Boyd - 12.5 months

**I spent about 30 minutes updating this post last Friday and went to publish when Blogger sent an error message and my whole post disappeared! So frustrated. Now I'm trying to remember what I wrote...**

Boyd received 4 shots at his1-year appointment and was NOT happy about it! His growth stats are right on track, as usual. For weight he is right around the 55th percentile - meaning 45% of boys his age weight more than he does. For height he is in the 90th percentile, which makes me happy. Statistically he should be fairly tall in the future, since D is over 6 feet and I am 5'5". 

• Boyd has been saying "mama" for a few weeks now. Finally! Still says "dada every once in a while. No other discernible words yet, just a lot of babbling and sometimes shrieking.
• He likes to lay his head down on pets, toys and sometimes us - just being very affectionate in general.
• He will put his arm out and push it through when we say it's time to put a coat on or get dressed.
• I took him to a friend's house for a monthly play date and he was in heaven. He needs more interaction and socialization with other kids, I think At Costco and the grocery store he is fascinated by other kids. 
• Also at our monthly play date/mama brunch, Boyd would giggle anytime the adults would laugh. And at home, he thought it was hilarious when the cat chased around the laser dot in the living room.
• Standing for longer periods, and has been taking a few unassisted steps here and there.
• He enjoys giving us items and "sharing" (and then wanting them back immediately!).
• Along those same lines, he likes to feed us finger foods. Very generous baby.
• Pulling his own hair - the pediatrician says this is fairly normal and we should distract him when it happens.
• I noticed that Boyd has small bumps on the back of his arms. According to the doc it could be keratosis pilaris. Nothing serious, but we are supposed to apply creme after bathing.
• I taught him the ET game - when I stick my pointer finger out and say "ET," he touches it with his first finger.
• We've had a couple rough nights last week and we think Boyd is teething again - this time with the first set of baby molars. I was up for 2 hours on Wednesday night and almost 3 on Thursday. Poor kiddo was in pain and couldn't sleep. He got some homeopathic teething tablets and a half dose of Tylenol, and finally fell asleep around 3 a.m. And then on Sunday night he was very constipated and upset for close to 3 hours. It's tough to be a baby!
• He has gotten the hang of sippy cups, food pouches and these reusable Sili Squeeze pouches that I found. Getting a little more picky about what he eats, but mostly that happens when he is getting full. I'm still surprised at the variety of foods that he'll try (and like!)

I love these Sleep & Play outfits and will be pretty sad when he outgrows them. They're so practical when we're at home or he is with my mom during the week. No worries about losing socks or his shirts riding up. When we leave the house I dress him in regular clothes, but you can't beat Sleep & Plays at home.

I broke down and purchased a Pillow Pet, and of course Boyd loves the thing. He cuddles "Mr Owl" by leaning down and rubbing his face it.

His new favorite activity - emptying out drawers, bags, bins, etc.

This photo touches my heart, with Boyd's little belly sticking out. And I love how his bottom lip sticks out when he is concentrating on something.

Raccoon pants!

Someone is supposed to be sleeping in this picture.

This is the only way I can get ready in the morning - by letting him empty out my toiletry cabinet.

Keeping Daddy company while the driveway gets shoveled. Risha and I went to meet with her wedding photographer last Saturday and when she dropped me off, Boyd was sitting in the snow like this.

Wheeeee!

Sharing with the puppy. He will give Drift all sorts of things.

Valentine's Day 2013

For Valentine's Day, my two favorite guys took me out for a special dinner at one of my all time favorite Italian restaurants in Anchorage, Romano's. Even better, we had a gift card to use up (won last year at D's union Christmas party). Turns out the card had expired (whoops!) but the manager very kindly honored the amount.

Boyd did pretty well at dinner - some minor fussiness due to hunger but all in all, we were pretty proud of him. Especially when we heard and saw a little girl screaming her head off before we left. Yikes!

Hanging out in the highchair, sporting his fancy Carhartt overalls.

