My sweet 1 year old....

We did it! We made it! you are officially 1. A year ago today I was holding the sweetest newborn, head snuggled against my chest, our breathing in sync. Now you are full of energy and refuse to let anyone get in your way. You have 5 teeth, and one more trying to break through. You are getting more adventurous in what you eat and you have ditched bottles and formula all together. You are finally starting to crawl around on your knees (once and a while) and you pull yourself up in the crib, on us, on the couch, anywhere you can get a good enough grip. Just yesterday you started cruising around the ottoman, we know you will be walking soon.

At your Dr.'s visit we found out that you are about 25lbs and over 31 inches long. You will be tall like your father, something I am very happy about. You are starting to makes sounds that sound like words. As much as we want to shout from the rooftop that you are talking, we don't want to jump the gun or make other parents feel bad that their baby isn't as brilliant as you. You are finally saying mama, but sometimes you call daddy mama too. Last night you called daddy, "dada" to his face while interacting with him. You say "mmmmmm" when you like what you eat, you say "dog dog" when feeding the puppies, "ba ba" and "wa wa" have also made it out of your lips. You like to growl, give us the stink eye, giggle, and steal eye glasses from grandma, daddy, and Stefanie.

For your first birthday you had a robot birthday party. Your Grandma and Grandpa O'Keefe flew in to help you celebrate. Our house was filled with people celebrating you, it was awesome to be surrounded by so many people and know they were there to support us in this journey as well. I wish your Grandpa Milks could of been there to see you. He would of gotten a kick out of the robots and seeing how well you play with kids 3 times your age. It would of warmed his heart to see all of your cheesy cake filled smiles but most of all he would of been so proud to see what an amazing little person you are becoming. You are full of so much light and happiness, you have a sense of humor and a sensitive side rolled into one. You do not fuss just to fuss, and you probably have the toughest head of any one year old I have ever met. You are curious and inquisitive. You chose tinker toys and books over most toys- but your favorite thing to do is explore.

I am at a loss of what else to say. Just know that you are amazing and the best thing in our lives. I never knew it would feel this way to be a mom, but I am so glad you have given me this gift. I love you with all of my heart and cannot wait to see what the next year brings.

oops!

Well one thing for sure can be said about your mother, she sucks at follow through! My intention was to write daily/weekly and it looks like I let some time slip away. It is a shame because everyday you are a little different version of your self. Always discovering, smiling, tasting, laughing, screeching, interacting- I am afraid I might miss it all.

A month ago you had your nine month appointment. 29 1/4 inches tall and 22.4lbs.Perfectly following your growth curve and perfect in every way.

You have mastered the army crawl and cannot be left for even a split second as your father found out. He went to answer the door and you hunted me down in the office- crawling across half of the house to get to me. You search for Roxanne and escape under the table with her. Stroking her fur, grabbing her face, and playing with the tags on her collar. You are lucky she loves you so much and is patient with your curious hands, Lola tries to avoid such encounters.

In your walker you are public enemy number one. You chase after the dogs, mommy, daddy, and life itself. You maneuver with grace and determination. No rug, corner, or obstacle can get in your way. We are limiting your time in your walker (once every few days or so) to encourage you to test out your legs and slowly but surely we are getting there.

You are a pro at standing up while leaning or holding on to something. You are even starting to side step a little bit. You wiggle out our laps and slide to the floor- looking for your next big adventure. You haven't starter to pull yourself up yet, but that just means we get to buy a little more time before you try to escape your crib. You love to "walk" around. Daddy or I will hold your fingers and you set off with clumsy steps pulling us along. Sometimes all on tip toes, other times your whole foot presses flatly against the tile. Every time you shriek with excitement and laughing at your own accomplishment.

Your favorite game seems to be a mix of peek a boo and raspberries. You love challenging us to mimic your noises and challenge us to screeching contest. You love books - you are awesome to read to. You sit and stare at each page. Looking at the colors pointing to different parts of the pictures, cooing with approval and sometimes screaming with excitement. The way you look at your grandmother and your father as they read to you is enough to melt any rigid heart. I know you will love books for the rest of your life and I am so proud to see drink in the whole experience of sharing a story with someone you love.

