Happy 1.5 Baby K

It seems just yesterday we were celebrating your first birthday and today you hit the 18-month mark. Tomorrow you will be closer to 2 than 1. This makes me want to cry...and jump for joy...and hold on a little tighter...all at the same time.

You have a HUGE repertoire of words, some of them are; milk, bird, Matt, Papa, Mama, dog, nack (snack), eat, juice, outside, tractor, choo choo, cat, car, shovel, noodles, apple, cheese, seed, poop, berry, necklace, hat, cookie, dance, hammer and 100 more I can't think of.

You know the sounds that a cow, chicken, dog, cat, bird, dinosaur and lion make.

You love being chased, eating, wrestling with your brother, playing trains, eating, watching birds, taking baths, being outside and wearing hats.  Did I mention you love to eat...and just about anything!  Some of your favorites are noodles, grapes, apples, blueberries, cheese, hot dogs, pizza, chicken, black beans, hummus, pretzels and oatmeal.

We I have been attempting to wean you from nursing over the past 6 months and you are getting close.  With the 6 ear infections, your love of mommy-milk and you being my last baby, our success rate has been very slow but we are getting there.  I promise, you will not be nursing when you are 48 months...which I think your Dad secretly fears..

You are overjoyed to see Papa when he arrives home from work and run to greet him..which totally makes his day!

You sit in timeout quite well but certainly get your feelings hurt easily.

You are starting to fight back and randomly hit your big brother for no reason at all, which is funny and kinda not.

You had your first true tantrum last week because I make you come inside before you were ready.  WOW...a temper...thanks to your Dad!!

You look up to Matthew, period.  The way you watch him warms my heart..and scares me.  It is not uncommon for me to hear Matthew telling you "jump Kimber" or "do X baby" and of course you do whatever he requests.....no matter how death defying.  I love that you guys are already so close.  You play together fairly well.  I get asked no less than twice an outing if you boys are twins, besides your dimples you and your brother look identical.

You and your brother have been sharing a bed for about 4 months and you both seem to like it.  We are in the process of moving you guys from a twin bed to a queen to give you both more room for wrestling sleeping.  You still hate sleeping and every single night is a struggle to get both of you to sleep but I have decided that your hatred of sleep MUST BE GENETIC, on your dad's side of course.

Once again, you have added a dynamic to our family that is so perfect.  You complete our team and we look forward to all of the little moments that await us. 

Happy 1st Birthday Grey-Bear

You are ONE year old today my little man.  You came along and filled a hole in our family we didn't even know existed. You made our perfect little family seem complete.  Your smile never ceases to illicit a smile from myself or complete strangers.  You are most certainly our eater. You are walking more and more each day and I am counting down the days that my toddling little baby morphs into a running little man.  You adore your brother and he loves making you laugh.  You have been trying to do a somersault for a while now but you can't get past the downward dog yoga position.  You hate to sleep...which seems so appropriate in your quest to be like the rest of the boys around here.  You can say "hat", "Mups", "Mama", "Da"(Papa), "Brud" (brother) and "Bye-Bye".  You are quite adept at signing "more"....as in more food.

A very proud mama and papa....

We had a low key celebration for your birthday and it was perfect.  After devouring your dinner and making a mess with your cupcakes, your brother taught you how to open your presents.  You made out like a bandit...as usual.  Your very own train set, which resulted in timeout for your brother (which is a whole other blog post), some new clothes, a guitar, your very own hammering toy and a bike seat and helmet.  You have already perfected the art of pointing at your helmet as a way of "telling" me you would like to go for a ride.

Such serious cake consumption....

 Whoa, this stuff is GOOD.

 See, you pull here.

 As always, the box won BEST GIFT award.

 On your first bike ride!

 

Your one year photo shoot:
(In your new overalls from The Nairns)

 

We love you little bear and that love grows exponentially with each passing hour.  Thank you for teaching us once again that is does not matter how nice our cars nor how big our house, it matters that we are filled with love for each other and that we recognize how greatly we are blessed.

11 months.....TIME. PLEASE. STOP. PLEASE....

Another month has passed me by and my baby is growing SO VERY FAST. I am trying so very hard to hold onto all of these sweet baby moments but they are slipping through my fingers like sand.

