Andy's 1st birthday - cakes & parties!

Andy's party was last weekend; I still can't believe my baby is one. I suppose it helps that he has such little hair and is not yet walking, so I can at least pretend he's still a baby. :) I think Andy had a good time at the party. He wasn't so sure about everyone watching him as he sat down to have cake, maybe, but he did finally get into it. He completely devoured the cupcake he had on his actual birthday and then wanted mine (which I hadn't eaten yet since I was taking pictures of him eating his!), but the poor little guy only got his own.

The first photo is one that Denise Crull took at a little mini-session the day after his birthday and in the second one he's opening the present from us. It's a Fresh Beat Band CD. I know it seems like an odd gift for a 1 year old, but he LOVES the FBB and dancing to their music. Even in the car he throws his hands up and dances around in his carseat when we play it. The following photos are Andy enjoying his first cupcake!



As you can see below, he took a huge gob of cake/frosting and smashed it onto/into his nose...seconds after that he started crying, I guess because he couldn't breathe. So we wiped most of it off/out and he finished the cake. This last photo is him wanting to get down from the high chair. Throws his hands up and says, "out! Out!" He did not enjoy getting wiped down after this, but then we took him straight up for a bath and he was better.


Here are photos from the party! Thanks to Uncle Robbie for taking most of them!

9 teeth for Bud

I noticed Andy's 9th tooth this morning; feels like it might have broken through yesterday or overnight - I didn't check yesterday.

On a related note, he still loves to bite and is doing so to me as I write this. Ow!

1 year signs

Here are the signs that Andy knows...
More (it's still just clapping, not the fingertips touching)
All done (though we rarely see this one...the boy only ever wants more!)
Milk
Eat
Please
Book
Baby

Hmm. Maybe more, but I can't think right now! He does pretty well at communicating and definitely understands even more than he can say/sign.

Walking "baby"

Last week Andy would barely take 2-3 steps, ending with him falling forward into my arms or onto the floor, and then still reluctantly and with lots of encouragement. Saturday he was taking 4-5 steps a little less hesitantly. Yesterday (Monday) I was helping him again and he easily took 8 steps without really even falling (he just sat down), then shortly after that he was standing at the baby gate at our stairs and I got him to walk at least 20 steps to me into the den - I think he could have done even more but I let him get too close and he grabbed my hand. He's stood up on his own from sitting a couple times. At this rate, he'll probably be running around the house within a couple weeks. :-)

Little Ballerina

Kaylee started her ballet & tap class last Monday (2/13) and so far has had a great time! The parents aren't allowed to stay in the room to watch - too distracting - so I was out in the car reading a book during her first class. I saw some parents heading to the building but was a few sentences away from the end of a chapter so I finished that before heading in. When I got there, Kaylee was on the verge of crying! Not because I wasn't there already (I was not even the last parent there), but because she thought she had ended up with the wrong tap shoes. I assured her those were hers and that we'd put her name on the bottom before the next class (I'd meant to do so beforehand anyway, but forgot until it was time to head out the door that day). So for her class this week, I had written her name on the bottom of her tap and ballet shoes, and also put a sticker on the tap shoes with her name. I stood outside for a few minutes watching them finish the class this week. All the girls were lined up with their backs to the doors, and their tap shoes were behind them. As soon as they were dismissed and turned around, the girls picked up their shoes and went back to their bags. The first thing Kaylee did when she picked up her shoes was turn them over to make sure they were hers! She was excited to see me when I walked in and said she knew they were her shoes this time. Ahh, the little things. These photos are from before her first class.

Andy's 1 year checkup

Andy's 1 year pediatrician visit was this morning; he's now 30.25" and 24 lbs. He got his finger pricked for bloodwork before we even saw the doctor, so he was unhappy right from the start! He cried nearly the entire time we were waiting for the doctor, and just as he would calm down, he'd look at his band-aided finger and start crying again. When I made his appointment, I forgot that today is one of the built-in snow days and I was going to have my friend's 2 daughters over, too...so not only did I bring Kaylee along to Andy's visit, but Ellie and Erin got to tag along, too! Even with 3 girls to entertain him, he was crying more than not until we saw the doctor. She said he looks great and seems to be doing well with everything. After she left, the nurse came in with the dreaded shots - three this time. He did NOT like that, but I think he cried less from all that than from the finger prick! Maybe because he was mostly dressed, so I put on his pants and coat and told him we were leaving. His next appointment is in mid-May, at 15 months old. I'm pretty sure I scheduled that for a school day, so hopefully it'll be just me and Andy that time!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY TO ANDY!!

Where did the year go?! Happy birthday to our sweet baby boy! We love you so much!!

Night-Night

Forgot that Andy will also say night-night. A very nasally, "niiiy niiiy" or however one would spell it. This afternoon he said it about 5-10 minutes before I was going to take him up for nap, then he crawled to the stairs. I opened the gate and he crawled right up. I would say, "I guess he was ready for nap," but as soon as I picked him up and walked in his room he started fussing about it. He did go to sleep within a minute of me laying him in his crib, though, so maybe he was really ready, but didn't want to completely admit it. :)

Andy's words

Andy says quite a few words now - or his version of those words, at least.

I think, aside from "uh-oh" and "dada," his first word was "cat" - he alternated calling Tigger "tuh" and "at" for a while (not sure if he was trying to say "Tig" with the tuh sound), but it quickly turned into just "cat," which he says pretty well.

He says "out" to get out of something (crib, high chair) or sometimes if he wants you to put him down (get out of your arms?).

Before we completely got rid of all his bottles (a week ago), he had just started calling them "baba" - so now he calls his sippy cups that.

When he's using his walker and runs into a wall, he'll ask for help - sounds sort of like "up" or "hup."

Just in the past few days he's started saying, "watch" (sounds like "ooh-atch"). This he says while pointing at the TV or where we keep the remote!!

When he waves bye, he'll sometimes say, "buh-buh" along with the wave.

There may be a couple more I'm forgetting, but that's all I can think of for now!

Fast Crawler!

Last night Andy and I were playing in the den while Jamie helped Kaylee get ready for bed. As Andy started crawling toward the playroom, Jamie came down with Kaylee so I could say goodnight. I walked around to get Andy as Jamie and Kaylee headed upstairs again...and Andy was at the next to top step! He had crawled around the den to and through the playroom, around the open stair gate and all the way up the stairs in the minute or two that it took us to talk. Sneaky little guy!! At least I'd been helping him practice crawling up lately - he's gotten pretty good at going up on his own. Obviously!