I know I say this every month, but time has flown by and I can’t believe our baby is one already. This past year has been a whirlwind and in what feels like a blink of my eye, my baby is no longer a baby. But I can say with all confidence that even though I am sad he’s not a baby, I am SO excited for all the things that come with him being older and not having babies in the house anymore.
It has been very freeing to get rid of all the baby stuff and I love seeing him grow up and turn into a little boy. It’s hard to tell so far how different he is than the girls were (because boys are different, I am told).
We had his one year checkup yesterday morning (along with Dannie’s three year checkup). He got 4 total shots and the girls got flu shots. He weighs 24 pounds and is 30.5 inches long.
A couple weeks ago, all the kids got sick. They got a high temp and cold/cough that lingered until just recently. They were so tired and cranky. Alex became very snuggly when he was sick. He now likes to crawl into my lap and put his head on me or sit in my lap. I’m working on getting him to give me more kisses, too.
He just crawled up the kid picnic table the other day. I didn’t get a picture of him standing on the seat, but that’s where he was when we saw him the first time. Then he continued to crawl up it over and over until I took it back outside. I think we are going to need to find our baby gates right away.
Alex is an eater. He still loves his food and has wanted to do more and more on his own. He now just wants me to hand him half a banana to eat and doesn’t want it cut up. Mind you, the kid still only has two little bottom teeth, but he is quite proficient with them. His other new favorite thing is pretzel sticks. I know he’s my kid because he looks like he really likes licking the salt off them. He’s getting really good with his snack cup and loves his water bottle.
He babbles all the time and says “mama”, “dada”, “nana”, “baba”, can click his tongue, sticks his tongue out at me, does “so big”, claps, waves bye, points at things and signs “more” and “drink”. We are working on “all done” instead of throwing his food off his tray.
He has also learned the joy of dumping things out. Of course he doesn’t want to dump out toys….just food.
He loves playing with toys that make noise or things where he can push buttons. He likes putting toys into a box or bucket and likes to page through books. He still doesn’t want to sit still while we read him books. He mostly wants to eat them, but we are working on it.
The girls are still really good with him. They play with him and include him in everything. They are helpful and caring and sweet to him and always want to love on him and tell him how much they love him. The girls love making him laugh. It is so cute hearing them laugh at each other. Alex just wants to be doing whatever his sisters are doing.
He loves playing at our friends’ house with their little boy that is the same age. (We are going to miss them like crazy when we move!) Lately he has had a lot more fun there than here. When we are home he just wants to be in my pocket. But he plays really nicely there. I am sure it’s because we don’t have many toys here anymore and they are all getting bored with the few we do have left. I can’t wait to unpack all their toys and let them loose in the basement!
Alex has been working on his walking, too. He likes walking around with his car and cruising around the furniture. He likes it when you hold his hand and help him walk, but doesn’t seem stable enough to walk on his own quite yet. Here’s a video of him walking with this toy.
I think (and many others have commented, too) that Alex looks just like Chuck. Dannie is my mini-me, Alex is Chuck’s and I think Maddie is a good mix of us both.
Last weekend we had a birthday party for Alex and Dannie and it was a huge hit. Alex loved his cupcake and made a huge mess of himself. I will post a bit about the party soon.
We are down to the end of his bottles. Normally, I would cut him off today, but with the drive coming up, I am going to let him have his one bottle and formula for a few days until we get back home and then deal with changing him over to milk. Most days he doesn’t even finish his bottle and prefers to drink it out of a cup with a straw. Hopefully the transition won’t be too bad.
The girls like to wrestle with Chuck when he gets home from work and Alex has started to get in on the wrestling fun. I know Chuck and the girls will be excited to unpack their wrestling pillow! He likes being carried and we learned last weekend that he enjoys sitting on your shoulders.
Our little man is growing up so quickly. He is changing all the time and becoming more independent. Alex’s is the happiest boy and we love his laughs (and snorts). He wrinkles his nose when you tickle him. I can’t wait to see more of his personality as he grows up. We love you to pieces little man. Happy birthday, Alex!
