Fourteen Months

I bet you guys thought I wasn’t ever going to return.  I really haven’t been motivated to blog about anything lately, including a thirteen month old post (I know I am a horrible Mom), so that is the reason for my long hiatus.  I don’t know if I will become more motivated in the near future but I promise to make sure I at least post about Smidgel.  In this post I will include his milestones from both months (thirteen and fourteen months).

The above photois Smidgel at thirteen months.  I haven’t had a chance to take his fourteen month photo yet but I will add that once I do so.  Smidgel turned fourteen months old yesterday.  I finally don’t feel like time is flying by as the last two months have gone by at a normal pace.  During his thirteenth month he started cutting four more teeth, all on top.  He also starting walking more regularly and was splitting his time between crawling and walking.  His interest in the animals really started to peak during his thirteenth month.  For the most part he is nice to them but he does get overzealous at times and we have to remind him to be nice.  It is a work in progress but with his new found interest in the animals he has finally lost interest in their water!!!  We also found out that he loves the trampoline and swings.

Smidgel’s fourteenth month brought a little boy on the move.  He rarely crawls now (he only crawls when he is outside and is unsure of his footing) and unless he is sleeping he is constantly moving.  Speaking of sleeping, he has really started to fight his afternoon nap.  He probably only takes it once every three to four days.  We had planned on converting him over to one nap a day at the beginning of the year but if this keeps up, we may be doing that earlier than planned.  His vocabulary has really peaked this month as well.  The words that he has are: mama, dada, sit (which sounds like shit, unless he is saying sit down), more, what’s that, I love you and banana (nana).  I think that he has started to say shoe and night night but I haven’t confirmed them as of yet.  On top of all that he can show you where his feet and nose are.  We are working on identifying his ear but that is taking some time.  He can’t say dog or cat yet but he can tell you what they say.  This month he has also become obsessed with books.  I think that he pulls all his books off his bookshelf daily.  I will take that over him taking everything off his changing table.  Most nights you will find him walking around with a book and sitting down every couple of minutes to look at the pictures.  Now that he loves his books I don’t have to be as concerned with our books.  We have however had to push the couch back so that the built in bookshelf in the living room is covered.  Until I can ensure that he will always be nice to the books our photo albums and yearbooks must be protected.  In the last week he hasn’t been eating well but we have found he will continue to eat if you give him a fork.  I guess he is just trying to be independent.  We are trying to give him the opportunity to practice with his fork during most meals.

The last time we were in North Carolina my Mom and I took him to a playground.  They had bucket swings so he had a blast swinging.   

They also had a little people’s playground so we were able to get him acquainted with that.  He was a bit unsure of everything but that is because he isn’t completely stable on his feet quite yet.  I did however get my most favorite picture to date of him while he was playing on the playground.

Riding in the car hasn’t been pleasant the last couple of weeks.  Most of the time when we are going places it is at least an hour one way.  Smidgel starts to get tired but he really fights falling asleep.  We had reverted to giving him a pacifier to settle him down and ensure that he gets some sleep, as we almost always plan a trip around nap time.  The last three times we have been in the car we haven’t given him the pacifier and we pretty much spend the ride with him screaming.  He isn’t crying, he is just squirming in his carseat and trying to escape.  I could handle it for short trips but for an hour it becomes nerve racking and for that reason I am not looking forward to our next car ride to North Carolina, which we have quite a few of in November.  The four teeth he starting cutting in his thirteenth month are finally through so Smidgel officially has twelve teeth.  I think that’s it for the month so I leave you with the adorable face I get to look at all day, every day!

Birthday Presents

Last Monday Smidgel had two packages in the mail.  It had been a rough day for him after suffering his first face plant (this was taken two days after the fact, it healed really well),

and getting home way past his bed time (10 pm).  I was hoping that he would be up for seeing what he got when he got home, but he wanted nothing to do with it.  I waited until the next day to show him what was sent to him. 

Katie sent him Japanese gifts (the soccer ball, training chop sticks and the Karate Kid head band).  He loves, loves, loves the soccer ball and has actually kicked it around the living room.  Julie sent him the Piglet books and the hand made blanket.  The first thing he did when I gave him the blanket was throw it on the floor and flop down on it.  He loves it and you did a wonderful job.  Then later in the week he got another package, this time from Gris with three more books (sorry no pic Gris, I didn’t get around to finding the camera).  Thanks everyone for thinking of Smidgel and going out of your way to send him something, it is much appreciated and I am sure they will all be well loved. 

P.S. Writing this posted prompted me to add a few more photos to the last post…finally.