We have pretty much ended baby food. You now have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and even a snack once and a while depending on your nap schedule. You LOVE toast (especially with Strawberry preserves), Cheerios, string cheese, bananas, carrots, apples, mandarin oranges, sweet potatoes, pasta, ravioli, crackers, mac and cheese, and more. Everyday we try something new. Unlike your parents you are not too fond of meat, that will change I think as you get more teeth- currently we still just have the front bottom 2. It is fun to watch you experiment with new flavors and textures. The dogs love it too. They stalk you as you eat, sometimes sneaking in a bite if you are not too busy teasing them. You will dangle your cheese in front of Lola only to yank it away as soon as she gets the courage to go in for a taste.

As you can see one month equals a lot of little developments. In two months you will turn one and I cannot even wrap my head around the idea. My sweet little baby will soon be a toddler?...feel free to never grow up.

Chatterbox

My Dearest Andrew,

At 8 months old there is one thing that you love to do almost as much as you love to cruise the house in your walker, and that is talk. While there are no "real" words coming out of your mouth it feels like some days we have complete conversations. Perhaps my most favorite part of your talking is your range. You can go from complete screams to soft whispers and I must admit whispers are my favorite. Your eyes get wide, your touch gets soft and you lock eyes. Soft little whispers, squeaks, and squeals escape your lips and my heart swells with love.

You will hold a conversation with almost everyone you meet, showcasing your vocal talents at every opportunity. Sometimes I swear you are singing along with the music you hear or creating your own songs to fill the silence. I cannot wait for your first real word (right now we are getting da-da) and to hold conversations with you on the way home from school or to the store. I look forward to singing the ABC's with you and having your read words from a page to me. I cannot wait for your babbles to become words, your words to become sentences, and for your personality to flow from your lips. You will be a chatterbox like your father and I cannot wait for that day.

Love always,

Mommy Dearest

Mother's Day...

Today was my first real Mother's Day. Despite not feeling well I still managed to have a wonderful day, and honestly it was because of you. You woke up with smiles and kept them going on through out the day. The best part though is when you fell asleep in my arms. I am not sure I will ever get tired of this. Just as you settle in to sleep, your embrace gets a little tighter and you let out a long sigh. Our breathing syncs up and the world seems at peace. My little piece of perfect, right there in my arms. The best way to celebrate being your mom.

Love to my little nugget,

Mom

Teeth!

When you woke up @ 3:30 in the morning I knew something was up. Your two bottom teeth starting making an appearance a couple of weeks ago and this weekend the started to make the final push. Even though they had already broken through the gums, they doubled in size this weekend. We dealt with fever, runny nose, and the most painful of all tears. It seemed like you just could not get comfortable and it broke our hearts.

I know this is just a part of growing up, but trust me when I say I wish I could take all your pain and bear it myself. I do not like seeing your tears, seeing how restless it makes you, and more importantly knowing there is not much I can do to help.

Thankfully you seem to be returning to normal but I am not sure we are out of the woods yet. I guess growing up sometimes hurt, hopefully this is a short phase.

Hugs and kisses,

Bringer of Orajel

The stink eye....

My Dearest Andrew,

I know that this might be jumping the gun, but there is a little fire burning behind those eyes of yours. You seem sweet, cuddly, and agreeable....but deep down I know there is a part of you that likes to live on the edge. Just yesterday, when I went to get you from the car seat I was surprised to see that you had pulled out the piping from your car seat.



Being the responsible mother that I aspire to be, I quickly pulled the piping from your hands and re-threaded it. Two seconds later you broke into a whine and then it happened...the stink eye.



It pretty much burned right through me. It was so hard to believe that my precious little angel could give me such a look, but on the other hand I knew it was something I needed to get used to. I have a feeling I will be on the receiving end of many stink eyes in the future.

Hugs and Kisses,
The Enforcer

Cousins...

