My baby is One!

Alex is one!!

Birth Minute

 It is nearly impossible for me to believe that it's been a year since this little guy arrived!  Alex has brought so much joy and adventure to our family.

Alex's party wasn't until Saturday, so we spent Friday celebrating with family.

Birthday Cup Cake!

Lunch at Rubys!

We decided to set up for the party a day early to give Alex some time to play in his own personal amusement park for his birthday!

The first gift Alex got on his birthday was from his big brother.



It's Olaf!!!

Some quick notes on my Big Boy:

Height/Weight: 22 lbs!  Up to 40th percentile!  

Clothing Size:12 months

Diaper Size: 3 (but honestly, he should be in 4s)

Eating: Loves eating!  Mommy is happy he's a year so I don't have to keep trying to bribe him to drink his milk/formula!

Sleeping: Overall he sleeps great!  He goes down about 6:30 and wakes up around 8 am.  He takes a nap from 12:30 to 3:30 or so everyday.

New Skills: Nothing specific this month, but Alex is growing every day!  I can't wait to see what's next for my little guy.

Alex is 11 months!

Super late, but guess who's 11 months old!!  

Okay, now SUPER super late.  I'm so behind!  And no pictures!  But since he's ONE YEAR tomorrow time to post anyway!

Height/Weight: No measurements since his last doctor's appointment.

Clothing Size:12 months

Diaper Size: 3 (but only because I have a TON of 3's left, he should probably be in 4s!)

Eating: Still a fantastic eater, especially compared to his brother who has recently decided to become much pickier.  He did start refusing all defrosted milk (we weaned a few weeks ago) and he also started refusing formula!  I know you are supposed to wait until 12 months, but we've started whole milk and he's a huge fan.

Sleeping: This month brought it's sleep challenges.  Nothing to complain about in the scheme of baby/kid sleep, but Alex started waking up about an hour after he goes to sleep screaming.  We suspect it's teeth, but it's been hard on everyone.  He is down to one nap that mommy and daddy insist happens with his big brothers nap time!

New Skills: Alex took his first steps!! He stood up in the kitchen and took two step to mommy ('s phone).  Big boy!!  He also said his frst word 'niy niy' while waving night night.  Alex also started playing tag with mommy.  He loves the I'm gonna catch you song.

I can't believe my baby is about to be a toddler.  Too fast!!

10 month old Alex

Height/Weight: No measurements since his last doctor's appointment.

Clothing Size:9 months, some 6 months and some 12 months.

Diaper Size: 3

Eating: Alex eats like crazy, especially lately.  Colin has discovered that Alex will eat anything and tries to use him as a disposal service for foods Colin doens't want to eat.

Sleeping: Still a great sleeper! 7 pm bedtime, althogh daylight savings time makes that hard.  Sometimes it's later and he is up by around 7.  The poor kid can't keep a nap routine because we mess with it constantly.  Don't worry, it's all for really critical things like Disneyland, or going to the Ladera Spring Celebration.  He does great despite the disruptions.

New Skills: Alex can stand by himself!!  He's done it a handful of times and it's only a matter of time before he's walking, I know.  He also started clapping!  It came seemingly out of nowhere and delighted everyone.  I've been trying to get it on video, but no luck so far.  He also gave daddy a high five!

Maybe it's not a skill exactly, but Alex has started to figure out when Colin (or anyone) is taking something from him and he does not like it.  He's normally very happy and laid back, but he will let loose if you try to get something away from him.

Alex is so much fun right now.  He laughs frequently, plays and smiles.  He's into everything and he keeps us busy, but we wouldn't trade if for anything!

9 Months!

Alex is 3/4 of a year old! I'm a tad late posting, but since he was born on the 29th, his 9 month birthday doesn't actually exist!

Height/Weight: Tiny baby is growing, but a tad slowly still.  17lb 10oz (16h percentile) and 27 in (6th!)

Clothing Size: Alex wears nine months.  My life is currently a disaster area of outgrown baby clothes.  No long term solution in sight. 

Diaper Size: 3

Eating: Eats great!  We have moved to mostly table foods mushed up and he loves them!  He doesn't do great at nursing and isn't super into formula, but we are doing our best!

Sleeping: Sleeps great! 7 pm bedtime, usually up at 6, sometimes one wake up other than that.  He naps once in the morning once in the afternoon, but does way better than he should when we disrupt his schedule, which we end up having to do way more that we would like.

New Skills: Cruising!  This little guy is on the move.  He crawls like crazy and pulls himself up everywhere to look around and cruise.  Life is going to get way crazier around here!

I can reach my name on the wall now! Letters will never be straight again!!

My sweet baby, your happy disposition and determination amaze me every day.  You are such a joyful presence in our family and I love watching you grow!

Eight Month Old Alex

Two Thirds of a year!

Height/Weight: Tiny baby is growing!  We had an extra doctor's appointment today so we got an update, 17 lbs 6.5 oz, 21%! Yay Alex!

Clothing Size: Alex is still wearing six months, but I think it's time to get down the 9 months clothes. 

