Lachlan - ONE YEAR!

Wow- how can it feel like this year just flew by, but it also seems like soooooo long ago that we were bringing him home from the hospital at this time last year?!  Just crazy, but absolutely the BEST year of my life :)  I will do a separate post for his birthday party, so I didn't include any details or pics here.

 



I also took his pic sitting up in his new chair and think I'm going to continue the monthly pictures with using this chair...he just looks so big here!  And I think he looks really similar to me at this age.

He celebrated his first thanksgiving....and it was awful.  We were visiting one of dustin's high school friends that was in town the night before thanksgiving.  Lachs was very whiny and not himself....after about an hour we figured out why when he projectile vomitted everywhere!  It was so embarrassing and I felt so awful for him.  He threw up a lot in the carseat on the ride home.  We put him in the bath once home and he was happy as could be like nothing happened.  I called the doctor's line and she said I could give him some pedialyte or just small amounts of formula and diarrhea would probably follow.  We couldn't believe it and he slept through the night, so we thought maybe it was just something he ate.  So we went to thanksgiving festivities...then about 6:00 at Dustin's relatives he threw up again.  Then the diarrhea started the following day.  Then I ended up sick over the weekend and Dustin was out of town.  So it was just a huge mess....hopefully next year goes better!

He got his first haircut- See previous post!

He has 7 teeth- 3 on the bottom and 4 on the top. He is wearing primarily all 18 month clothing.

Fine/Gross Motor Skills

• Loves lifting flaps in books
• Loves pointing at things
• Still just cruising...does not stand on his own or want to use walker
• Loves hiding behind the curtains for us to find him or play peekaboo
• Has waved bye-bye a few times to me

 Verbal/Communication Skills

He has definitely figured out that the both arms in the air will get him held and uses that A LOT!  He is repeating words after us-- some are easier to understand than others, but you can definitely tell he is trying.  His most clear word is Duck.  He has started babbling mamamama a lot more.

We know he is understanding some of what we say, but is hard to tell how much.  Usually just as we think he understands, then he throws us for a loop and will get it wrong.  We quiz him a lot on where is mama and where is dad and we think he knows.  I think he knows a teddy bear ornament on the tree when I ask him where is teddy.  When I say where is lachlan, he will usually start to play peek a boo (if he feels like it).

He is really into pointing to things lately and uses his little pointer finger.  It cracked me up the first time I noticed it cause we were reading a book together and I always point to things on the page and he started to mimic me...it was as if he was mocking me!  He LOVES pointing to the ornaments and lights on the tree.  He will point to pieces of food on his tray and I'll tell him what it is.

I have been wondering if he recognizes himself in the mirror or just thinks it is a friend.  He always smiles at himself in the mirror and will usually try to kiss the mirror.  I read on the internet that a good test is to gently put an object like on his head and then see if when he sees it if he'll reach up to his own head or reach to the mirror....well he knew to reach for his own head.  So I think he understands the concept.

Eating
We are basically done with formula....woohoo!  We had started transitioning in milk in the sippy cup, but still doing formula in the bottles.  The kid loved his milk and didn't bat an eye.  Then we got to end of the formula supply, so I put milk in his bottle but just room it up a little so it isn't super cold.  Again, didn't bat an eye!  He is trying all sorts of new foods and very interested with what is on our plate.  He seems to like flavorful things rather than the more bland things.  I bought meatballs that were chicken, pineapple, ginger, and garlic...I can't get them on his tray fast enough for him to eat!  Last night he loved some goat cheese I had baked with pasta sauce.

Sleep
His night sleep is good- pretty much sleeps 10.5-11 hours each night.  Naps are still a struggle at daycare.

Favorite Things
All the same as 11 months...but is even more clingy.  I call him my shadow cause even 6 inches away from me is just too far!  He likes sitting by himself in any of our chairs that rock or spin...I rock and twirl him around and he just giggles.  Loves snuggling with his gray afghan in bed...I'll watch him on the monitor and he will reach for it and pull it in close to him.  It is really the only thing that he seems to have taken to.  Still loves hair-- last week he was taking his night bottle and had one hand combing through my hair and his other hand reached up feeling his own hair....ahhhhh, heaven.