One Year Old

One year, one week and one day ago, Smidgel turned one.  It has been a busy two weeks but it has been a lot of fun.  The birthday celebration started out the weekend before his birthday with our families.  Saturday we had grandparents, aunts and uncles and Dr. P and her neice (Erika I am just going to steal your pseudonyms…if you don’t mind) join us to celebrate.  After grilling out, eating and catching up with everyone we gave Smidgel his birthday cake.  My sister had made him a train/race car cake (it was initially supposed to be a train cake but after decorating they looked more like race cars, either way they were a huge hit) and we gave him the top of the engine as his own personal cake.

He of course was weary of the flame and Boo-Boo ended up accidentially blowing it out.  We had been practicing all week but when it came time to blow he was too distracted by all the people piled in our kitchen to even try.  It took him a few minutes to get into the cake but once he got a taste of it, he was quick to dig in and make himself a mess.

After he started throwing the remaining cake on the floor, which is still his way of telling us that he is done eating, I ran him upstairs for a quick bath.  Unfortunately I opted to keep his shorts on so they were a mess too.  Luckily we didn’t drop too much chocolate cake on the carpet and the stuff that we did was quickly picked up by one of his aunts.  After his bath, we went outside so that he could open his presents.  Of course he wasn’t all that interested in opening so I did most of it for him.  He got books, a ton of clothes, some money for savings and a few toys. 

On his actual birthday we took him to the pool for an hour.  On our way home we picked him up a shake from McDonald’s.  Once we got home he took his afternoon nap.  After dinner we stuck a candle in his shake and sang him happy birthday.  This time around he tried to blow out the candle and was able to get the flame to waver a little.  We had gotten him a real rocking horse that I found at an antique mall earlier in the week so there were no presents to open that day. 

Last weekend we had friends over to celebrate his birthday.  It was a small gathering but it was a lot of fun to celebrate his first year with all of our close friends.  Erika and her two boys came out and Sherman helped Smidgel open presents. 

He got more clothes, lots of books and a train from Sherman and Juice.  I cannot believe that it has been (over) a year.  Looking at Juice made it reality that Smidgel used to be that small and now look at him.  He is a ball of energy that is constantly learning new things.  He is still workign on consistently walking and the more you want him to do it, the less he does.  He is really starting to take steps and not worry about having to hang onto things.  This month also came with lots of chatter.  Half the time it really does sound like he is saying something, like just recently he has starting saying uh oh when he drops something.  He has a few “words” (sounds that we know have meaning) that he uses consistently.  He is very head strong and I know that I am going to have a fight on my hands the older he gets.  When he wants something he tries desperatly to either hold onto whatever we are trying to pry out of his hands or get onto or into what he wants.  When it is taken away or he can’t get what he wants he screams and cries and if you don’t do it for him it just continues.  We are trying to be good about not giving him everything he wants so that it doesn’t show him that that behavior is acceptable.  This month has also brought us the following: our eighth tooth, finally; a small monkey in human form that climbs on and up on anything he can; a copy cat who will try to mimic anything you say, laughs when you laugh, sneezes or coughs when you do and has even attempted to snap because he saw me doing it; and a small tornado that will destroy a room or remove everything from a drawer in an instant.  Smidgel also got a new carseat this month and is now sitting facing forward, which he loves.  He seems much more content now that he can look out the windows and can see and talk to us during our many outings.  It was a great first year, that I still can’t believe has come and gone, and I can’t wait to see what the next year has to offer us.  I love you little man!!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Smidgel!!!  Where did the year go???

STEPS!!!

That’s right, he has taken his first steps!!  He did it last night and we were able to catch it on video.  Give me until tonight to upload the video (as it takes between two and three hours on my slow as molasses internet to upload a video) and I will add it to this post.  Way to go Smidgel!!!

Updated to add:

It is sideways because apparently if you hold our video camera to where it is parallel to the ground instead of perpendicular it shoots the video that way, even though it does not appear that way on the screen when you are shooting it. I have no clue how to flip the video or if there is even a way to do so. But there you have it, sideways walking.

11 Months Old

Smidgel turned eleven months old on Saturday.  We had a great month and it was filled with tons of new things.  At the end of last month, he loved to play Patty Cake and Peek-A-Boo, but only when prompted.  This month he would just start doing them out of the blue and get a huge smile on his face waiting for you to join in.  Just like last month he isn’t as interested in his toys as he is with the stuff we have laying around the house.  I have had to move stuff off the first shelf of the bookshelf because he discovered all the photo albums.  He has also learned to lift the top to the toilet seat so that he can play in the water.  The majority of the time he ends up closing it on his hand and then screaming because his hand is trapped.  He also will not leave the dogs water alone and it is starting to drive me crazy.  The only other slightly annoying thing that has come about this month is that he throws a tantrum (screams and cries) when you take something away from him or stop him from doing something.  I figure it is just the beginning of what is to come so I will deal with it.  

