Thursday, August 29, 2013

Upcoming Posts

Greyden's 13-month update (already late)
Krew's 3 1/2 years update
Best bibs ever
Review of some gluten-free treats
All the ways my boys are similar
One-year pictures of Greyden (also late)
And maybe some thoughts I have running through my head...

Stay posted. :)

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Birthday Party!! :)

My goal with Greyden's birthday party was to make it cute and fun but not stress myself out. With the two birthday parties we've had for Krew, both times I've felt so stressed ahead of time, worrying about trying to make it look like everything I see on Pinterest. (Darn you, Pinterest.)

So this time, my goal was to have a few cute things that took some effort, but to let everything else be simple and easy. And overall, I think I succeeded. :) I did a giraffe theme, so we made a giraffe out of cupcakes, had Grey's Granny Es make him a giraffe shirt, and used random giraffes from around our house as decorations.

We had his party in a pavilion at a nearby park, which was great because all the toddlers that came (and there were a LOT!) got to play on the playground when they weren't eating. And that also meant I didn't have to clean and decorate my house ahead of time or worry about where to put all those people in our home. I'm definitely a fan of using a park pavilion now, and can see myself doing it again in the future!

Here are a few pics from the day. We had a good time. :)





















He had a lot of grandparents - and even two great grandparents! - come for the party.  It was so great to see so much love. :)

Friday, August 2, 2013

12 Months - Greyden - Happy Birthday!

Our littlest turned a year old last Sunday!! Yaaaaay Greyden! :)

Here's your 12-month picture!


And the roundup of the last year:






1 week, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months, 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, 10 months, 11 months, 12 months


Little man, we love you oh so much, and you bring so many smiles to our faces. We can't believe you are a year old already! These last 12 months have just flown by. I feel like time moves faster with each kid we add to our lives.

You are quite the handful these days. Your energy level and propensity to get into things are increasing on a daily basis. As I write this, you are trying to pound on the keyboard and pull my hands away so that YOU can type this blog post. You grab things out of my hands constantly. You pull my phone out of my grasp and throw it on the floor. (Thank the Lord for Otterbox.) When I change your diaper, you like to grab whatever I lay on the changing table, whether it be clean or dirty clothes, clean or dirty diaper, wipes, whatever, and fling it over the edge. You are quickly becoming the dogs' best friend as you also love to throw things off your high chair. When we go shopping, you grab anything and everything you can reach, in the cart or on the shelves, and drop it or fling it to the ground. And you don't have the reach of a typical child your age. No - you've got this crazy super-reach. I've been told you have the reach of a monkey. That's a good description. Things are never far enough away. Nothing is safe. It's very impressive.



You either scream at me or laugh when I tell you "no", and as of this moment I have yet to convince you to obey and instead I always have to take away the temptation or remove you from the situation. I had to order bibs with snaps to use at meal times, because you pull velcro bibs off every single time. And now we have to feed you with your high chair either turned sideways or far away from the table, because you like to push off the table with your feet in an attempt to send your chair flying backwards. (Fortunately, the one time you succeeded, the back door caught your chair and I found you just leaning back, lounging.)


You smile, giggle, and laugh all the time and are generally a happy, happy boy. You are a jabberbox and run your mouth constantly, although very little of what you say seems to be real words. You screech and scream to get our attention, and you love to be held and stick your arms up in the air with your fingers spread, begging us to pick you up. You're still not a big cuddler, though, and once in our arms you'll typically only lay your head down for about 3 seconds before you have to yank it up and look around to make sure you didn't miss any action. Your way of pointing to things is to point with your arm and flare your hand like you're doing a dance move, which cracks me up. You do great in the car, and you love to kick your legs as hard as you can while in your carseat and smile at the pounding sound it makes.



You love, love, love music, just like your brother, and you will start wiggling and clapping - and even singing sometimes - when you hear a beat or a melody. You've acquired quite the collection of toys that play songs, and it's great, because they are definitely some of your favorites! You also love books, and will sit and look at board books by yourself for quite a while. Sometimes I read them to you, but you seem just as happy to "read" them yourself. You really like taking baths, and I always know that putting you in the tub will put you in a good mood. And the best part is that you don't mind having water dumped over your head. Your big brother always has and still does hate having water poured over his head, but you just blink a few times and take a few deep breaths and move on like nothing happened.


I'm currently working on weaning you, which seems to be going decently well. We're down to nursing only in the morning and in the evening, and you drink whole milk in between. I'm a little worried you're not drinking enough, which is a concern I also had with your brother when he was your age, so we'll see what I can do to up your intake. You seem to love all food except carrots, and you eat a nice assortment of purees and tables foods. And you eat a ton. A TON. Which is part of the reason I give you a lot of purees still. You would have to sit in your high chair all day long to eat enough table foods to fill you up.


You still love your brother to pieces, and the two of you have started to interact occasionally which makes me very happy. You're still a momma's boy for the most part, but you're starting to really like your daddy a lot, too, these days. Sometimes you'll even choose him over me, which makes me happy for both of you. :)



You're still no where close to walking and have yet to walk along furniture, although you walk very quickly if someone holds both of your hands. I bought you a push toy to motivate you to walk, but you get nervous whenever we try to encourage you to use it. Just in the last couple of days, you've started pulling up on furniture a lot more, so that's exciting. And of course you're still crawling...and you're quite the speedy crawler, huffing and puffing as quick as you can to get where you want to go.



You have two teeth that broke through on top, so you now have four teeth total. It looks like your top two teeth are going to be spaced really far apart just like your brother's were. Your hair is turning more and more blonde, and I think everyone would agree now that you are officially a blondie. I do wonder if your hair will turn darker again in the winter when you're not out in the sun, but we'll see. Speaking of sun, you tan SO QUICKLY. You're out in the sun for two seconds and your skin turns a warm brown, no matter how much sunscreen I cover you in. And the cute thing is that your little fat creases don't tan, so when you straighten your arms you have little tiger stripes. :) And you don't seem to burn, which is a relief. I don't think you've gotten burnt even once this summer. Your eyes have been hazel up to this point, but just in the last week they seem to be turning more brown. It will be so interesting to see what color they land on. I think it would be exciting to have a brown-eyed boy. :)



You had your one-year checkup with the pediatrician yesterday, and everything looked healthy. You were 31.5 inches long (92nd percentile), 22 lbs 15.25 ounces (52nd percentile), and your head was 18.5 inches around (68th percentile). You're wearing size 3 diapers, mostly 12-month shirts and bottoms and onesies, and size 3 shoes.


Well I think that's about all! Thanks for a wonderful year little boy! We love you!