Typical Day at 12 months:

• 7:00- He has started waking up a little later, boo-yah!  I give him 4 oz of milk warmed a little in a bottle.  He has not seemed overly interested, so I think we will start to phase this out.
• 8:30- Breakfast (Prune Juice plus food: 1/2 waffle, pancake, french toast stick, oatmeal, etc)
• 9:00- Nap
• 11:30- Lunch and  4 oz milk in sippy cup (Normally eats mostly the school food, but depends what they have)
• 1-1:30- Try to do afternoon nap
• 3:00- Snack and milk in sippy
• 6:00- Dinner and 4 oz milk in sippy cup (Has been LOVING meatloaf, meatballs, and my roasted root veggies)
• 7:00- Bath every other night (We have tried to move this up a tad earlier due to him sleeping so late)
• 7:30- 4 oz. bottle of milk (cut this down since is so close to dinner and he was leaking out his diaper so much at night)

Random Pics
I just plain suck at taking good pics indoors.  Luckily the weather warmed up quite a bit, so I got some outdoor pics in.  We went to a park and he just LOVED the leaves.  I have about 50 pictures of him playing in the leaves!

This one I took the time to edit and just love it...he refused to look up at the camera cause he was just so amazed by the leaves!

Lachlan's first haircut

The weekend before his first birthday party, we decided to take Lachlan to get his hair trimmed up.  It had been driving Dustin bonkers for at least the last month that he needed a haircut.  It really was just the sides that I wanted cut so it wouldn't be going over his ears and then the back trimmed a little so no one confused him with having a mullet.

I took him to Elle Salon & Spa here in Eureka which is where I go.  I thought about taking him to a special kids place, but there wasn't one close by and just seemed like a lot of effort...and I've known some people that have been disappointed with using them. 

I thought he was going to have difficulty sitting still, so I had a bottle and books prepared to distract him.  I couldn't believe my eyes and was like we had someone else's well-behaved kid.  He sat still 90% of the time and only cried briefly towards the end. 

I wish I had good before and after pics, but with a squirmy kid and my crappy photography skills, I didn't get that.  Here are a few pics to capture the event:



Just relaxing on my booster seat

Ummmm...why is this cape around me?

This lady has my dream job...she gets to feel hair all day

So far, so good

OMG, this is awful...get me outta here!

Calmed down after he realized how good he was looking

Lachlan - 11 months

Wow- exciting, but kind of sad that this will be the last "monthly" post and he will be 1 YEAR OLD next time! Argh!  My BIG BOY...

As usual, this post is late, but this time we were on vacation in Iceland (post coming later about that) during his 11th month birthday.  We were away from him for an entire week while he spent time with some of the grandparents.  I knew it would be good for him to have a change of routine and be around different people and it really showed cause he learned so much in that week we were away! 

He attended church for the first time this last month and I thought there was zero chance of him being well-behaved and he was an.....ANGEL!  He has a little girlfriend at daycare named Mya- the teachers really have a good time with it joking around calling them husband and wife.

He had his first Halloween, which you can see in the previous post.  We also did a corn maze that was about a mile from our house.  The maze was ENORMOUS and we definitely got so lost in there that after an hour we had to cheat and cut through corn stalk walls just to get out of the thing!  It was fun cause they had Cornundrums (aka pictures that were a play on words) located throughout the maze to find.  So you'll see us here at this one....do you get it??

He has 5 teeth as of 11 months- 2 on the bottom and 3 on the top.  He is wearing primarily all 18 month clothing.

Fine/Gross Motor Skills
Here are some of the new things he does:

• Will put his hands in front of his eyes and play peekaboo.  It's really cute cause he always does it with his palms facing out (so kinda backwards)
• He will put his arms up when you ask how big is Lachlan.
• He will move his hands/arms for "swish swish swish" when singing wheels on the bus
• He still claps a lot (mostly randomly)
• He is very interested in turning pages of the books.  Most of the time he is turning them backwards, so not sure if he is wanting me to reread those pages or he was trying to go the other way.

He started cruising 10.5 months!  He first did this while holding on to our sectional sofa to chase after a piece of paper that I kept moving around.  He is pretty tentative and will just do a few steps- he had already taken a few steps by the time I got my phone camera rolling.

Verbal/Communication Skills
I think he had his first instance of being so tired that he was just slaphappy.  He was in the bathtub and wanting to chew on the side of the tub and I told him that was "Icky icky icky."  He died laughing so hard that he fell over backwards and just could not stop.  Another time he thought was hilarious was when I sneezed.  Definitely finds certain things really funny.

He babbles a lot.  When he starts to get really upset he sounds like he has a stutter.  He'll just go something like "di-di-di-di-di"

I'm learning a few ways that he is communicating with us. I believe when he wants more food cause his high chair tray is empty he bangs on it to get my attention and more food. When a book ends he will stiffen up with his legs shooting straight out and slightly off the ground and he'll put his arms out- I think this means he wants the book again. He will put both arms in the air when he wants to be picked up.