You are consistently taking 4 or 5 steps at a time and we know you are on the verge of walking. Your appetite has yet to diminish, in fact you recently discovered refried beans and LOVE them. You are finally starting to play outside without immediately eating dirt/mulch/rocks. You still take a sample periodically but it is not the first thing you do anymore. Your climbing is completely out of control. You happily climbed to the top of an 8 foot ladder over the weekend and were so very proud of yourself. Your new favorite place to sit is in the middle of the dining room table, no longer is the table a "baby-free zone" for your brother. As soon as he gets his trucks/trains/blocks set up here you come, pushing out a chair, climbing into the chair, climbing up onto the table where you commence the destruction of his project. I am always alerted to the fact that you are on the table because your brother starts screaming, "No Timber, no on table" repeatedly until I come swoop you off the table which tickles you to no end. You have started signing more while saying "mo" and you get the biggest grin on your face when you realize that WE ARE COMMUNICATING and can get you what you want. You also love to put on hats when you find them laying around, just a few days ago we were playing with a hat and I swear you said "hat". We have been working on the sleeping and trying to cut out the midnight feeding session. You slept your longest stretch over the weekend....9 hours....WOW, I was enthralled! So you've only done this once but progress is progress!

We are encroaching upon your first birthday and I am so proud of you. I love you and all your sweet snuggliness....as well as your wiggliness. I cannot wait to celebrate with you but can we please make this month go by a little slower....please?!?!

Rocking with big brother

Teaching your buddy EK all about boys

Dirty faced little man

Doing a little backyard exploration

Happy 10 Months Grey Bear!!!

Ten months, yep, you made it, we made it and what an exhilarating adventure. I am in full birthday planning mode. I want to make your special day so very special.

At ten months you are almost walking, you do the sumo stance a lot and just stand there and I know one of these days you will take a step and life as we know it will once again shift. You try to do EVERYTHING that your brother does, including climbing onto the couch, chair, fireplace hearth and into the bathtub. We get tickled watching you, as soon as you pull up on something, you immediately hike your right leg up in preparation to scale said obstacle. I am completely astonished by your appetite, you typically eat more than Matthew at most sittings.

I do believe you are the happiest baby on the planet, even though you are getting four top teeth as I write. You are NOT A SLEEPER. I hear stories from moms who talk about the kids sleeping 10 or 12 hours at night and I am convinced that you and your brother both acquired a gene from your father and you WILL NEVER EVER EVER sleep this long, until I need you to mow the lawn or something in 12 years. I am lucky to get a 5-hour stretch from you followed by a 3-hour one. You are getting better at naps but an hour nap is average.

Your brother has finally started calling you Timber, instead of baby. You boys have also started playing steamroller and wrestling and you think it is the most fun ever. You seem to adore him and think everything he does is just awesome. I am pretty sure you have NO CLUE that he is older and theoretically wiser.

Once again, we love you and feel blessed beyond measure to have your little non-sleeping big appetite self in our world!

Happy 9 Months!!

Today my little man, you turned 9 months old. You are in the 50th percentile for weight and height so it seems the growing has leveled off. It is difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that it took 9 months to grow you....and that time seemed to drag....and the 9 months that you have been in my arms and holding onto my legs have sped by with such...well...speed. You are such a happy camper and people are constantly complimenting you on your HUGE smile and of course your glowing red hair. You make our life brighter every SINGLE day and we feel incredibly blessed to have you.

You LIKE bath time, especially when your brother swims circles around you.

You DISLIKE getting out of the bath before you are good and ready, which is typically AT LEAST 30 minutes after you got in.

You LIKE eating my car keys. We sit through the entire storytime at the library with you happily munching away on my keys.

You DISLIKE me taking said keys away so we can drive.

You LIKE peaches, blueberries, black beans, strawberries, rice, noodles and just about anything that you can feed yourself.

You DISLIKE me feeding you from a spoon. You already want to do it yourself. I literally have to hold down your hands to spoon feed you these days.

You LIKE your brother. It makes me completely giddy to watch you admire him, crack up at him, chase him and yes, antagonize him.

You DISLIKE not being allowed to play Kimber-Zilla with brothers train tracks.

You LIKE Mama.

You DISLIKE Mama getting out of your line of sight.

You LIKE driving the grocery cart...and wiggling out of the straps.

You DISLIKE sitting still.

You LIKE getting up around 5:30 AM.

You DISLIKE being encouraged to sleep any later, especially since brother is already up.

You LIKE drinking from a sippy cup.

You DISLIKE brother taking a nap when you are not.

You LIKE pulling things off the shelves in the fridge.

You DISLIKE being told "NO BABY" a thousand times a day when you are simply trying to play with your brother.