Diaper Size: 2

Eating: My kids are apparently just good eaters.  Alex is doing great.  He eats pretty much everything we give him, although lately avocados have not been a hit.  He's doing pretty well with finger foods like puffs and small pieces of bananas, but most of his food is still spoon fed to him.  He usually eats banana and oatmeal for breakfast, puree for lunch, and often a mushed of version of our dinner.  He has one afternoon snack and nurses about 5 times a day, or has bottles when I work.  I'm excited that he's growing so well!
Sleeping: We had some tough nights, but then he slept through the night for almost a week! (7 to 6:30).  He naps on a fairly regular schedule, one nap during Colin's nap.  He goes down really easily normally.  We do his night time routine, then he plays or stands or crawls around before he finally falls asleep, usually sucking his thumb.

New Skills:He's standing!  Alex pulls himself to standing and likes to launch over and off of things.  He's also babbling.

Special Thanks to daddy for getting the pictures today! 

Alex is Seven Months!

Another month already!!

Height/Weight: My itty bitty baby!  Alex is hovering at the 10th percentile and is currently 15 lbs 15 oz.  We had an extra doctor's appointment to check his weight, and his doctor isn't worried.

Clothing Size: Alex is wearing pretty much all six month clothes.  And man does he have some clothes!  His closet is so full of clothes I probably could put him in a clean shirt from now until he outgrew six months shirts without doing laundry!

Diaper Size: 2, although we did have our first overnight leak, so it's probably almost time to move up!

Eating: Alex is doing great with solid food! We have started leaving some texture and he's also had bread and tortilla (both of which he loved!). This month we had our first two meals where our entire family ate the saem thing!! (Veggie soup first and then pot roast, we used the blender for baby's dinner!) I wish he nursed better, or ate milk a bit better, but I'm happy he's growing, even if it's a tad slowly for my liking!

Sleeping: Overall, Alex is sleeping great.  He sleeps from 7 pm to about 5 most nights.  He is also on a pretty good nap schedule (morning, afternon and short evening nap).  Unfortuantely our dual nap is pretty much over and it seems like most of our day is one long nap between the two boys somedays!

New Skills: Guess who's moving?? Alex isn't quite crawling, but he has no problem going where he wants to go!  It wasn't great timing with Christmas morning, as he was picking up every spare piece of paper or wrapper to try to shove in his mouth!  His other new 'skill?'  Teeth!  Alex now has two teeth! See?

Alex is still an easy going and happy baby, although if you don't feed him fast enough, he will let you know.  He loves to watch his brother and listening to Colin singing and talking.

Alex is more fun every day and I can't wait to see what this month holds.

Happy 1/2 birthday, Alex!!

Alex is half a year old already!!

Height/Weight: This continues to be a problem.  Alex is a wee little guy!  He's around the 10th percentile right now! Ek!!  His doctor doesn't seem overly concerned, but we do have an extra check up to monitor his growth.  He seems perfectly healthy and happy, but of course mommy is making her self a little bit crazy with worry about her tiny tot.

Clothing Size: Since he hasn't grown much, he hasn't outgrown his clothes either! He's wearing clothes that Colin had outgrown by two months.  My boys couldn't be more different.

Diaper Size: 2

Eating: Alex eats food now!  His doctor recommended we really push solids, so we are off!  His first food was banana right at his six month birthday.  He did well, but the next day and the follow day refused.  He's now tried apple and sweet potato as well.  He loves sweet potato.  He's very picky about his food, it has to be very very very smooth, which I wasn't expecting so my first attempts were rejected.  My immersion blender will be getting a workout with this guy!

Sleeping: A month is a long time in babyland.  We've had good days and bad days.  This week has been great.  He slept until five thirty more than once.  He also went back down immediately after eating, so yay Alex!  It's amazing how seriously sleep deprivation affects everything.

New Skills: Nearly sitting up on his own!  He can balance for a few second before toppling over.  He's become very fascinated with toys this month as well.

Despite his small size, Alex seems to be doing great.  He's meeting his milestones, sleeping, and is generally happy and fun to be around.

Another first this month is Alex had his first haircut!! Gavin really didn't want to do it, but truthfully, his hair was getting pretty bad.  He had these crazy long hairs on the front of his head and was pretty bald on the back, so we just cut them off.  Much better!

Pre-haircut hair

I can't believe you've been here half a year already, little peanut!  I love you!

Colin is 2!!

My sweet sweet baby boy is 2!

Colin is an incredibly advanced communicator.  He often speaks in complete sentences, uses pronouns and knows more words than I could possibly count.  Most people who meet him are amazed at his vocabulary.  The other day he said "Grandma, you should try it." (referencing a smoothie I'd made that Grandma said she didn't want.)  I was amazed that he seemed to understand what each of those words meant.

Colin has also started to become more introverted.  He's not shy and he enjoys interacting with people and other children, but I've noticed several situations when we prefers to keep to himself.  I love watching his personality develop.

One!

Two!

The last six months have been busy ones for Colin!  He got a new baby brother, started school (technically two schools!)  He even (temporarily) gave up his pacifier.