In a pinch, keys always work as a baby distraction.

And as promised, here are a few iPhone photos of Boyd in his new Korean outfit. Love the hat.

Boyd - 1st birthday

Gabe's camera is awesome! Even a photography novice like myself can take halfway decent images.Gabe and Risha took most of these but I snapped the ones during the cake-eating extravaganza.

My mom and her friends cooked and prepped all morning. The food was delicious! The only way it could have been better is if my Auntie was here to cook - she makes the best Korean food.

Boyd borrowed a traditional Korean outfit for his 1st birthday party. Since then, my mom's friend Yonsil sent him the most beautiful (and expensive) custom outfit, complete with hat and booties. Will have those photos later.

Boyd had an array of symbolic items to choose from and he chose the thread (long life). Next he went for the money (success). Go Boyd!

"I am 1!"

Playing with the hammer from his new tool set, courtesy of Uncle Gabe and Auntie Risha.

Two identical birthday cards! He received many generous gifts - toys, clothes and money for his savings account.

His first birthday cake. I also made cupcakes and cake pops for everyone else.

He wasn't quite sure what to make of this situation.

Once he realized we were going to let him do whatever he wanted, it was GAME ON.

Pretty dainty. No big time cake smashing like we expected.

This was the largest piece he went for. I was worried about him sleeping later that night (since this was the most sugar he had EVER had) but he was fine.

LOVE this photo.

The post-cake bath with Auntie Risha.

Thanks for checking out the photos - quack quack!

Boyd -12 months

A year ago, D and I got up super early to head to the hospital for my scheduled induction. I remember being nervous and a little scared of what was to come, but ever so excited to meet our newest family member. We had no idea what we were in for over the next 12 months! You can read about the birth experience here.

We held a small birthday party last weekend - some photos below. Boyd did really well - smiled like a champ for the camera, took a short nap halfway through the festivities and got up for more partying, and was pretty well behaved.

Updates:

• Boyd has his 1-year appointment on Monday, February 25th. Can't wait to see his stats! He'll also have to get quite a few vaccinations - poor baby.
• We saw him clapping his hands together for the first time this week.
• He still smiles after sneezing- happy kid!
• It's marginally better during diaper changing time, but he would still rather squirm around and be upright.
• Mealtimes are hit or miss around here. Sometimes he'll eat the pureed foods, no problem - and other times they'll end up all over his bib and clothing after he has spit them out. I suspect he prefers finger foods now. Which is fine because we try to feed him whatever we're eating for most meals, minus anything really salty or sugary.
• I shouldn't be surprised by the fact that his first molars are coming in already. He has been way ahead of the curve with all of his teeth, e.g. 8 teeth by 9 months.

Here are a few of my iPhone photos from his Saturday birthday party. Risha and Gabe have quite a few more on their fancy Canon, so I'll post those at a later date...

Traditional Korean outfit for special occasions - birthday, New Year

His shirt says "I am 1"

Yeah, CAKE! He didn't tear into it like I thought he would. Mostly it was dainty little bites and he just picked at the cake

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Boyd - 11.75 months

Some updates:

• Boyd has started climbing the stairs as of a couple weeks ago! He's fast too. Someone is always behind him acting as a spotter, since he has a tendency to slip every once in a while and lose his balance. He's still standing for just a few seconds before falling down.
• Likes watching planes fly over the house and seeing cars drive by. He will pull himself up from the changing table to look out of the window to see these things. Big smiles when he does. 
• Seems like the most effective way to get him to calm down and be less fussy is to sing, but sometimes there's no consoling him. When he's tired it's a bad scene.
• Knows his name (and his nicknames).
• Loves watching himself on video or seeing photos of himself on my phone.
• Becoming more proficient at drinking out of a sippy cup. We practice with water.
• Gestures in the direction of what he wants or where he wants to go, occasionally points with one finger.
• Sometimes will give an item back if we ask for it, but mostly likes to take things. Is also starting to place things in a container instead of always taking them out. 
• Likes to open and close doors, over and over again.
• This has been going on for months, but he loves riding around on our shoulders.
• The "I'm gonna get YOU!" game is a fun one around here. He crawls away at top speed but then looks back and either keeps crawling or collapses in a fit of giggles.
• Also pretty hilarious - the Chewbaca noise he makes when happy. I need to get this on video.
• I bought him a little green Columbia fleece jacket for winter. D has one almost exactly like it and they look pretty darn adorable together. 

