3 Buddies

12 Months Old

This little guy turned one year old. Wow, that was a fast, fun year. His little personality is really coming out. But it was a rough birthday. He got cut off of the day-time nursing, which was of course hard for him to understand why mom was around and trying to give him (whole!!) milk in a sippy cup?!?! Then at his one year checkup he was diagnosed with strep and an ear infection and pinned down while they tried to get blood through an IV - HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! Luckily, his spirits were still pretty good and we were able to celebrate with some friends and YaYa who came into town for the big day.

A little bit about Del at 1-year old:
- Copycat - he sees you do peek-a-boo, he does it. You say 'Peew' and hold your nose and he tries. Usually ends in a lot of laughs.
- Loves giving kisses. Which means putting his lips on your cheek and spitting. Lovely.
- A Walking Pro...On any surface. In fact he's pretty much running now.
- Tough Guy. He has to be. Because a young walker comes with plenty of bloody lips and bumped heads. And he seems to be resistant to pain...I mean, we had no idea he had strep or an ear infection. - the boy was perfectly happy.
- Play any music and this guy will start bouncing the booty up and down as he's a big fan of dancing.
- Says 'Dadada' 'Mamamama' 'Dog' 'Ball' and tries to say a lot of other things. They just all come out sounding very similar.
- Still loves ball, so we gave him a ball pit for his birthday. Think it blew his mind, but he was just too sick to really show it...both him and Audrey have fun making a big mess with them now.
- Loves his dog, his dad and his sister. But his favorite place to be is still in mom's arm.
- REALLY likes a bottle and lives for nursing morning and night. Much harder than his sister to move onto strictly cups.
- No napping for this one, so about 7pm he just MELTS. And it's all we can do to get a diaper changed and PJs on before he's sucking his bottom lip to eat and go down. No nighttime story for this guy. He goes down so easy (unlike his sister still...) and sleeps mostly through the night. Lately, sicknesses have regressed the whole night sleep a bit.
- LOVES being outside. He is perfectly happy just walking in circles around the deck or the car. Or being pushed in his new little trike.
- Not a huge fan of eating most of the time, but he does have a sweet tooth, which we found out when he had a tight grip on the birthday brownie.
- Smiling all the time and makes us laugh all the time! We love you buddy.

The Take Down

Wrestling is something, luckily, both of these kids enjoy. Audrey loves taking Del down and he loves being taken down. I'm guessing it won't be long before the roles are reversed...

Random Winter Fun

Some random photos over the last few months. Keeping up with these two is a fun challenge.

Mountain YMCA Adventure

We had a great time in January spending some time up in the mountains with the Smiths. YMCA outside of Winter Park was full of activity. Swimming, ice skating, sledding, and Yatzee.
I know it's late...but better late than never.

11 Months Old

This 11 month boy is on the move...fast! He's now got walking down to the point where it's faster than crawling and his first choice for getting around. Unfortunately a walking baby is full of accidents - walking straight into tables that are head level, falling while holding a toy - pinching a finger, falling face first into things - resulting in bloody lips or bit tongues. But all this doesn't prevent him from being a happy boy. Especially when he has a ball in his hand, or 2, or 3. The boy loves his balls. He also loves trust falling into you, climbing up on anything, playing in sister's princess tent...and Sark's water dish. His favorite past time was racing to it to splash his hands, now he races to it to lap it up...face fully in the water if we don't catch him in time.

Like his sister at this age, he loves doing anything he knows will get a chase and a pick up. Like heading into the bathroom and heading to the dog dish.
He loves pointing at Sark's picture on the wall saying 'daaa'. We try to tell him the real thing is right there on the floor, but the picture is preferred most of the time because it means he's in our arms. He does love the dog in general, especially giving him the food he's supposed to be eating.
He loves blowing kisses, his newest trick.  And loves playing with his sister.
Hugging and snuggling his stuffed animals or laying on top of them and 'riding them' is another favorite. His teachers even said he tries to lay on top of babies in his class to ride them.
He's a lover - loves getting kisses by leaning his head in to snuggle with us or his stuffed animals.
8 teeth result in a gappy smile. His wide-mouthed, completely happy smiling expression makes us laugh every time we see it.

Sleep is still a struggle and eating enough real food is coming slowly, but what a fun age!

A Christmas Season