Eating
Shortly before turning 11 months, we started transitioning more of his bottles to sippy cups and he seemed to do great with that.  Our new plan was 6oz bottles first thing in the morning and before bed.  He would get 6oz in sippy at lunch and dinner...or do 4oz at meals and 4oz with afternoon snack.  We also keep trying to introduce more foods to him of what we are eating, but this is easier said than done since most of our dinners lately are not too healthy, so I have to make him something separate.  He really enjoys feeding himself, so its hard to do a meal that is all purees.  We also give him his own spoon (empty) to "use" during meals.

Sleep
His sleep is good- pretty much sleeps 10 hours or a little more each night.  His naps are awesome at home-- usually 1.5-2.5 hours in morning and 1.5-2 hours in afternoon.  At daycare, he naps HORRIBLE.  There are too many days where we get there and he only has ONE nap or has been up since noon.  Then he falls asleep in the car and is super cranky the rest of the evening.

Favorite Things
Favorite things to do are reading books, pulling the books off the shelves, following mom around, crawling around to play "chase", crawling around corners to play peekaboo, crawling across the sectional, Fisher Price Laugh n Learn kitchen, finding CORDS to try and chew on, also loves remotes, phones, laptops, etc.  And lastly, is borderline OBSESSED over feeling hair.  When I give him bottles, he will not go more than 30 seconds without feeling either his own hair or mine.

Typical Day at 11 months:

• 6:30- Wake up and 6oz bottle in bed with us or will take at daycare if he is up later or we're short on time
• 8:30- Breakfast (Prune Juice plus food: 1/2 waffle, pancake, french toast stick, oatmeal, etc)
• 9:00- Nap
• 11:30- Lunch and 6oz sippy cup (Normally eats mostly the school food, but depends what they have)
• 1-1:30- Try to do afternoon nap
• 3:00- Snack and formula/juice/water
• 6:00- Dinner and 6oz sippy cup (Normally he is not super hungry here.  I will give him something like a turkey meatball and a fruit or veggie.)
• 7:15- Bath every other night
• 7:30- 6oz. bottle (lately do more and more of these out on the sectional vs. his room)

Since I already posted for our pumpkin carving and Halloween, I don't really have many other good pictures from this month to share! 

Rockin the tuxedo onesie I found at Wal-Mart
 

Happy boy for his school pictures!

Loves loves loves books

Loves looking out windows

Loves to play with our paper blinds




Lachlan's First Halloween

Lachlan's first Halloween was rather uneventful, but I'll take that as a positive sign!  I originally bought 3 costumes to decide between: Sock Monkey, Garden Gnome, or a Pumpkin.  And then I switched and got him a Care Bear costume...and even found Grumpy Bear, which is fitting since he can be quite the grumps sometimes!  I found this on eBay, so it was great that it didn't cost a lot...however, the hood really sucked at staying up on his head so you could see the face well.  I thought about trying to fix it, but then decided it was not worth my time and hassle- it is what it is.  We mainly just stayed at home to pass out candy, but took him to 2 houses.  He was in a good mood and didn't mind the silly costume at all.  He enjoyed checking out all the activity at our door and trying to figure out what was going on.  It was funny when a group of like junior high girls came and oohed and aahed over the care bear.  Some little 3 year old came and told Dustin it looked like the grass really needed cut!  Here's a few pics:

Fun with Pumpkins

Oh man, so I guess we are the mean parents forcing our child into stupid stunts, but we had such a fun time....until it came time for the real deal and pictures!

As I had shown some pics earlier, we went to a pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago and got some pumpkins.  I purposefully got a really huge pumpkin because I wanted to put Lachlan inside of it and take pictures.  So last weekend we set out to carve it and try this!

Lachlan is having a great time checking out the pumpkin and watching daddy carve (which by the way was his FIRST time ever carving a pumpkin).

Once we had the top cut out, we decided to see if he would fit just squatting or sitting inside of it, so we go out to the backyard...

and this boy is as happy as can be, but doesn't come close to fitting in this pumpkin!

So, back inside for more carving to make him some leg holes so he can sit in the pumpkin.  And then we come back out to this...

It wasn't all crying, there were a few seconds where he gnawed at the pumpkin

And this is it- my only decent picture not in complete tears
 

So I guess it wasn't a complete fail cause I can't help but laugh looking at these pictures and they are still cute....just not what I had imagined!

More Baby Loves...and some Duds

What are our latest baby items we are loving and not loving so much?!

