One Year!

Dear Jack,

You are ONE YEAR OLD today!!!

Jack, at one year, you are sweet, playful, observant, cautious, timid around strangers, and easily startled :)  You have the sweetest smile and the sweetest disposition.  Most people say that they've never seen you get loud or upset, however, they haven't seen you at home or at least in an environment you're really comfortable in.  And oddly enough, most people think you're a girl.  I guess it's because you are a very pretty baby, and you have the prettiest blue eyes :)

You love dogs, Disney Jr., your Baby Einstein CD's for the car, graham crackers, swinging at the park, and "riding" your Radio Flyer tricycle.   

We had your one year well-visit yesterday, and Dr. Levin said you were looking great - right on track!  You weigh 20 lbs. (10-25%), are 29 3/4" long (50%), and have a head circumference of 18 3/4" (90%)!  You are currently wearing 12-18 month size clothing and are still in size 4 disposable diapers.  We are still using the cloth diapers when we can and still love them! 

Most days you are still taking two naps a day, morning and afternoon, and you're still sleeping through the night pretty well.  You usually go to sleep around 7:30 pm and sleep until around 7:30 am!  You have been waking up crying around 3 or 4 am recently, but always seem to put yourself back to sleep eventually.

In the past month, it seems your appetite and taste for different foods has expanded - it now seems that you'll eat almost anything!  We still can't get you to drink whole milk, but Dr. Levin said that as long as you were getting dairy in other forms that it was okay.  You'll eat plain, whole-milk yogurt as long as its mixed in with something else like fruit - you love a good fruit and yogurt smoothie!  As it turns out, you have a little food allergy to cottage cheese.  Both times I've given it you, you've broken out into a rash, just where the cottage cheese came into contact with your skin.  You love sweet potatoes, apple juice, graham crackers, raisins, grapes, fruit smoothies, rice, and butternut squash.  Those are just a few that are guaranteed to get eaten every time!  

You are officially weened!  This big milestone comes with mixed emotions from Momma though.  I SO enjoyed nursing you for the first year of your life.  It was something that only you and I could share and provided such a wonderful bonding experience for the both of us.  Not to mention it was healthy, cheap, and convenient!    

You are still crawling everywhere and "cruising" some - no independent steps yet!  You will take small very hesitant steps behind a walker, but that's it.  You are such a curious little thing though, trying to open drawers and cabinet doors that I think it's only a matter of time before you get curious enough that you'll take those first steps by yourself.

I can't believe it's been one year already.        

Man, time is flying by.  Every now and again, I'll stop and try to remember what I was doing this time last year and how I was feeling . . .

*This was written a couple of weeks ago :)*

For starters, I was feeling BIG.  Nights were horrible, and I hardly slept at all.  I remember just laying there wishing that it would be morning soon, so I could get up!  I was so uncomfortable.  You were constantly moving and jabbing me in the rib cage, and if I think about it hard enough, I can still remember how those little jabs felt.  What a strange sensation that was to feel that little person moving inside of me.  Strange and yet, oh-so-sweet.  I miss those little jabs.

We were so ready to meet you.  I was so ready to see what you looked like, or WHO you looked like.  

I knew that my life would never be the same.

I knew that I had no idea how to change a diaper (probably my 2nd diaper to ever change was in the hospital after you were born).  I knew that we had gone to that Preparing for Parenthood class, but I had already forgotten a lot of what I had learned.  I knew that there were going to be some sleepless nights and some difficult days, and I knew that our days as a family of two were numbered.  I knew that we were about to add a third little person to our family, and that this little person what going to be completely helpless.  I knew that he was going to have to rely on us for all of his needs, and that scared me a little.  Was I going to be a good mom?  Was I going to know what to do and when to do it?

Fortunately for me, you are forgiving :)

The truth is, I didn't.  I didn't know.  But I learned, made some mistakes, and trusted my old motherly instincts (which don't always lead you in the right direction), and we are both alive today to tell about it.

I say all of this to say - what a wonderful journey this past year has been.  At times I've felt overwhelming joy and other times, frustration.  At times I've felt like super-mom and other times completely helpless.  I've known what to do in some situations and in others, I haven't.  And I imagine this doesn't stop at year one :)

What I knew then but didn't completely grasp the magnitude of is how much I would love you.  How I would never hear a horrible story on the news again without thinking, "What if that were Jack?".  How I would worry constantly about your safety, your well-being, and your health.  I was a worrier before, but I'm even more so now.  Becoming a mom made me think differently about everything!

They say a baby changes everything, but until you experience it for yourself, you really can't grasp the magnitude of that saying.

As I think back to Jack's birth story and October 29th of last year, I am flooded with so many wonderful memories and a heart full of thankfulness.  I'm thankful for a beautiful, healthy baby boy, and I'm thankful that God brought him into our lives.  

We love you so much, Jack Little.  Your first year of life has been the best year of our lives!

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy!!!

Photo Shoot!

Mom and Dad gave us a Groupon last Christmas for a photography package with Mommies Memories!    We decided to wait and take them a little closer to Jack's first birthday, but these were actually taken when he was about ten and a half months old.   

