Dear Carder,
Here we are, one short month away from your birthday. Your Daddy and I have started the planning, but I seriously can't believe you are almost one year old!
Let's see... You haven't taken a bottle in about a month. I am thinking you are SO done with bottles. In a way, I am glad that we won't have to break your addiction to bottles (because I think the pacifier addiction will be terrible for you to give up). Now that we are used to it, your daddy and I aren't as stressed about how much fluids you are getting each day. Ok, I am lying. At least we aren't stressing as much as we did those first couple of weeks. We have you eating about 5 solid meals each day, plus finger foods. You refuse to drink formula or milk from your sippy. You will drink water or juice though. So, we have been sticking to what works. I will be taking you back to the doctor soon just to make sure you aren't loosing weight or missing out nutritionally.
As far as self feeding goes, you are eating more and more each day. I think you would be doing even better if I did a better job of planning ahead and cooking meals you can eat. For some reason, I am hesitant to give you spicy white chicken chili... But the way things are going, you will be eating that the next time I blink!
And what do you have to eat with? 2 adorable little teeth. You are working on 2 more, though. I have a feeling those will be showing up very soon. Your gums are very swollen and it looks very painful.
As the weather here has been warming up, you have been LOVING the outdoors. We frequently go on walks to the park. You absolutely love to swing and you literally squeal when you see the swing set. You have been enjoying crawling through the grass and playing on the park playscape as well. You still can't do that without Mommy's help, though. You are so friendly with everyone at the park - it is quite cute to watch you "flirt" with the people near you.
We took you on your first couple of bike rides this month. The first one was a disaster as you fell asleep and the helmet was so heavy that your little head fell over and you cried the whole way home. It was pretty miserable for all of us. Hopefully future trips will be better and we are looking forward to many more bike trips this summer!
You are getting so much more mobile - you traded your army crawling for real crawling and are getting pretty fast with it. You have also been getting braver with standing unassisted. We have seen you stand for a couple of seconds at a time while not holding on to anything. And now, instead of plopping down, you lower yourself in a controlled manner most of the time. Each day you get a little braver and a little better.
Your newest thing lately is making funny faces. You have been furrowing your eyebrows, narrowing your eyes while huffing (daddy says you learned that one from me), and giving us the most cheesy grin. I don't know which one is my favorite - they all make me laugh. I keep trying to get your picture while you do it, but you lunge for the camera.
This is my best attempt so far.
Your favorite toy right now is any kind of ball. If you can throw it and chase after it, you are happy...
After implementing a few sleep training tips, your sleep has greatly improved and you have been sleeping almost all night long. I am still rocking you to sleep every night, but now that you have given up bottles, I know that I should hang onto those moments as long as I can and I won't be letting that go any time soon.
I love you , little guy!
Mommy