We have been to the pool a few more times since last month and he still loves when we go.  We haven’t gone as often as I have wanted to but hopefully that will change over the rest of the summer. 

He has conquered the stairs, both up and down.  We have to get him started coming down but once he gets going he has no problem.  If I don’t put the gate up on the stairs first thing in the morning that is the first thing he does once he is done drinking his milk.  He will actually go over to the stairs and wait for me to get up.  Once I get up to come and get him he high tails it up the stairs.  I have tried a couple of times to just wait him out but if I take too long, he starts going up and peers through the stair rails.  If I don’t get up or when I peek to see where he is, he starts going anyways. 

On July 4th we took Smidgel to the carnival that was in town.  It was a small carnival but they did have a carousel that he could ride.  I had to go on with him because Boo-Boo can’t do rides that go in circles.  I was able to get him to do his screaming thing while we were riding which ws a lot of fun.  He had a great time and dad took some great pictures. 

He is still a wonderful eater but he has gotten much messier.  We have been letting him practice with a spoon and sometimes it just gets out of hand. 

There have been a couple of times that I have thought to myself, “why did I even get you dressed before coming down for lunch?  I should have just brought you down in your diaper, let you eat and then put your clothes on”.  It is about time for us to do laundry and I know that I am going to have to stain treat pretty much every piece.

A few other tidbits and milestones.  He has gone out the doggie door to get to his father once.  He looks out it regularly but hasn’t gone out it but that one time.  He has started to stand up from the floor without holding onto anything.  He stands there for a few minutes before falling to the ground.  He hasn’t taken a step yet but we both think that walking is only a week or so away.  He walks all over the place with his walker, as long as it doesn’t get stopped by something.  We have offically stopped using a bottle (unless all the cups are dirty in the morning and I am too lazy to clean them) and he goes to bed with his cup now.  He did really well last month with only getting his pacifier at nap time and bed time.  We were supposed to start transitioning to not using the pacifier at all this month but that isn’t going so well.  He does great with not having it during naps but so far he has gone to bed with it each night.  I am okay with him having it at bed time for now.  I believe that is all for this month…only one more month to go before our little man is ONE!!!  I will be adding videos from the last month to his page over the next couple of weeks.  I will continue to add other videos as we take them so continue to check back there.

Endocrinologist

Yesterday was Smidgel’s endocrinologist appointment.  They weighed and measured him so that they could chart his growth compared to our doctor’s visit in May.  He weighed eighteen pounds, nine ounces (10th percentile) and was 29 3/8″ long (50th percentile).  Our nurse was a little confused at why we were there because she didn’t see anything wrong with him statistics.  She asked if there was anything that we had changed since May and I told her that the only thing was that he was formula fed now.  The endocrinologist came in and said that they are usually only concerned when there is a decline in both weight and height.  He said that since the blood panels run at our primary care physical showed normal levels he didn’t see the need to run any additional tests.  In other words, Smidgel is a normal kid, just skinny.  I asked if he still needed to see the developmental pediatrician (scheduled for next Monday) and again the nurse looked confused.  She said that children are normally only sent there if they are behind in their milestones and she said Smidgel definitely isn’t behind in milestones.  We have since canceled that appointment.

10 Months Old

Smidgel is ten months old today.  It has been a really great month that was filled with lots of laughs accompanied by big smiles, a couple of bumps and bruises and of course all kinds of new things. 

He has become a little less interested in his toys and is more interested in everything we have laying around the house.  I had been keeping him in the living room and just putting up a gate but he likes to have free reign of the house.  As long as I pick up the water and the cat food (he tries to eat it) we are good to go.  He spends most of his time pulling the golf clubs out of the bag, following the dogs to the doggie door, looking at himself in the washer and dryer or pulling everything off of my bedside table. 

We have had to get back into the habit of putting the toilet seats down or we will find him playing in the water.  The stairs have only been an issue once and I hope it will stay that way (unlikely if his grandmother and uncle continue to teach him how to climb them).  So far he hasn’t gotten into all the photos and books we have on our built in bookshelf in the living room.  We hope that because of the way we have the living room set up he won’t realize all that stuff is there.  If we have him on the couch he wrestles with us to get over to the blinds.  Once he is there he stands up on the armrest and tries to hang on the blinds.  I was letting him do it but it was starting to get old so we have put a stop to that.

He loves his bath time and we have been to the pool twice now.  He loves the pool, which I am thrilled about.  Both times that we have gone he has had a great time.  When we take him out of his floatie he tries to stick his face in the water.  I have let him do it a couple of times and he just sticks it in and comes back up, it is crazy.  Swimming was a huge part of my childhood so I am very excited that it seems he will be a natural in the water.  Bath time is fun and games now but he keeps getting himself in trouble because he tries to stand up in the tub.  He spends most of his time staring at the running water. 

