One Year

Coming home from the hospital

At about 6 weeks

3 months

5 months

7 months

9 months

11 months

13 months

Intro: Since Bubs birthday was only 4 days b/f we moved, I didn't do a "one year" post for him...just the few b'day pics along w/ other May pics. So here's my 6 week overdue "one year" post for Bubs. Sorry there are so many pics, but come on, it's too hard to narrow it down!

Bubs started walking just a few days b/f he turned one, and that kid has not looked back. Transitioning to milk and the cup was no big deal. He does quite well w/out a morning nap when needed, but still takes one when we're home. I can't wait til he drops that morning nap for good. It'll be nice to have the morning to run errands again. Most books/doctors say that eating sometimes slows down after they turn one, but it's been the opposite for Bubs! He barely ate anything until a couple of months ago, and now sometimes he eats more than the Bean! His favorite foods are yogurt, eggs, bananas, watermelon, and any kind of cracker. He's a big guy, and he is wearing 18-24 mo mostly. He is as stubborn as can be, and has to be disciplined multiple times b/f he obeys, if at all. If you are standing right there w/ the spank spoon, he'll obey. If you are standing right there w/ no spank spoon, he might try it or he might not. But if you're not around, he'll try to get away w/ everything and anything! The Bean was always very obediant at this age, so maybe this is a boy thing? He has super curly hair, and is starting to develop a little bit of a 'fro, so I'm wondering if I should get his hair cut. He started to go through some separation anxiety about the time he turned one, and it's in full swing now! Anytime Mama leaves the room, he's in full-on wail mode. He's not really saying much yet, but sometimes he says Dada, although I don't know if he knows that RR's name. And he says "yeah" sometimes when I ask him questions like "Do you want a snack?" or "Do you want to go outside?", but he's not consistent about saying it, so I don't know. His favorite thing to do by far is take a bath. That kid loves him some bathtime. My favorite thing (and RR's) about Bubs is that he likes to give kisses. He will grab my face and kiss my nose so sweetly. Never the mouth or cheek...just the nose.

He is the sweetest, and he has captured all our hearts. We love you Bubs!!

(Here's a link to a pic my friend Jess took of him. Doesn't she do a great job? You can look through the rest of the pics on her site.)

Warning: Baby Bottom Cuteness

I couldn't resist posting these bathtime pics. In our new master bathroom, we have one of those big whirlpool tubs, and Bubs and the Bean LOVE taking a bath in there. They don't even need toys...just the tub is super fun for them! We went a little crazy w/ the soap this particular evening. Hence the bubble bath look. For those of you who are quite observant, you might notice and leg and hand that don't look like they belong to the Bean or Bubs. That is b/c RR was in the bath too (in his swimtrunks). He was getting soaked anyway, so why not join in the fun?

The Bean's destruction

Here's more evidence of the Bean's naptime destruction. She about lost it when we were about to throw this pillow away, so instead we just cut off all the dangling trim so she couldn't (hopefully) destroy it anymore. On the bright side, these incidents have been good opportunities to explain to her about being good stewards of the things God has given to us. :)

Humidity = Curly Hair

Here are some of Bubs curls after naptime in the sauna. Btw, our air is fixed now! Praise Jesus!

Naptime today

Here's how I found the Bean sleeping today when I went to check on her before I went to get Bubs up from his nap. This was after I had to "enforce" the naptime stay-in-your-bed rule (she had gotten down just about every single item from her bookshelves...books, pictures, toys, stuffed animals, etc.). Looks like she can fall asleep if she stays in her bed! Also, I believe I mentioned yesterday that our air is out upstairs. So the kids have only been wearing their diaper/pull-up to bed to stay as cool as possible. Well, Bubs must be feeling the heat, b/c he had ripped his diaper off (and peed all over his sheet) this morning when I went in to get him out of bed. I wish I could've taken and posted a pic of him in all his birthday suit glory, but you get the idea. :)

"Naptime" activities

The Bean is in a big girl bed now, if I haven't mentioned it here. She slept on her crib mattress on the floor her first few days in the new house, and she did so well that we decided to run w/ it and get her a big girl bed. She really has done a great job staying in her room, and she's done a great job going straight to bed at night. Naptime is a different story. She's sort of at the point where she doesn't need a nap every day now, so instead of taking a nap, sometimes she'll just read or play w/ toys in her bed. This worked quite well when she wouldn't nap in her crib. Just give her a few toys and books and she'd happily read and sing to herself for a couple of hours. Now if she's not tired, instead of trying to take a nap, she'll just get out of her bed, go get some books or toys and start playing. I haven't really wanted to enforce this, since she does play quietly in her bed and doesn't cause any trouble. I sort of consider it "room time" if she's not napping. Well, things have taken a turn for the worse lately. She's been "playing" with her lamp (even unscrewing the lightbulb by herself!), ripping pages out of books, tearing the ball fringe off of one of her pillows, turning off her monitor, and "washing" her hands (think green foamy soap all over the bathroom floor). Here's some evidence of her destruction. And we now have some new, enforced rules about what we can and can't do during "naptime."

