One year old!

It's it really possible that a whole year has gone by since I had my baby boy??? Time flies when you're having fun! Erik and I talked about leaving Brian rear facing until he's a little older, since doctors are recommending that nowadays, but his feet are already starting to touch the back of the seat, so we decided to turn his carseat around. I actually let him ride forward facing last night, because my car was in the shop, and we were trading carseats from one car to another, so I figured doing it a few hours early won't hurt...and it didn't hurt him at all! We took Kayleigh to her play date this morning, and I was telling her that the car ride was the same one she took when she first rode in the car looking forward rather than backward.
Here are some changes from last month to this month:
--Every time Brian is near something tall, he pulls himself up to a standing position. He still crawls everywhere, but he's working on strengthening his leg muscles so he can walk soon.
--Brian will take steps while you're holding his hands, or when he's standing behind a walker.
--He learned the sign for "more", and then a few days later conquered the sign for "drink". I think next week he'll be fluent in sign language! (I hope I can keep up!! :) )
--I nursed him for 364 days. Whew! I thought I would try yesterday to see how long I could go without nursing him. I thought one of us would break down and he would get some Mommy milk, but he did fine without it. The time that I worried about it the most was bedtime last night, because it's part of our routine. He did fine. I think he wanted to nurse, but I didn't let him and he went to sleep.
--I know he's trying to tell us things, as he's being more and more talkative. We're practicing "Uh oh", but so far he's only gotten "uh". :) One of his favorite words is "do" like the beginning of dog.
--After being in 12 month clothing for the last 6 months, he is finally needing to wear 18 month clothes. I'm glad because I'm getting tired of him wearing the same outfits all the time. I'm ready to get sick of some new outfits.

Here are Brian's months pictures from this last year:

More

After practicing "more" in sign language with Brian since he started eating baby cereal, Brian FINALLY signed it to me this morning. He was eating Cheerios in his high chair while I was in the kitchen getting my breakfast ready. I heard him talking (you can hear it on the video). When I turned around, he was signing "more". I was so excited because we have been practicing the sign forever, and I was afraid he was never going to sign it for me! I thought he figured he saying it with his own words was what he thought would suffice. We're now going to work on "milk"/"drink". Oh, he started drinking cows milk on Sunday. I know it's a little before his first birthday, but he's not nursing much, and he was going crazy drinking water all the time. I figured milk was better than just water.

Brian's first hair cut

I have been talking for a couple of weeks about Brian's hair getting long and wanting to cut it. I finally bought some clippers today, and after Erik got home from work this afternoon, we decided to do it. Brian sat really still and took it all in stride. Thank goodness! I would like to be able to clip it for awhile and not have to pay $10-$15 per hair cut! I also need to give Kayleigh's bangs a trim (since two people have said it in the last 24 hours) and Erik is ready for a hair cut as well. I should probably get mine trimmed soon, too, but I'm not ready for that yet. I think I want it to grow a little longer.
The slide show wasn't letting me get the code to enter it in this post, so you'll have to click on this link to get it: Brian's first haircut

Peek-a-boo

Brian likes to play Peek-a-boo, but I am never able to catch it on camera. He cooperated the other day during lunch time, so here is a cute video of him playing. Actually, most of the time he plays with his clothes, or some other cloth-type material. This may have been the first time he used his hands, now that I think about it.

Kayleigh's swimming lesson

Kayleigh has been taking swimming lessons for most of the summer with our friend, Emma. I decided to take the camera today to get a couple of videos of her swimming. She can swim by herself, but not very far. She hasn't gotten down how to swim parallel to the pool so she can keep herself going. Sometimes she looks like she's riding a bicycle and doesn't go anywhere. Emma is great with her, and we have appreciated all of the work that she has done with Kayleigh. We can't believe that she's even able to go a short distance on her own!


In this next video, I only caught the tail end of Kayleigh swimming on her back. I tried to get the whole thing, but I realized halfway through that I had somehow hit the record button before she started swimming, and then when she started, I turned the recording off. Thankfully, she was showing off at the end.



This last video is of Kayleigh jumping in the pool. She has one hand on her hip, and is counting to three with with the fingers on her other hand. Enjoy!

Almost one!

Brian had a good month this month. He is on the move, and has started pulling up every chance he gets. He also:
--Eats like a grown man. I can hardly keep up with him! He practically eats full meals with us, and then I can still nurse him.
--Got two more teeth this month, for a total of 8.
--Sleeps like a champ. He still wakes up during the night a lot of the time, but he takes amazing naps. I don't think he'll be ready to only take one nap a day next month.
--Is able to crawl over and up things. It's crazy how quickly he went from crawling just a little bit at the beginning of the month to being able to climb over our legs to get something, or get up on the bricks in front of the fireplace.
--Is unlike Kayleigh and likes to get into everything. We have to keep a constant eye on him to make sure he doesn't knock over one of the dog's water bowls. That's a favorite pasttime of his.

What we've been up to...

I have been bad about blogging this past couple of weeks. I need to get myself back into it, I guess. Two weekends ago, Valerie and I took Kayleigh and Brian to visit Nick and his family. If you would like to read about the weekend, you can check out Valerie's blog or Nick's blog. It was a great weekend, and the girls got along so well. Taylor said she didn't want Kayleigh to leave. It's fun now that all of the nieces are old enough to remember each other.

After that weekend, I watched my friends' son for them while they had pre-planning at their schools. He didn't start day care until this week. We had a blast with him here, and Kayleigh said on Friday that she would miss having him at our house. While I love this little boy, it was a reminder that preschool/day care is not the age I'm suited to be around all the time. The craziest thing was when Kayleigh sat on her little car, and her friend got up behind it and started pushing her around the house!! He just turned one and Kayleigh is 3!!! Of course, Kayleigh loved it, and it's what she wanted him to do every day. The kids had a blast together, and I learned what a good helper Kayleigh is. I took her out for a special treat on Friday to thank her for all of her help that week.


Last Saturday we went down to St. Pete for Valerie's first baby shower and our niece's birthday. Valerie made out like a bandit, and I truly don't think they're going to have to spend any money on this baby!! She'll have another shower next month, and we'll head over to Jacksonville for that one as well. While we were in St. Pete, Mom and Dad had everyone over to celebrate Mia's birthday. Jonathan and Chat brought a princess cake over, and had a princess balloon for Kayleigh to bring home. I didn't bring my camera down, so I don't have any pictures to post.

Brian is moving around like crazy! We went to Story Time at the library this morning, and he was all over the place. First, he tried to steal a lady's drink that was on the floor. Then, he saw a girl eating Cheerios, and it was amazing how he just locked in on her bowl and started crawling for it! Then, he saw another kid's sippy cup in his diaper bag and tried to snag it. He also tried to climb up onto the stage (it's only a few inches off of the floor) and I think he would have succeeded if I hadn't grabbed him. This was his first Story Time he went to where he could crawl, and he was taking full advantage of his mobility.