We drove over to the Clay/Pinson area and met with Amy Montgomery, owner and photographer for Mommies Memories.  She took lots of photos in several different locations around the Cosby Lake and park area.  

We were very pleased with all of the beautiful shots she captured, and it was also a pleasure to work with her as well!   

11 Months!

Dear Jack,

You were 11 months old a little over two weeks ago! 

We haven't been to the doctor in a while, so I'm not quite sure how much you weight, but I'm thinking it's close to the 23-25 lb. range.  You'll have your one year check up soon, so we'll know for sure then.  You are wearing size four disposable diapers, although we try to do the cloth diapers as much as possible to save money.  You are wearing 12 to 18 months size clothing - 12 months fits and 18 is a little big, but we are buying mostly 18 so we can get a little wear out of them :)

You are still sleeping through the night!  HALLELUJAH!!!  You will usually go down anywhere between 7 and 8 pm and sleep until around 5 am.  It's like your little body has an internal alarm clock.  Every morning (and even when you were waking up in the night) you wake up at the same time (between 4 and 5 am) and want to nurse and then will go back to sleep and sleep until around 7 or 7:30 am.  Every. morning.  You could literally set your watch by it, and you've been like that since day one.  

You are now only nursing twice a day, morning and night, which is good, because Mommy was only planning on nursing you for a year . . . we ain't doin' this 4 and 5 year stuff.  I am trying to gradually decrease the number of times you nurse per day, so it'll be an easier transition for you.  Now we gotta decide which feeding is next to go, morning or night.  

You have been doing such a great job eating real food lately, which makes Mommy so proud!  I've been working on getting you on more of a strict breakfast, lunch and dinner routine, and it seems to have helped a lot!  Now when I sit you down in the highchair, you seem to know what you are there for and almost seem ready for it!  You like to pick up pieces of food with your fingers, although they don't always make it your mouth.  Most of the time, you still don't mind Mommy feeding you with a spoon, which is good, because I'm not sure how you would ever get full if we relied completely on you getting those tiny pieces to your mouth.  

It's like you'll almost eat anything now if you're hungry and in the right mood.  I think because, you don't have many teeth yet and some foods are hard to chew up and get down, so you just spit them back out.  You love bread, crackers of any kind, pretzels, sweet potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, grapes, butternut squash, any of those baby foods that come in a pouch (probably because they're sweet), carrots, and cheerios.  And I'm sure there are more things you like, and we just haven't tried them or I've forgotten.  

I keep trying to get you to drink whole milk, but so far, it's a no go.  Oh, and that's another thing . . . we had to switch you to lactose free whole milk, because regular whole milk made you sick :(  You have mastered the sippy-cup and really like to drink water or apple juice out of it.  For some reason, you won't drink breast milk out of it, you'll only drink that from a bottle . . . very strange.  

You have TWO tiny, itty-bitty teeth right up front, and they are so cute!  You may have more than that though, and I just can't see them!  If you have more, they haven't caused you to be very fussy like the first tooth did.  I have noticed a little more diaper rash lately, so maybe that means something.

You are still crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything!  You got a little toy that you can walk behind for your birthday from Uncle Ben, Aunt Laura, Kate, Henry, and Thomas.  You do a pretty good job of walking behind it, but I do think it'll be a little while before you actual take steps by yourself.

You said "dada" and pointed at Jonathan for the first time the other day when he walked in the door from work.  He was so excited I thought he might faint.  It is so cute to us to hear you start to make more complex sounds and be able to repeat sounds that we make.  Now, when we say something to you, you'll watch our mouths and kind of try to repeat what we said (or at least your version of it :)).

Here are a few quick lists of things you like, don't like, and new little things you are doing.


Things you like:

Baby Einstein CD's for the car.  There are three CD's in the set, and you can almost always count on one of them to calm you down if you are upset.
Anything that lights up and plays music
Books of all kinds - you enjoy being read to and you also like to flip through the pages
Songs being played - you'll bob up and down, wave your arms, and "dance" along
Kids and other babies
Animals
Bath time
Slamming drawers and doors
Crawling everywhere - lots of times you'll wriggle out of our laps to get down and crawl around
Swinging on our porch swings or on the swings at the park
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and most anything else that comes on Disney Jr.


Things you don't like:

Whole milk
Having your hands or face wiped off
Going down for naps (you fight it with all you have!)
Large crowds of people you don't know


New things you are doing:

Pointing at things with your cute, chubby, little pointer finger and saying "doo, dah, baba" or whatever else that comes to mind.
Recognizing Jonathan and I as "Mama" and "Dada"
Crying around new people or when myself or Jonathan aren't in the room
Giving kisses (to people and toys)
Throwing things (sippy-cups, toys, pacis, remotes, etc.)
Crawling on your knees pretty much all the time
Walking behind your walker
Eating well
Saying more complex sounds   

Jack, you are our sweet little angel baby who is growing into a precious little boy right before our eyes.  Mommy and Daddy can't believe you are almost one year old.  We love you very much, Jack Man!

*Pics. to come*