Some other new little tidbits are that he is still a great eater but once he is done he starts throwing his food and cup on the floor.  You have to quickly remove everything from his tray or the floor will be littered with food.  It is quite annoying because he is totally doing it on purpose.  I say that because he looks at us straight in the eyes, laughs and grabs another handfull.  Another annoying thing he has begun the last couple of weeks is sticking his fingers down his troat.  I don’t know why he is doing it but he has made himself puke twice.  We have figured out that if we just ignore him he will stop.  He has transitioned over to a sippy cup, once we found on he liked.  We still give him a bottle when we put him to sleep but that is the only time that he gets one now.  He is a huge copy cat and when we take family trips in the car he spends most of it screaming.  Why you may ask?  Because his father says “ahhhhhhhhhhh, scary Mommy driver” so Smidgel copies him.  It is really quite humerous and I will have to get Boo-Boo to record it on our new video camera here soon.  He is doing much better with CJ now and only sent him into one small crying fit last weekend when we were in North Carolina.  The majority of the time he either ignored him, played nicely or listened when we told him to be nice.

We have decided that this month he is only going to be allowed his pacifier when he is taking a nap or going to sleep.  We implemented that today and he did great, ever when we left the house.  Hopefully next month we can just do away with it all together.  Last but not least, he has another tooth!  That’s all for this month, only two more months and my little man will be ONE!!  Maybe we will be walking by this time next month…

P.S. You can track Smidgel’s growth through his page that can be found at the top of my blog.

Appointments

Our doctor’s appointment on Monday went very well.  They weighed Smidgel and he weighed seventeen pounds, seven ounces.  He is now in the fourth percentile.  The doctor checked his ears and they were clear of infection.  The rash was long gone by the time we got there but I did bring it up.  His doctor felt that seeing it lasted less than twenty-four hours that it was probably a reaction to something in his environment and wasn’t something to worry about.  They did try to redraw his blood but our nurse did not do a good job.  The first time around she just had me hold him and of course she missed his veins.  So, as she waited for it to magically fill with blood I had to try to keep Smidgel as still as possible in my arms.  She then left the room for a few minutes while I got him settled down and then came back to try on the other arm.  This time she felt that we would have better luck with me holding him while he was laying on the table.  When she went to inset the needle she hesitated and nicked him three times and then left again.  At this point he was hysterical and tired because it was well past his nap time and we had been there for over an hour.  She sent another nurse in to do damage control and she asked how many times she tried.  I told her that she tried twice and nicked on of the arms three times in the process.  She apologized to me and told me that he had gone through too much that day and we should come back today (Wednesday) and we should see her.  I made the appointment for this afternoon so I wouldn’t have to take him.  I just couldn’t stare into those pleading eyes again so I felt it was Boo-Boo’s turn.  The second nurse did it this time around and she got it on the first try.  Boo-Boo said that he started crying once they put the tourniquet on so he knew what was coming.  We should get the results tomorrow.  Smidgel turns ten months old tomorrow so I will include pictures of him then. 

Bye-Bye Boobie

Two weeks ago today we said goodbye to breastfeeding.  It was becoming a battle every time we tried to breastfeed and I was just over it.  I was suplimenting for the most part throughout the day and the morning and evening sessions were very short and often full of stops and starts.  The funny thing however is that once we started bottle feeding I found out that is just how he is.  It is taking him two to three hours in the morning to finish a six ounce bottle.  For the first three ounces he sits still but after that he is on the move.  I just put the bottle (now his sippy cup) on the floor and occasionally he comes by for a quick sip.  So, we are now a formula family.  A week or so after we went to formula we found some great deals on formula at Target.  We had gotten two five dollar off coupons from Similac in the mail and when we got to Target one of the end caps had a sale on different formulas.  One of those was Similac.  They were selling thirty ounce cans for eighteen dollars because they were dented.  We got two thirty ounce cans for thirteen dollars a piece, crazy stuff.  We probably should have picked up a few others at the eighteen dollar cost but we didn’t think that far ahead.  Hopefully when we are due for some more we will find a silimar deal again as I have gotten more coupons in the mail. 

Tomorrow we have another appointment.  This one is supposed to be a weight check and to redraw his blood but I don’t know if the later will happen.  We are once again battling a rash, a cough and he is digging at his ears.  If he has another ear infection the blood draw will once again have to be put off.  Being sick seems like a never ending thing here lately but I really can’t complain.  Despite having infections and rashes he is still very happy.  I will update tomorrow on what they had to say.