Conor Christopher: Twelve Months

Conor by month 1 // 2 // 3 // 4  // 5  // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 

This has been such a fun month with you! You're really starting to show your personality and have preferences and I love it. You're making your voice heard in this family of ours, and it makes my heart so incredibly happy.

Growing // At your 12 month appointment you weighed 16 lbs 14 oz (2nd percentile), measured 27 inches in length (0 percentile) and your head circumference was 48 cm (93rd percentile). 

Eating + Sleeping // You are eating between 6-8 oz at each feed and you are eating a combination of breastmilk and formula about 5 times a day. We are still fortifying your breastmilk with formula, but the majority of your intake is formula now as I'm just not pumping enough milk. I love feeding you, and when it's feeding time I wrap you up in a blanket and you start sucking on your tongue and we sit in the rocking chair and I feed you in the same position as I have for the last 9 months, with you nestled in my right arm and the bottle in my left. Sometimes you play with my hair, other times you play with my fingers and sometimes you hold the bottle. And quite often, Ryan mounts himself up on the arm of the rocking chair and smothers you with kisses or tries to hold the bottle for you. And you love eating solid foods! You are still not a huge fan of pureed stuff, so we've just been feeding you tiny pieces of real food. You aren't a huge fan of fruit (berries, bananas, etc), but you love most other things - cheese, cheerios, oatmeal, rice, carrots, green beans, broccoli, chicken, minced meat, steak, potatoes, sweet potatoes, avocado. 

And you sleep like a champ! You typically go to bed around 6:30 and you're up by 6:30, and we don't hear a peep from you throughout the night. You're still sleeping in our room on your wedge - you've done a nap or two in your crib. And we've talked about moving you out of our room, but your dada's not quite ready for that yet! You nap two times a day - the first nap is around 9:30 and you typically nap for an hour, and the second one is around 1 and you nap for about an hour, maybe longer. 

Wearing // You started the month off wearing mostly 6 month things, and then I transferred that stuff out and moved your 9 month things into your bin, and by the end of the month, I had moved out all your 9 months pajamas and moved your 12 month pajamas in. They're still a bit big, but some of them fit you perfectly! It's so exciting to see you filling out your clothes. You've grown so much! And you're in a size 2 diaper. I did buy some size 3 diapers, but we were gifted a bunch of size 2s, so we have you in those. And you're wearing your cloth diapers too. 

Loving // You really love to eat food. You're like a little birdie, opening your mouth when a food item comes your way. It's the cutest thing! And you love just playing on the floor with your toys and you love having anything and everything in your mouth. You really love all your teething toys right now and you love knawing at baby carrots.

Loathing // You hate when you drop something you're chewing on. You start crying and fussing, and I know I'm going to find your treasured item either on the floor or just out of your reach!

Nicknames // We're still calling you Connie and Connie bears.

Doing // You are teething! And you cut four teeth this month - top two first and bottom two and you have two more coming in up top. And you started sitting! I still feel uneasy leaving you to sit on your own, but you just fall forward or sometimes you fall backward. You're so close to rolling from your back to your front, but you're not quite there yet. You can roll from your back to your side and you stretch for toys around you, but you're just not quite making the roll back to your tummy. You definitely spend more time on your tummy than you did a few months ago - before you'd just roll straight onto your back haha! 

Doctors Appointments // 2 occupational therapy appointments, 1 visit to North Seattle Pediatrics for RSV shot, and 1 WIC appointment.

Milestones // First St. Paddy's day - we ventured downtown via the bus for the parade! First time in the nursery at church, dada and I had a date night and dropped you off for the parents night out. First boat ride! First family picnic at Richmond Beach. 

Jack by month 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12
Ryan by month 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 //12 

Woodland Themed First Birthday Party

I love kid birthday parties! I don't know what it is about them, but I just love celebrating little people and I especially love celebrating my own little people. For Ryan's birthday we hosted a party at our house, which I should say is rather small, measuring in at 770 sq feet. The thought of hosting a party always seems so intimidating, especially in the dead of winter. I mean how are you suppose to fit 20-30 people or more into our rather small home? It's difficult, but we did it for Jack's birthday, so I figured we could do it for Ryan's!

And praise the Lord for Pinterest. What a fantastic tool for party planning! I started pinning all sorts of things and perusing all sorts of photos and I eventually landed on a Woodland Theme since half the party was going to be outside on our deck.

I used this party and this photo as my inspiration.

I started planning and creating things weeks in advance, which is such a great idea, as it made the week leading up to the party and the night before the party so much more enjoyable!

I made a very thorough to do list, complete with tasks to accomplish each day. And it looked a little something like this.

Three weeks before we went to my parents house and I fully utilized the giant pieces of wood they had out back and my grandpas table saw along with their printer as ours is stored in our garage (not very handy for this type of thing, I know!).

Three weeks before the party 
- travel to parents house and fully utilize the giant pieces of wood they have at side of house along with grandpas table saw
- fully utilize parents printer as ours is stored in our garage and most likely doesn't have a working ink cartridge
- cut a bunch of wooden rounds in varied sizes
- print out the letters for a banner and put the banner together
- print out the masks
- print out these woodland animal coloring sheets
- print out this Happy Birthday banner for the cupcakes
- stop at the dollar store to buy plates, napkins, cups
- stop at Michael's to buy cardstock and scrapbook paper, and during this trip I also scored some fox/owl cookie cutters

Two weeks before the party
- stop at Target to buy crayons, some straws and black and white twine
- print out Thank you tags for the party favor bags.