You LIKE smiling and flirting, whether it is with me or total strangers.

You DISLIKE me going outside to take out trash or recyclables, you stand at the door and grunt until I return.

You LIKE going swimming. We do it at least once a week and you love it.

You DISLIKE Mama having to take care of household chores....instead of playing with you.

You LIKE crawling, standing and cruising. You stand for minutes at a time in the sumo stance not holding onto anything and then lightly sit down and crawl away.

You LIKE wrestle-time with Papa.

You DISLIKE not being allowed to play in Muppet's water or eat her food.

You LIKE chewing on E V E R Y T H I N G!

You DISLIKE bananas, it is in fact the only thing I have found you won't eat.

And a few pictures from this month.....

That ever-present huge smile.

Trying to open the blueberries.

Blueberry consumption.

Waiting for mama at the back door.

Happy Eight Month Birthday Baby Bear

8 months, 34 weeks, 238 days.....no matter how you look at it, it has gone FAST.

Since you are my last baby I am trying very hard to savor all of these little things. Right now you are all about crawling up to me and climbing up my leg and holding on, blowing wet sloppy bubbles on my legs and bouncing with glee. You are still nursing but it is a battle to do it anywhere but a dark room as you want to see what is going on in this big world. I cringe at the thought of my grocery bill in a few years because your little eight month old self can put away a massive amount of rice cakes, watermelon, crackers, peaches, noodles, sweet potatoes and french toast.

You are into and onto EVERYTHING in sight. You sweet baby crawl has turned into a full on race to keep up with brother, Muppet or whoever is heading out the door. You love being outside, which is not a shock but you have started making us aware of your displeasure when we bring you in before you are ready. You did get the red head temper.....no doubt about it! One of your favorite activities is playing in water, be it the bath, the pool or Muppet's water bowl.

You have wormed your way into our hearts and again, we will never be the people we were before we met you Grey-Bear!!

Happy Seven Month Birthday Baby Boy

You are seven months old today....where oh where has the time gone.

Not sure how this is even possible but you get cuter with each passing day. You have the most adorable dimples, the biggest smile, the cutest little teeth (that are not so cute when you are eating), and SUCH DETERMINATION.

You started crawling several weeks ago and boy can you move. There is nowhere you won't go including on top of brother's train track, much to his chagrin! I have had to step up my floor maintenance routine since you are constantly moving and putting every little thing in your mouth (dryer sheets, googly eyes, paper, shoes as well as any food that Muppet misses during meal time, which is typically only vegetables). You have started knowing us more it seems, it is fun to hear you squeal when I walk back into the room or have you crawl over to me and bat at my leg. You are also pulling up on things which is SCARY to me since you don't understand how easily you fall. You will eat just about anything but are loving Cheerios and cheddar rice cakes at the current moment. You experienced your first Easter this month, as well as your first mouthful of sand. You complete our little family and it is fun to watch you loving what we all love, mainly the outdoors. Every afternoon we go outside to play and you are content to sit or crawl in the grass, chew on mulch, watch brothers antics, etc. You LOVE to swing, much more than Matthew ever did. You make us laugh by doing yoga, I think your knees get tired from all the crawling, periodically I look over and see you in Downward Facing Dog position with the cutest little baby booty high in the air.

I love you more with each passing day and look forward to learning from you as we continue our journey together!

This is my favorite this month!!

Your favorite playmate....

Happy Half Birthday My Little Monkey

I admit it is hard for me to believe we met you 6 months ago. You are growing so very quickly (please slow down). Every single day my baby is slipping away. I confess that it is so fun to watch you grow, change and learn with every passing hour. You are almost crawling and quite good at doing to army crawl to get where you want to go. We are finally seeing spring and you love being outside and watching brother play. It seems within seconds of me putting you down in the center of the blanket you are at the edge trying to taste pine needles, grass and mulch. You will eat anything I give you but seem to really love baked sweet potatoes, frozen peaches and nectarines, rice cakes and bananas. You are doing pretty well at sleeping in your crib, at least for the first part of the night. If you had your way Mama would hold you all night long but you are transitioning well. I love you more with each passing day...keep up the good work little buddy!

You are Mr. Bear hanging out.

You REALLY get into eating....especially frozen peaches!!

Your most favorite chew toy.

Getting a driving lesson from brother.

Exploring the green stuff.

Hanging out with brother on the blanket.

And this one won the prize for my favorite picture this month.