuddle up, drink a bottle milk, and then snuggle for another 15 minutes, most of the time, falling right back asleep  for another hour or so. 

You bring messes. Oh the messes. I just ordered more baby locks because you love to get into the cabinets and create chaos. I found you had dumped the bucket of oxyclean all over you. You love to suck on my tampons (still in the wrapper, thank goodness), and rummage for leftovers in the trash can. I was playing a game with you the other day. I was putting all the shapes into the shape sorter toy. Once I did them all, you ripped off the lid, each them one at a time, and threw them one your shoulders. That was the game. We played about 20 rounds of it. You love making messes. 

You bring laughter. All the kids adore you and you adore them. I love finding out what makes people laugh. At the dinner table, you kept putting your feet on the table as you ate a dinner roll just because Sam was cracking up over it. When Dad is wrestling with the big kids, you crawl right on over because that is where the laughter is and you want to be a part of it. 

You bring so much into our family. I know what our family was like without you, but to tell you the truth, you add so much more to our family that I would never go back. My love for you is bursting from me that I want to literally squeeze you and eat your cheeks off. I have been bale to hold off for this long, so I think you are safe. I am sad to see you leave the baby stage and become more of a toddler. At the same time, I am so excited to see where you will go in life. 

Love Always,

Mom

Eleven Months

 11 Months

• This picture is a week late because on the day that you turned 11 months, you were so fussy, you refuse to let me sit you in the chair by yourself. It turns out that you were cutting your second top tooth. This happened last time. You get a runny nose when cutting a tooth, but your ears must be really narrow because it then turns into an ear infection. We were leaving in a few days for South Dakota, so we got you medicine right away, since last time it ended up with a ruptured ear drum. 
• You are wanting to stand and cruise! Once you realized that there is some benefit to being on your feet, you are hard to stop. You stand up a lot in your crib, which makes it harder to fall asleep sometimes for nap. You pull yourself up to the couch when I am folding clothes so you can pull off all my folded piles. You even will walk around the room a bit when we hold your hands. 
• Your crawling has officially moved from the belly army crawl to the hands and knees crawl. Yay for not as dirty of a shirt. And here's to holes in the knees. I think though you will catch on to walking pretty quickly.
• You still are really clingy to me, but overall, you are such a happy baby who really loves life and messes. You dart for an open closet to destroy and then turn around and smile at me for your great work. Favorite areas to mess up are the newspaper box in the small pantry, the church bag in the entry way closet, and the shoes in the laundry room. 
• I have been taking you to soccer each time and for the most part, there is someone (usually one of the Zechmann girls) who just scoops you up and plays with you for the evening. As long as you can't see me, you really enjoy yourself.
• You are miss chatty. Still no real words. I mean you say dada and mama, but you say it a lot even when we aren't around, so I think it is more noise than word. I love how you and Millie will play this game. You will say "baba" and then Millie will repeat you. Both of you will laugh and start over again.

Ten Months

 10 Months

• It has been a fun month for us, seeing you get bigger and more of a personality. 
• You love to dance. We like play Kidz Bop Music in the kitchen you start flapping your wings (your signature dance move). Havannah is a sure fire song to get you to flap and laugh.  
• You love getting others to laugh with you. When you know something is funny, you were repeat it over and over. While we were eating dinner, you thought it was so funny that Mowgli was eating the food you threw off and lick your hands. So then you just kept throwing your dinner off instead of eating it. When we tell you no, you think we are encouraging you (you have know idea was no means), so you laugh harder and keep doing it. 
• Another thing that I try to say no to but you interpret it as "okay Mommy, I will keep doing this" is playing with the dog food. Not only do you like to eat it, but you will throw it in the air like it is a firework. One night as I was trying to make dinner, You threw the dog food all over the laundry room. Right after I swept it all up, you snuck into the small pantry and exploded all the newspaper in the box. 
• Your tooth top popped through! You use to eat all the meat that you like. Your favorite foods are bread, meat, and fruit (strawberries and plums are going strong). The last one is causing a month long case of diarrhea. 
• I haven't been able to get you to sit still for much of a book yet, but so far we are up to two library books the you have ripped up. 
• You do like like to stand at all. Maggie is sweet and has been putting raisins along the fire place to get you to stand longer. I have found that you can pull yourself up in your crib. So, yes, you know how to pull yourself up and to stand, more most of the time, you simply won't.