One week before the party
- bake Ryan's cake (it was a banana cake), wrap it in saran wrap and freeze it
- bake cupcakes from scratch with this yellow cake recipe and wrap and freeze those
- stop at Fred Meyer to buy more cardstock and popsicle sticks for the masks
- glue the sticks on the back of masks
- bake snickerdoodle cookies for the party favors and use fox and owl cookie cutters

The week of the party/a few nights before
- defrost Ryan's cake and the cupcakes
- make frosting for Ryan's cake and frost it (a dear friend made frosting for cupcakes and frosted them for me!!)
- put the favor bags together with cookies and rice cereal and tie Thank You tags onto them
- bake the breakfast biscuits
- Peter wrote Ryan's stats on chalkboard
- organized and printed photos to hang throughout house and found sticks and pots for table to hang photos
- borrowed a kids table for a craft station

The Decorations
- wooden rounds
- fake trees from Joann's
- candles in mason jars/glassy babies
- birthday banner
- Christmas tree
- animal masks
- chalkboard
- pictures, lots of pictures
- Woodland things like pinecones, fake trees, tree straws

The Menu
- donuts
- cocktail sausages
- these delicious breakfast biscuits (they were so good and super easy!!)
- fruit
- nuts
- cake/cupcakes
- orange juice
- coffee

Ryan Alexander: Twelve months

Ryan by month 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11

It still blows my mind to think you are already 12 months old! You truly are the sweetest thing. And I'm so thankful for your presence in our lives. You love exploring the world and opening drawers and getting into things. I can only imagine what this is going to be like when you are walking around! And you are really independent. You love doing things yourself and you are more than happy to entertain yourself, and if you want company you come find us! You smile all the time and your face lights up when someone else smiles at you! People are always commenting on just how happy you are. You truly are my joy baby. And I had so much fun planning your first birthday party, but I'll leave that for another post. 

Growing // It's crazy to think how much you have grown in 12 months. You have gone from 5 lbs 11 oz (1st percentile) to 22 lbs 3 oz (65th percentile). You entered this world at 18.5 inches and now you are 30.25 inches long (67th percentile). You have nearly grown a whole foot! And your head circumference is 47.5 cm (87th percentile). And I suppose you are bigger than the average 12 month old, but not by much. However, you are just a bit bigger than your brother was at this age. 

Eating + Sleeping // I'm really only breastfeeding you 4 times a day. You are sleeping SO good these days! We finally got wise and put your pack in play in our room as I think you and Jack were waking each other up, and you are sleeping through the night without a single feed or any attention at all. I know, I know..alot of you are probably thinking wow, finally, he's nearly a year old! But I'm telling ya...our babies aren't the best of sleepers, so this is like a dream come true. Now I'm sure things will change in Ireland and especially once we get back home, but then again maybe not? We'll find out in a few weeks! You are still going to bed around 6 and waking up around 6:30/7. It's crazy to me that you go to bed that early, and I'm sure with time that will change, but that's your rhythm right now and as much as I miss spending time with you in the evenings, especially after a day at the office, it's what works best for you. So we do it! And you are doing two naps, one in the morning around 8:30/9 and the other in the afternoon around 1 or so. In regards to eating, you are eating 3 meals a day plus some snacks. You love breakfast as you LOVE eggs and oatmeal, and you love feeding yourself. We gave you toast for the first time, and you love that, along with crackers and anything that's crunchy. You also love apples, again, I think it's because of the crunch. But some of your favorites are beans, peas, cheese, yogurt, avacado, etc. You are a great eater!

Wearing // You are still wearing some 12 month things, but the majority of your clothes are in the 12-18 month range, except for a few pairs of trousers. But I just keep thinking you'll be in 2 year clothes before we know it! That just feels wild. And you are still in size 4 diapers and we've adjusted the buttons on the cloth diapers. 

Loving // You LOVE your pacifier. I think I've mentioned this before, but it's so true. If you are getting tired, you might fuss just a teeny bit to let me know that it's time to put you to bed, and as soon as I put you in your sleep sack and stick your pacifier in your mouth, your eyes kind of roll back and you calm down instantly. You love anything you can stick in your mouth as you just want to chew and suck on everything, think you must have another tooth coming through. You love your brother and he makes you laugh. I love that. You LOVED your smash cake I made for your birthday! And you really love your mama. You are at the stage where you're experiencing separation anxiety, and it's not bad, but it's definitely noticeable. 

Loathing // You really don't like when Jack steals toys from you. 

Words // Pretty sure you are saying uh oh and dada and mama. I'm not entirely sure if you always say dada and mama in context though or if it's just a babbling thing. You definitely say uh oh though! 

Doing // You are getting so close to pulling to stand! And you can do it with a little assistance. You love banging things together and babbling. It is so hard for you to sit still as you just love moving from one place to the next, hence your love for exploration! And you love to pull the ornaments off the tree. 

Milestones // Your first Thanksgiving! And your first visit to the tree farm! It's still strange to me that it's not your first Christmas as you were 10 days old last Christmas. We also celebrated your first birthday with a party. And you now have 8 teeth!