18 Months!

LM is 18 months old!

We are so proud of him!  He is becoming such a sweet little man.  So funny and silly all the time.

Everyday is more and more fun with him.  Recently he is talking up a storm.  He has 20+ words at the moment and is exceptional at repeating.  Most importantly, he's started saying 'mama' more and more often.  And it's my favorite thing in the world.  He says 'hi dog' and 'hi dad' alllll the time which are also adorable.  He is a true little boy and very obsessed with balls.  He says 'Baalllll?' as a question and statement all in one.  I love it.

His is also very obsessed with blueberries and hearing him say 'blueberry' is so cute.

He is a busy, busy man.  He does not stop moving. All day long.  Until he crashes.
Our sitter will tell us that sometimes she finds him taking a quick power nap on the floor in the middle of the other kids playing.
He goes goes goes until the moment he's in bed and then crashes.  

We recently enrolled him in a gymnastics class and he's loving it!  They have little miniature gymnastic equipment (bars, beams, rings, etc) and they work on different skills, singing and a very light curriculum.

He is a very curious soul and loves to wander around when we're outside and just take it all in.  We were at the park recently and he spent a good 30 minutes just walking back and forth on the trail investigating everything around him.

 We recently introduced him to Elmo before bed while he has his milk and he is starting to enjoy it.  He says 'ELMO' as soon as we put jammies on and head for milk and the sofa.  He has yet to be a big tv kid (which is 100000% okay with us) but I think Elmo may be becoming a favorite.

At his 18 month check up he was 22.6lbs and 31".  He is built just like his papa...tall, long and lean.  Knock on wood he is a very good eater! He will eat anything we put in front of him.  When he's getting teeth (working on #s 15 and 16 right now!) in he is a little more picky but otherwise he's a good eater. I'm pretty sure if we would let him survive on blueberries, bananas, carrots and green beans he would.  And the occasional cheese stick because who doesn't love cheese sticks?
 

16 Months

I realize this is an odd month to do an update on but hey, the last one was 4 months ago so here we go.

I mentioned a little bit about LM in my last post but thought I would dive into the details a little more on this post.  Plus this Mama loves having these posts to look back on.

At his 15 month check up LM was 22lbs and 31" long.  I would say he's about the same weight now.  But he has definitely gotten taller lately...sometimes I'm pretty certain he grows while napping.

He LOVES to eat.  Knock on wood, we haven't found much of anything he won't eat.

He doesn't like lunch meat ham but that is about it.

He loves pb&j, chicken, bananas (dried and fresh), dried mango, yogurt, pudding, grilled cheese, string cheese and basically any form of CHEESE. (Just like his mama)

He loves his milk!  We are working on transitioning to all sippy cups for milk.  Judge away but this boy may get a bottle before bed until college.

He does really like this straw cup and anything with handles.  

He is a walking fool.  And with that comes with a lot of tumbles but he generally gets right back up and keeps going.  He LOVES his blankie and has mastered walking with it, even wrapped around his legs.  Pretty impressive if you ask me.  

His feet are still kind of tiny so we've had a tricky time finding hard sole shoes for him (and that aren't CRAZY expensive) but they seem to be growing so hopefully that won't be a huge issue soon.

He can climb up stairs and is starting to figure out how to climb on the sofa.  He was on the sofa the other day and just up and started walking across it....so I'd say we have a little daredevil on our hands.  He does not seem to have any fear.

LM is saying 10+ words at the moment. His little low voice is so funny.  There are a lot of 'hi's' in our house.
He is also picking up some sign language.  He can do 'all done', 'more' and 'milk'.  We are starting to work on 'eat' and 'water' next.

He is still pretty stingy with his smiles and giggles but we've noticed him laughing and giggling more often.  He does have the stink down pat though ;)
 He has definitely started finding his sillies lately.  He knows how to at least make us laugh, and he does that every day.  

Brushing Off The Dust

Tap, tap, is this thing on?

Do I remember how to do this blogging thing?

If anyone has noticed I've taken a bit of break from this space but I won't lie that it has been calling my name.  I've had quite a few people ask if I was planning on blogging again.

The short answer is yes.

The long answer is I can't promise how consistent all be and I can't promise every post won't have a pictures of LM.  But I can promise I do really enjoying blogging and I have some posts lined up in my head.  I love this space and I love connecting with all of you friends and having a record of our lives and even the every day things we're doing to look back on.

I am going to use the total mom excuse that life just got very busy.  And it goes without saying we have a very busy 15 month old on hands.  From the moment we get home from the sitter and work it is go go go until LM crashes.  We do our absolute best to maximize our time with him in the evenings.  Maximizing that time did not include blogging sadly but now that he goes to bed earlier, I am hoping I can get back in the groove with this space.