Summer "Fun"

Before - cute and happy

After - not so happy

At least the Bean had fun!

Our car went out of commision yesterday, so we couldn't go to our fun playgroup as planned. I had already told the Bean about said playgroup, that there would be baby pools and a sandbox and her friends. On a different note, our air conditioning is out upstairs where we sleep, so Bubs wouldn't nap this morning. To make things fun and pass the time and give Bean her promised summer fun, I decided to put the kids in their swimsuits and fill up the ole baby pool in our yard. We haven't done that yet this summer, and Lord knows it's been hot enough the past few days. I knew the Bean would love it, and I figured Bubs would too since he's a maniac in the bathtub. I mean, the kid is bound and determined to drown himself b/c he dunks his head underwater so much. So I thought it would be an easy transition to the baby pool (side note: he didn't get in the pool last summer b/c he was a newborn, just FYI)...just a little colder bath, right? Well, I was wrong! As soon as Bubs toes touched that cold water, he started crying. I tried for 10 minutes to get him to play in the baby pool, and he would not have it! I gave him toys, I held him, the Bean showed him how much fun she was having, we splashed him a little (which he loves in the tub)...everything I could think of. He even started crying when I'd put him down on the grass standing NEAR the baby pool. I thought his misery was a little cute, so I decided to capture it on film. :) I already had the camera with me expecting to capture lots of summer cuteness...it just turned out to be cuteness of a different kind! Hopefully he'll warm up to the pool later this summer, or vacation won't be very much fun!

A few recent pics

Showing off her moves

Note the plumber's action going on...

The Bean orchestrated this event, but it was still cute...


"Hiding"

Hanging out under the desk area in our kitchen

Sorry I don't have many more interesting pics, but we've been quite busy lately getting settled. We've had handymen here almost everyday for the first 2 1/2 weeks doing a few little updates, so it's been hard to get stuff done during the day. Plus RR has been super busy at work. But we are making progress and enjoying our new home. A couple of highlights that we've already been able to enjoy are the neighborhood playground and our screened-in porch. I especially like the screened-in porch. I can be in the kitchen and watch the kids playing out there. And they can go "outside" even when it's raining!! That's especially nice for them, since we had no outdoor play space at our old house. On a side note, does anybody know where you can get affordable but attractive fireplace screens??? The big box we've had in front of our fireplace is effective in keeping Bubs from eating the fireplace rocks, but it's not the most attractive. :) The dance pics above are the Bean learning some new moves while watching So You Think You Can Dance. She likes to shake her tailfeather when she watch that show. :) She's getting quite good. Hopefully I'll have some more interesting pics soon.

It's been a long month!

He went at his cake very methodically and ate the whole piece. Even though he'd never had cake b/f, he acted like it was any other food...like it was no big deal!

Me and the birthday boy.

The Bean in her sailboat outift waiting on guests to arrive.

Bub's cake...we had a sailboat theme. My good friend Shanna made it...everyone talked about how yummy it was!

Bubs is walking!! Took his first steps a few days b/f he turned one...

This is the cottage we stayed at in Cape Cod.

Our good friends the Russell's went to Cape Cod too!

RR and I in front of a lighthouse in Nantucket.

The new house!

It's been a while since I posted, but that's b/c it's been a crazy busy last few weeks! Some of you may have noticed that I posted about our new house, then removed the post. That's b/c everything wasn't final yet, so we decided to remove the post just in case until everything was final. Well, it's final now, and we've been in our new house for about a week and a half. Of course, moving is crazy enough, but to round out our month, we also had a 5 day trip to Cape Cod (just RR and I - it was a business rewards trip) and a birthday party for Bubs at our old house (amidst all the boxes). We love our new house, even though we are still unpacking and getting settled (to put it mildly). Here are a few pics from the last month...