Dear Nugget (this is our nickname for you),

One thing you are lucky to have in your life right now is cousins. I never grew up surrounded by cousins but always heard stories from my mother and uncle about the joys of a large extended family. Growing up, my family moved from the state they had called home their entire lives (Michigan) when I was only a year old. We landed in Oklahoma and when I was 5 made the trek out further west to Arizona. My only cousins were younger and a state away in New Mexico, so needless to say we didn't see them very often.

You, my dear boy, have 2 cousins, Emma and Caleb. Both live in the same state, merely miles away, and even better you are only 6 months older than one. This means as you and Caleb grow older you will have an instant playmate. Someone to play on summer soccer leagues with, someone to rough house with, someone to build Lego space stations with, and Daddy's big dream- trips to Legoland.

Right now the age difference may seem like a lot, but it so exciting to see the both of you grow up together already.

Hugs and kisses,

Your Mother

Milestones...

My Dearest Andrew,

I cannot lie to you, I do not know where I placed your baby book. I was proactive before you came and wrote all about how your father and I met, how we found out we were having you, etc. Now that you are here, that bad boy has not seen the light of day. I hope that this summer I can redeem myself and finally put your story on paper, until then electronic form will have to do.

You are now 7 months old and you are nothing like the little 8lb 15oz bundle of baby we brought home. So far the theme has been more. You eat more, you laugh more, you babble more, you smile more, you weigh more, you entertain more, and most importantly we love you more.

At 7 months you are now 20+lbs (we get an official weigh in at 9 months) and over 27 inches long. Tonight we put you to bed in "big boy" pajamas that happened to be size 12 months. I sat up last night and purged your clothes of anything smaller than 9 months to send to your new cousin Caleb and I am crossing my fingers that you will get a chance to wear all of the cool t-shirts I just bought before you hit another growth spurt. Just 3 weeks ago I could not sit you down on the ground without a spotter, today you sat and played all by yourself at Grandma's and even caught yourself and straightened yourself out. Pretty much the pillows I put behind you were just and insult, you are a big boy now. Today you chased your cousin Emma around in a walker, softly petted Joon- Grandma's little dog, ate rice puffs all by yourself grasping each little bit between your thumb and pointer finger. You wash your own face with a wash cloth and you wipe your face with your own bib when you eat solids.

Speaking of eating, you looooove to eat. Pretty much the only time you ever get fussy is when we cannot get food quick enough to your face. Even with 2 teeth pushing through you still have an even, happy temper. You also love to bounce. You have a rain forest jumper and boy do you jump. You crack me up with your enthusiasm for the simple joys in life and I only hope to one day have an ounce of that excitement to share.

Love Always,

The old lady

Why?

My Dearest Andrew,


I have tried to start blogs in the past and like many of my "bright ideas" they have fallen flat. This time I promise to put effort behind it and chronicle our life together as a family. Since you are already 7 months I have a lot to catch you up on...

I will first start off with why I decided that today was the day that I would get my mom act together and start keeping better track of our life together. Today was Easter, and you will soon find out that we celebrate the commercial end of holidays verses the religious side, but most importantly we always celebrate family. The problem with today is that we were missing one very important element to our family. It was the first holiday dinner without your Grandpa Milks and I must admit it was really hard for me. It has only been 2 months since your Grandpa passed away and only 4 months since we found out he was really sick. My father was one of the first people to hold you after you were born and the look on his face when he first saw you will forever be in my heart. He was so proud to hold his grandson and was excited to grow old and watch you become the amazing person you are on your way to becoming. Unfortunately, his body has other plans, but every moment he spent with you in those first 5 months of your life were filled with so much love. I want you to know that. There may not be a ton of pictures of you and Grandpa for you to look back at, but know he loved you and instantly it seemed you loved him.

Although I am sad that you will not get to spend time with my dad, I am more sad that I cannot share how much you amaze me each day with him. Every day you are one more degree of awesome, and honestly I never knew having a child would be this rewarding. I hope this blog can relay how much my life has changed, for the better, now that you are in it.

Love Always,

Momma