So last I left you off with was LM's birthday party.  And if I didn't say it enough, I had SO much fun planning that party and celebrating our little man.

We rounded out the month of October with Halloween where LM went as Charlie Brown.  However in true Ohio fashion it was far too cold for anyone to see his costume. 

We also took a trip to the pumpkin patch, LM wore jeans for the first time and he finally found out what it means to be a Bengals fan.

November was a crazy work month for me but we still managed to squeeze in some fun. 

We traveled to Tennessee and Indiana for Thanksgiving.  

And Mama snuck away to Indianapolis for a night with the girls.

Complete with a Taylor Swift themed dinner!  Can we talk about how great the new album is?!

Just like everyone else, our December was also bananas.

Work again crazy, holidays crazy, you know the drill.

Nonetheless we had fun and I think every month is more and more fun with LM, I feel like he really, really started to blossom in December.  His adorable, silly, funny personality is really shining through and he is just so fun.  In December he decided his favorite words are 'hi', 'cheese' and 'shoes'.  Which all fit our personality quite well.  We want him to be friendly, cheese is our favorite food group and we love shoes.  Makes sense. 

While our Christmas Day sadly involved a trip to urgent care we still had such a fun day with LM and our family.  Thankfully LM was fine, just a virus from getting vaccines.

We spent the rest of the day loving and him and playing with all sorts of new goodies for all of us.

December also marked my mom moving in with us for a little bit while she transitions to Ohio.  LM is loving having his Nanny around all the time! 

 The end of December sent us to Scottsdale to meet up with Kait and Dane and Casey and Eric.  As most of you know, we all met through blogging and have continued to be the best of friends.  We do our best to see each other as often as possible and the Scottsdale trip had been the works for quite a while, the fact that we were celebrating my birthday made it even more fun.  

For a full recap, check out Kait's post here! 

We had an absolute blast in Scottsdale, the best food, margaritas and overall fun.  I have not laughed that hard in a very long time and it was amazing.  The perfect weather didn't hurt either! 

And I think that pretty much catches us up to present day!

If there is anything you want to know, need up an update on or would like to see just let me know while I work on getting back in the blogging saddle!

Happy New Year everyone!

1 Year!

1.  I know this is WAY late but you know, life

2.  How is our sweet babe already one?!  

I know all parents say it but this was the fastest year of our lives.  

From those 6 weeks of sitting in the NICU to being home with our sweet boy to middle of the night feedings, sleep deprivation, being stuck inside ALL winter, to starting to venture out and about in the world, to watching our sweet boy grow and learn new things EVERY single day and become just the BEST thing in the world to us.  While it was the shortest, it was THE best year.

At his one year check up LM weighed in at 20lbs 6.5oz and 29.25" long.  He is still an eating machine and has fully switched to regular milk.  He recently has learned how to wave (which he does only when he feels like it), he is cruising along the furniture and can transfer back and forth between the ottoman and sofa.  Just lately he is imitating more and more sounds (again when he wants to) and very clearly said 'red' (of all things) the other day so we're counting that as his first word.  

He is discovering a love for blocks, putting things and in out of containers, 'patting' items together, going for stroller rides/runs and continuing to not let us read very many books to him.  If you want to read approximately one page of a book and then have it shut on your thumb with some force, he's your guy.

Kait and Dane so sweetly gifted LM with a zoo pass for his birthday so we've been a few times and he's a big fan of the polar bears and manatees.  And Fiona, duh.  

He still hates to be tired and will just shut it down when he is.  He grabs that thumb and any resemblance of fabric/blanket/shirt/bib and closes his eyes. 

We celebrated his birthday with a big ol bash with the theme of 'Party Animals'.   I had SO much fun planning his party and LOVED how it turned out.  

On one random trip to Target a few months before his birthday I found the cutest decorations in the dollar spot that fit the theme I had in my head to a 'T'.  And from there it all just seemed to come together pretty easily.

I did my best to keep the chaos and stress to a minimum but did craft a few things.  I found this site and ordered this set and printed them locally and had 'pin the bow tie on the bear' and 'pin the party hat on the lion'.  

I went simple for the cake and ordered a plain white cake from Costco (it was delicious) and added this guy from Etsy and a 'one' sign.  For the rest of the food we ordered Chick Fil A nuggets, pulled pork, crock pot mac n' cheese, veggie/fruit trays and animal cracker snack mix.  I had a local bakery make THE cutest animal cookies.  

 I picked up an oversized birthday cupcake for LM instead of ordering a whole smash cake and he went to town on it.  It was his first taste of sugar and he was clearly a fan.  

