Andrew is a toddler!

Oh gawd, I thought I was bad keeping up with this blog when I had one kid.  Now I’m just terrible with two kids.  I’ll try to follow up with other posts about other events (like travel) but I’ll focus this one on updating about Andrew.

Andrew is a toddler now! Well, he isn’t actually “toddlin’” but he’s officially a year old.  We had a great backyard BBQ party with some friends to celebrate—it was a beautiful, sunny day and it was our first time hosting a party in our new backyard. We finally got a grill and we cooked up lots of burgers and hot dogs.  Andrew completely devoured the cupcake we presented to him (his second cake as we gave him one on his actual birthday) and had a great time.  Anyway, inspired by a friend’s blog about her children, here’s a summary of where Andrew is:

1 year Stats:
Weight: 19 pounds 14 oz.
Height: 28.25”
Head Circumference: 47 cm.

Teeth: His teeth seemed to come in all at once…but he’s now at 6 teeth: 4 on top, 2 on the bottom.  And honestly, he’s been handling teething so far like a champ.  He sleeps sooo well (no jinx!) and teething hasn’t so far seemed to interrupt his sleep patterns at all.

Gross Motor Skills: This has really started to pick up in the last month.  Shortly after he turned 1, he finally started to crawl a few steps.  At first, he would only crawl on hardwood…and even then, just a yard or so.  Then a little over a week later while we were vacationing in Cannon Beach, OR over the 4th of July weekend, his crawling was really picking up as we noticed him crawling all around our hotel room.  Easily by the time we returned, he was confidently (and quickly!) crawling everywhere!  So yes, we have a crawler now.  Any guesses on when his first walking steps will be now?  Around the same time he started crawling, he started really pulling up on things.  On June 21st, I saw him pull up to his knees in his crib…and again, around the start of July, he started conquering pulling up to a stand.  I finally lowered the mattress on his crib last week and he’s gotten so good at pulling to a stand.  But now, he’ll just stand there and be scared to sit back down…so he mostly pulls to a stand and then eventually screams cuz he feels stuck.  Our goal is to have him cruising by his 15 month appointment, so crossing fingers!  Oh, and he claps now.  It’s adorable.

Communication: He’s still mostly babbling.  The only thing he clearly says is “uh oh!” when he drops items to the floor (which he thinks is hilarious)  Otherwise, we do hear lots of consonants but I don’t think I’ve heard a specific word.  I’ve also been working on the sign language but haven’t seen him sign back…but I’m determined!

Food: Oh man, this boy loves his food.  Nothing makes him more happy than being able to eat.  He quite frequently eats more than Natalie.  He always wants to eat eat eat…which, honestly, we are so happy with considering his slow weight gain last year.  I know this doesn’t seem like much but he’s now in the 5-10% for weight which is a huge gain from the previous 1%. I swear he sucks down a pouch in less than 30 seconds now.  He will pretty much eat anything we give him…though there have been times when he’s turned his nose at something (carrots, avocado, even fried chicken).  We are hoping this may translate to him being an easy eater as we remember Natalie being picky with her food at this age (and oh boy, she is picky now).

On the milk front, he is still breastfeeding but only twice a day – morning and at bedtime.  I stopped pumping mid-May after a week long business trip to London.  It was clear my supply changed shortly after (at least my boobs seemed to shrink overnight!)  Because I was gone for a week, most of my frozen milk stash was used up and at the start of June, we switched to formula…but only for about 3 weeks as switched to whole milk really easily.  Andrew had no problems with the transition and switched cold turkey.  We’ve also mostly stopped using bottles (on occasion, we use it out of laziness as he’s obviously very efficient with a bottle nipple).  To my surprise, he took to the straw sippy the easiest (Natalie was the opposite).  I’d love to work with him on learning to tilt a regular sippy cup up and throwing his head back (this is probably why the straw was easier)

Sleep: (no jinx) Sleep is splendid.  I can’t believe it but since he started to sleep through the night, he really hasn’t regressed.  Like Natalie, his schedule is on the late side.  He’ll go to bed typically between 8:30-9:30pm and wake up around 12 hours later, around 9am.  I’ve started to finally introduce a book at bedtime (previously, he’d be so eager to nurse that he would bat any books away) then I nurse him.  If he doesn’t fall asleep right away, I’ll rock him briefly afterwards and then put him down.  If he doesn’t sleep right away, he may cry for a bit but almost always fall asleep within 5 minutes.  Naps are generally twice a day though there have been days when he only has one nap if the first one starts late (like after 12pm) and is long.  He falls asleep in the car or the stroller easily, so it’s a breeze to just take him out on the go and have him sleep wherever.  We’ve also been successful at having him fall asleep in the car and then be able to carry him out of the car and bring him to the crib to continue sleeping.

Likes/Temperament: Andrew is overall a really chill baby.  As long as he has food when he’s hungry, he’s just happy and willing to go with the flow.  He’s constantly smiling and laughing. He LOVES Natalie and really admires her.  As his mobility increases, they play together a lot more.  He loves playing with trucks and 4-wheeled objects and empty boxes.  Anything that makes sound — he can bang away at an empty sandbox forever.  Of course, he still loves mommy.  Whenever I come in the room, he immediately crawls over and wants to be held.  I often need to leave the room because he doesn’t understand why I’m in the same room as him and not holding him.  He loves it when I carry him in the Ergo (another place where he falls asleep easily)

Grooming: just had to mention he got his first haircut on June 27th! His hair was getting long on the sides and he was due…and his new haircut makes him so handsome! (I’m biased of course)  Natalie got a haircut at the same time—super fun having them both getting haircuts at the same time.