We started a new tradition in our family: Birthday Interviews!  It's a little over Colin's head, but here are his answers anyway (along with mommy's answers)

Birthday Interview!

Name: "C! Conin!"  (Colin seems to pronounce his name with an extra N)

Age: "Two!"  

Favorite Thing to Do: "Watch a Bo" (he was asking to watch a Bo, but that is probably one of his favorite things to do! :))

Favorite Food:  "Bananas" ( We had just eaten breakfast, but he does love Bananas.  It's so nice to have our little eater back.  Colin will eat almost anything)

Favorite Color: "Pink one!"

Favorite Book:  "That one."  (Colin loves books, his current favorite is probably "Three Billy Goats Fluff")

Favorite time of Day: "Conin push something!" (I started losing him at this point. Colin's favorite time of day is probably whenever he is outside.)

What do you want to be when you grow up? ""Push that one right there, please!" (At two, it's impossible to say but daddy says based on his play preferences he'd guess Librarian!)  

What do you do really well? (Colin was done answering questions at this point, but the answer is talk!  Kid never stops!)

What makes you laugh? (Daddy!  He loves playing games.  His two favorite are 'running' where we run around the kitchen island and 'achoo' where his big bear sneezed and sends everyone flying around).

What are you afraid of? (I'm not sure.  He doesn't seem to have any acute fears yet).

Who is your best friend? (The answer oscillates between Desmond and Jax).

What do you like to do with your family: (Read and play!)

What do you like to learn about: (Everything!  The world is our classroom.  We are casually working on letters and potty training, but mostly just playing)

If you had one wish, what would it be? (Probably unlimited bos (videos) and birthday cake all of the time!

Zero

One

Two!

How long do you think I'll be able to convince him to take this picture every year?? 

Happy Birthday, baby boy!  Mommy loves you!!

Alex is 5 months

My baby boy is five months old!  It's hard to believe.

Height/Weight: We will know next week for sure, but this has actually been the worst part of this month!  At his 4 month check up, the doctor was concerned he wasn't gaining enough weight.  We've added an extra bottle of milk a day to see if it helps and we go next week for a check up.

Clothing Size: Wearing mostly six months

Diaper Size: 2

Eating: Alex is a challenging eater.  He's never been a huge eater, but as I mentioned above at his 4 month appointment, he'd had dropped dramatically in percentile.  He gets really frustrated nursing. Sometimes he is great with a bottle, and sometimes not.   I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but it's hard for mommy!  He hasn't started any solids yet, pending resolving his current eating issues.

Sleeping: So it turns out that the "Four month Sleep regression" is apparently a real thing.  I never really bought into regressions, but at almost exaclty four months, Alex became a terror at night.  I did what I often do in very stressful circumstances and decided to make a mind map.  Low and behold, the LAST mind map I made was for Colin's lack of sleep when he was almost exactly four weeks old. The good news it that Alex has actually improved the last few weeks so we are actually feeling almost human again. In fact last night he slept from 6:45 until 4:30!  I woke up with that normal paniced "Where is the baby??"  He was fine, ate great, and I hope for daddy's sake went back to sleep for a while!

New Skills: Sleeping on his tummy, for one.   We also have a thumb sucker!  Neither are my preference, but anything that means at least a little bit of sleep is nice.  He's also gotten very busy with his toys lately.  


Alex is my happy smiling baby most of the time.  He has a natural and easy smile and it doesn't take much before he'll share it with you.

I love you, little one!

Four Months Old!

This was a big month for Alex!  His first flight, his baptism, his first class, and discovering that the world around him is so much bigger than he thought!

Height/Weight: I don't know exactly, a week ago or so he was 14 lb 1 oz.  We have a doctor appointment in a few weeks. He looks pretty big, but I know he's way smaller than Colin was at his age.

Clothing size: Six months, although some three months still fit.

Diaper size: Size 2

Eating:  It's been a rough month for eating for poor Alex.  First we had some supply issues.  We had plenty of milk in the freezer, but it was still unpleasant for everyone.  We were back to tracking all of his eating and diapers for a while (which we were still doing for Colin at this age, I discovered.  Man we had a lot of free time. :))  Things got back to normal and then Alex got sick and couldn't keep anything in his tummy for an entire day.  Luckily, we seem to be over that and I'm hoping we can settle back into a good groove.  In no time at all, it will be time for solids for this guy!

Sleeping: Alex has moved to his crib! Sort of.  We put him down at night in his crib and he sleeps there until his first waking, usually around one am.  After that he's been in our bed or the rock and play depending on how tired we are and how fussy he is.  He's still swaddled when he's in his crib and really prefers it.

New Skills: Dive bomb rolling.  Alex loves to push himself WAY up high and then do a dive roll.  Cute,but kinda scary.  Also, back floating!  We took Alex and Colin to a parent and me swim class and he LOVED it.  He floated really well on his back.  He is also interacting a lot with smiles and coos, especially for his big brother.

I am so in love with this little person.  I am constantly amazed at how his unique personality is already shinning through. I can't wait to see what's next!