 LM did take a nap for about an hour in the middle...but hey, it was his party and he can nap if he wants to.

We had such a fun day with family and friends! 

11 Months

If someone could tell me where the last almost year of my life has gone that would be great.

How is our sweet, smiley boy 11 months old?!  

I have no idea where the time went but I do know it's been fun and seeing our little nugget grow up and learn is just the best.

I think he is around 20lbs right now and he is wearing 6-9month clothing.

At about 10.5 months LM decided to was time to crawl and he took off and hasn't stopped since.  He is always on the move.  He plays very hard and crashes harder.

 He's now well on his way to figuring out how to pull up.  His mattress has officially been lowered the lowest setting after finding him pulling up in his bed a few times.

He was become a HUGE blanket lover (not in bed of course) but just about everywhere else if he's sleepy he grabs his blankie and shoves his thumb in his mouth (with supervision).  He kneads his blanket in his little fingers as he falls asleep and it is just the cutest.

We adjusted his routine lately and transitioned to one bigger bottle at night and an earlier bed time...so far so good!

He has 6 (!) teeth!!  He got 4 on the top just about all at the same time.  And boy are they sharp!

He has been eating anything and everything we hand to him.  He finally got the grasp of being able to pick food up and he tends to shovel it in his mouth as fast as he can.  He seems to love fruit and yogurt melts and will eat just about any puree we give him.  He also loves cheese, smart boy :)

Earlier this month we traveled to Charlotte to see our friends and it was his longest road trip to date.  I am very happy to report that he did GREAT.  We moved him to his big boy car seat and he seemed to be very comfy and did well the whole way there and back.  He was also so happy there were 2 doggies to follow around.

While in Charlotte he discovered his newest skill...screeching.

It's a new level of sound and I'm pretty sure he's just figuring out his voice but my goodness we got some looks while out to dinner.

He is really picking up on imitating sounds and starting to babble more and more.

He gets sillier and sillier all the time and makes us laugh every day.  He is still pretty stingy with his laughs but we can usually get a couple out of him most days.  What makes him laugh one day does not always work the next. 

He does think fake coughs are SO funny (no idea why) so those are always a winner.

We've been to the pool quite a bit and he loves it and splashes all around in the tub.

We have entered the stage of starting to whine and trying to climb if he wants to be picked up and you happen to not be paying attention.  He still hates waiting for his bottle and food.  Once he's hungry, he is hungry! 

Overall he is very happy camper and every day is a new adventure.  We are loving this stage of life with him!

10 Months!

Double digit months old, what?!

Day by day life is getting more and more fun.  Mister and I love watching LM grown and learn every day.  It's as if something little clicks inside his cute little body every single day and he figures something else out.

He has the cutest little coy smile that he knows EXACTLY when to turn on and it is his papa 100% and I love it.  

This past month brought even more changes and development.

He is starting to say 'mama' and a little and repeating more and more sounds that we make.

If I was guessing I would say LM is about 19lbs and I swear he's grown an inch lately, he just looks SO long.  We are still in mostly 6 month clothes and slowly moving up to the next size diapers.

LM has become the best little eater! He has purees usually twice a day and also eating anything and everything we put in front of him! Recently he really loves cheese and pineapple and hamburger (just like his mama!).  He has 2 little toothers in and working on a few others.

LM is a ROLLING machine.  We have had to move diaper changes to the floor because the moment we put him on the changing table he flips over and is a wild man.  He also recently mastered going from his belly to sitting up.  We showed him one day how to do it and then all of a sudden he had it mastered.  He has started trying to pull up and loves to bounce on his toes and also bounce while on his booty.  

(ON THE MOVE!)

LM took another lake vacation and did AWESOME!  We were really proud of how well he did.  Us as parents didn't do quite so well...we arrived, unpacked the car and quickly realized neither of us had grabbed his luggage.  OOPS.  Thankfully we were close to a small town and I was able to grab everything we needed.  

He has recently discovered how FUN bath time is and it's the most adorable thing.  He loves to kick and move his feet, pat the water and play with his duckies.  He also thinks the drain emptying is incredibly interesting, ha!

We're just having so much fun with him and love our little family adventures. 

9 Months

Last weekend we celebrated LM being 9 months old!!

9! How did that happen?

I feel like a lot happens each month but I really feel like the time between 8 and 9 months SO much has happened and SO many firsts.

More and more we are seeing LM's personality shine through.  He is definitely silly like his Papa and has the cutest gummy smile. 