Lovin

Playtex bottles-- these have been the main bottles we've used from the start and I LOVE them.  The downside is that they are pricey because you have to buy disposable liners, but the upside is that you just throw it away and the only thing you have to wash/clean is the nipple!  It has been such a timesaver and is really nice for days on the go.  Recently both of our grocery stores (Schnucks and Shop n Save) are discontinuing their store generic brand, so they are only $5 for 100 liners.  I may or may not have stocked up on 10 boxes ;)  We only have about 6 weeks or so of bottles left, but figure we'll be set for our next kid (who better take bottles)!

Pampers Cruisers- The Pampers Swaddlers had worked SO well for our disposable diaper choice, so I was nervous about finding another line that I really liked once he outgrew the Swaddlers.  The Cruisers have worked great-- we just had some night leaks a few weeks ago, but I went up a size for overnight and no leaks!

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Chair and Kitchen- Unfortunately they have quit making this chair (it was recalled cause kids could get wedged between the table and chair), but if you can score this at any consignment shop or Craigslist, it is AWESOME.  This is hands down his favorite toy.  Since he likes it so much, I bought the Kitchen which is from the same line of toys.  It is really cute and he does like it and spends a lot of time with it.  It will be perfect for him to use for quite a bit into the future too!


Neptune's Ocean Baby Einstein video- We have a baby who NEVER really sits still or likes to be held or rocked.  He is OBSESSED over this video.  He knows when it is coming on the tv as soon as he sees the FBI warning and is just smiling ear to ear.  He will watch the entire 30 minutes.  This is a lifesaver some days!  Here is a link to it on Amazon: Click Here

Baby afghans/blankets-- We received a handful of these that such generous people made as baby gifts.  Each and every one has came in handy for us- it is nice to have one at daycare, one in the crib at home, and another for the car/stroller, one in the diaper bag, etc.  He loves poking his little fingers through the holes too!

Pedialax- This stuff has been a lifesaver and is difficult to find.  Our baby frequently gets constipated despite our best efforts to give him prunes and a mixed diet.  We feel so bad when we can see he is in pain and trying to poo.  We don't use these oftens, but in emergencies you squeeze the liquid up "there" and it makes him poo within 5 minutes.  He will then continue to fill about 5 diapers after that.  We have tried other things, but nothing works like this exact one.  Here is link to buy on amazon: Click Here

Alphabet foam mat- Since all of our main areas are carpeted I really didn't think we had a need for one of these.  However, I bought one for while we were on vacation and now am so glad we have it.  We put a little area of this in the kitchen so he can sit and play while I'm cooking dinner.  Besides using it to sit on, he has LOVED pulling the letters out of the square, pulling the border pieces off, he chews on the pieces, etc.  I liked this one that the colors somewhat blend in with our house decor too.  We purchased this on Amazon: Click here


Jeep Stroller- We've been using for several months and I LOVE this.  It is a slight pain to bring in the car cause is so heavy, but I only have to deal with that from time to time when we go to a park.  It was very affordable and has held up awesome so far.


Not Lovin- I hate being a Negative Nancy, but these were products I was excited for, but they were just a let-down.

• Dr. Brown's bottles- There is so much hype over these bottles and reducing gas in babies, so I felt I had to try them.  I really didn't notice any sort of reduction in gas and they were a complete pain to clean.  There are several parts and just prime for letting funk build up in the nooks and crannies.  I can also see where my actual bottle is becoming yellow and stained looking, which makes me think it is not completely clean too.
• Nail File- See HERE for details.  I was so pumped to use this so I wouldn't have to actually clip his nails and risk getting his skin instead.  It just plain old does not work!  I have tried several settings and I just don't feel like his nails get trimmed at all.  I haven't tried for several months, so guess I can try again and see if it works any better with him a little older, but I'm doubtful.  I think I am most bummed about this product cause is such a good idea, but just needs to work!
• Carseat mirror- See HERE for details on this one.  I just picked this up at Wal-mart and didn't research mirrors at all and figured this would work.  I hate it cause it only works like 5% of the time.  Depending on where the sun is at, I get a bad glare or is not bright enough so I can't see.  The other issue is that we have the carseat in the middle seat of our minivan and have tried to attach this to the headrest, but it doesn't stay....it just falls down and I get a nice view of his feet only.

Lachlan Photo Compare

So I couldn't get over just how old he looked in his 10 month pictures, so I wanted to go back and look at his monthly pics side by side.  I guess it's just those bucky beaver teeth that make him look so much older and less baby.  Is it just me or doesn't Month 10 just look like a different baby?!

The first pics are from 2 weeks old and 3 weeks old.  I still wonder why that awesome spikey hair couldn't have lasted...he rocked that look!