In the past month LM's firsts have included: vacation, sitting up unassisted really well, saying 'dada' (and I think working on saying 'hey'), giving open mouth slobbery kisses, tooth!, swim lessons and swimming at the neighborhood pool, blowing raspberries, ear infection (that he never really showed any signs of!), sucking his thumb, going from sitting to on all fours (on the verge of thinking about crawling).

LM has also had some food adventures lately too! He's tried avocado, banana, frozen peaches, puffs and yogurt melts. He seems to love all purees and takes his afternoon one down like a champ.  We are working on getting more meals in him and introducing some more food all the time!

He loves to shove anything and everything in his mouth and is an expert grabber.  Especially when that involves precisely 3 strands of mamas hair. He's doing well playing with more toys, these are a personal new favorite (truthfully for everyone in our house).  And he's starting to get the hang out of this fun guy now that he can sit up so well!

(always on the move!)

 

We had our 9 month check up and the doctor said he looks great and is doing well developmentally for his adjusted age.  He weighed in at 18lbs 6.5oz and 27.5" long.  

 We are in mostly 6 month size clothes.  Mama has had to pick up some new jammies lately though because he is getting too long for all of his.  Don't fear the dino feet ones have been ordered in all sizes and these monkey's arrived and I am in love.

LM still doesn't really love the time of day between 9 and 9:30 but we are working through it.  Otherwise he is generally a very happy camper.  He lights up when his Papa walks in the room and thinks Floyd is so funny. 

First Family Vacation!

Last week we took our first family vacation up to North Eastern Ohio and it was SO fun!

Our sitter was on vacation so we decided it was as good as time as any to pack up and head out of town for a few days.

Our main objective was to get to a little bit of water but also not be in the car for too long because we weren't sure how LM would do.

Thankfully we are less than 4 hours from Lake Erie so that is where we landed!

We stayed in Port Clinton, Ohio and we very centrally located to Catawba Island, Kelley's Island a Put In Bay.  

Neither Mister nor I had ever been up to Lake Erie so we did a bit of research before we went and talked to some friends that knew the area to get some ideas of things to do.  We also left our agenda open to be able to do whatever we wanted and adapt to LM's needs.  

We packed up the car Monday morning and hit the road!  LM was a CHAMP in the car and slept the entire time.  Mister and I listened to The Magnolia book and if we didn't love Chip and Joanna enough before, we are full on obsessed now.  We just love them.  

We pulled right into town and had lunch at a cute spot on the water.

We settled into the hotel and LM was thrilled to have a big ol bed to play on.

 Later that afternoon we took the ferry over to Kelley's Island.  It was adorable!  It is teeny tiny island but oh so cute and a great little afternoon trip.  

 We found a little beach to walk onto and dipped LM's toes in the sand and the water, he seemed to love it!

Tuesday we woke up slowly (LM slept until after 8!) and we took a BIG ol ferry over to Put In Bay.  We've heard many stories that PIB is party city but mid June in the middle of week and the middle of the day it was totally calm and pretty.  We took LM to a park we found and he had his first big swing on a swing set (don't worry I took approximately 1000 photos).  

We had another water side lunch and LM had his lunch reclined in his stroller in a park...rough life! 

Funny story, we forgot one part of his bottles and didn't realize it until we were already on the island.  Mister and I stood and looked at each other for a good 60 seconds like what in THE heck do we do?!  Thankfully we managed to find a hole in the wall grocery and they had ONE bottle there and I snagged it up and we were good to go!  Adventures in parenting! 

That evening we strolled around Lakeside, walked out on the pier and took in the beautiful weather.  

 LM also had his dinner in a park that night...vacation rules!

Though our trip was short it was perfect and we loved experiencing so many firsts with LM!

The End of the Milk Maid Journey

I mentioned in my 8 month update on LM that 8 months marked the end of my pumping journey.
And while I've documented most of my journey in some capacity here, I surely could not leave out the end.
I will say, the end and deciding it was the end, was not a decision that I came by lightly, quickly or easily.

Mister and I had a LOT of conversations, tears (just me), prayers and thoughts that went into the decision.  Funnily enough, most of these happened while I was pumping.

From the beginning (and because our feeding journey did not begin or continue as I had thought it would while being pregnant), I said I would continue to pump until I could not stand it. While providing the upmost and best nutrition for LM is our top priority, so is Mama's sanity and quality of life.  I do not and never had anything against formula.  My train of thought was always 'why not give him breast milk as long as I can and when that's no longer an option we make the switch.'  The adage 'fed is best' is forever true and the best thing you can do for your child.

Around 6 months I began to think about when I wanted to stop pumping.  At the beginning I wanted to pump until he was a year but because I started out exclusively pumping 8x a day for months, I began to scale back that time frame as there were days my sanity began to dwindle.
For many, many days and months it was a lot of work.  Work I am VERY happy I did but still work.

Once LM was more mobile, fun and active I felt like I was beginning to miss out on bits of his day and interacting with him.  With his age and the warming weather we were out and about more but that always had to revolve around my pumping schedule and what time of the day it was, where we were going to be, etc.

 Who wouldn't rather hang out with this smiley babe?

At 7 months I decided I would start to scale back and start the process of slowing down and eventually stopping.  I have a post planned on how I actually went through that process.  I found there is not a lot of good information out there on that process and I feel the need to dedicate an entire post to that.
So with that decision Mister and I began a lot of conversations on the pros and cons and what stopping looked like.  I went back and forth approximately a million times on whether to actually stop or not.  What kept ringing in my head was 'why would I stop making this thing that is 100% perfectly made for my sweet baby?'  And I could not get that out of my head.
My mom said 'you've grown that boy from 3lbs 5.6oz and that's incredible.'  Mister kept saying 'we have freezer milk to use, he's had SO much of your milk and you've done so much work, it's really okay.'  Mister was (and is) 100% supportive in all facets and especially pumping.
And while he is my biggest cheerleader, I think he was ready to have his semi sane, not hooked up to a machine wife back ;)
As I've said and documented I was lucky enough to have freezer milk stored up.  While we knew it wouldn't last forever or be enough for him to have freezer milk completely, it did help knowing we had that.

I could probably talk about this for hours but I'll spare you ;)

8 Months

I'm not sure who let our little boy go and grow up to 8 months old but someone sure did!

I will sort of let it slide because we can see him change and grow and become his own little man every day.

I'm going to stop apologizing for not blogging as much and just chalk it up to this season of life.  I'm hoping I can squeeze more into sometime soon.  

In the mean time...here's what's going on with LM.

Currently he loves eating purees, we've moved on to blends and he really enjoys them.  Ever seen a baby bird eat?  It looks a lot like that.  He loves pear/pineapple, berry blends and carrots/peas/spinach. 

He loves to be on the move, whether in the car or stroller, any sort of motion knocks him right out.  We've taken a few runs in the jogging stroller and I love being able to take him with me and get a little extra workout in (holy arm workout).

He's definitely been noticing Floyd more often, he smiles at him and follows him around the room.  He LIGHTS up when Papa comes in the room and has been a smiling fool lately. 

 I will definitely have a post about this but 7/8 months also marks introducing formula and the end of Mama pumping...knock on wood, he hasn't skipped a beat and I'm a little more sane.  Fingers crossed all continues to go well!

 On his 8 month birthday he decided it was time to sit unassisted for a little bit and now when on his belly he gets those frog legs going and scooting backwards!  He is on the move!

We know he's approximately 17 1/2lbs because we had our first trip to Urgent Care the day before Mother's Day.  All is fine but we were on a walk and I was wearing him in the Baby Bjorn, tripped on the sidewalk and we took a tumble.  Thankfully he cried immediately and I took the brunt of the fall but it scared us all (#momguilt to the max).  But also made us incredibly thankful once again for the amazing medical services we have here. 

(these photo shoots are getting more difficult...)

There aren't too many things he doesn't like right now.  He hates most nights between 9-9:30, to have his nose wiped and being hot (we've been rocking shorts for a while) but otherwise he's a sweet boy!

7 Months

Another month with our love has come and gone!

How is this chunky monkey 7 months?!

I swear he gets more fun and interactive each and every day.

He loves trying to imitate our sounds and the ones he hears at the sitters, LOVES jumping in his jumper and sticking anything he can find in his mouth.

We've tried pretty much all the purees, had some mashed banana and pear and I made him some sweet potatoes he also gobbled up.  We've tried puffs a few times and has nibbled on some mum mums as well.  Next up on the trial list is frozen peach in his pulp feeder and avocado!
He is still a huge, huge fan of kicking his legs.
6 months old brought rolling over and turning 7 months old brought rolling over in his bed at night.
LM is weighing in at a swift 17lbs and 1oz as of earlier this week!  He is in 6 months clothes and his summer wardrobe is stinkin cute.  I just can't even handle baby shorts. 

He does NOT like to sleep for more than 30 minutes during the day or his evening cat naps.  You can set a watch to his cat naps, they are that on the dot.
He also is not a fan of ending up on his belly and wanting to be back on his back.
He's been drooling consistently for about 3 months now but we have yet to see any teeth come through.  They sure do seem to bother him sometimes though so we are pretty sure he is working on some. 

He has the best laugh and gummy smile :)

I finally caught a smile on camera!