I'm tired of pumping. Really tired. I've gone down to one session at work (4 ounces) instead of two since my milk production is slowing down. Boyd still gets 2 bottles during the day while I'm gone, so sometime this month (or next) we'll introduce whole milk and goat's milk. I will still nurse him in the morning and before bedtime, but hopefully soon I can phase out the pumping session at work.

In other news, my cat Little Dude has been diagnosed with diabetes. AWESOME. Now we have two older pets with diabetes that need insulin 2x per day - once in the a.m. and again in the evening. Some mornings it's a little overwhelming to manage double the feedings and insulin shots (30 minutes later), and then getting Boyd and myself ready and out the door. It's those days that I wish D left the house the same time as us.

New coat - and playing with my keys.

Care Bears unite!

Our Care Bears costumes were a hit! The weather was perfect - in the 20's - and the trails had plenty of snow. Our shuttle bus was running late so we missed the costume judging, but we made it in time for the Party Wave start. Since we were in the back the going was a little slow in the beginning, but I kind of liked not dealing with the crazy crush of skiers in the beginning. There were bottlenecks here and there, especially before a hill.

It was great to see all of the ladies (around 1,300) out skiing on Superbowl Sunday to suport domestic violence awareness. I loved watching the little kiddos on their little skis - so cute!

Here are a ton of photos from the Anchorage Daily News. And one from the race photographer at the race finish of us girls.

On the shuttle bus, heading to the course. Our 5th member got sick, so she stayed home. :-(

We worked on our costumes individually, but Susie made our red butt hearts that say Care Bears.

Ski for Women 2013

I'm participating in the Ski for Women on Sunday - yay! It ends early enough to where everyone can still head home and catch the Superbowl. I've done this in the past (see links below) and it's a blast to see all of the amazing costumes.

This year our group is pretty small - but we've decided to transform ourselves into Care Bears. I've been working on my costume (nothing fancy) and will post pics next week after the race. Here's hoping the weather will hover in the 20's - I hate skiing in single-digit or below zero temperatures.

Here are a couple posts from the last time I skied it: SFW 1 and SFW 2.

Happy weekend everyone!

Video: Tissue shredder - 11 months

One of Boyd's latest favorite activities is to pull as many tissues out of box as he can and then slowly shred the paper into little strips. Sometimes the pieces make it into his mouth if we aren't diligent enough.

Twinsies

Thanks to Risha for snapping this photo.

Boyd - 11 months

In just a few short weeks I'll be the mother of a 1-year old. Sometimes I look at Boyd and wonder how we got so lucky to have such a beautiful, healthy, and inquisitive baby.

• Boyd has been waving when we say "hi" or "bye-bye." Sometimes he'll even just do it out of the blue or with two hands. I'm sure we look like idiots waving to him all of the time, but hey, when a baby interacts waves at you - you wave back.
• Likes shaking his head back and forth, like he's saying "no." I'm not sure he knows what it means, but it's still funny to see him do it with a smile on his face. 
• This cracks us up too, but it's hard to explain - Boyd will scrunch up his face and breathe in and out really quickly through his nose. Somehow he gets us all to do it and then we're all laughing hysterically. Where do babies get this stuff?
• He says "dada" a lot. Constantly and every day. I say "mama" to him and he sweetly replies "dada!" He uses varying inflections, depending on the situation. Really happy? Screams it. Mellow? Says it like he's talking about a mythical creature.
• I dread diaper changing time now. The best analogy I can offer is it's like wrestling an octopus - a writhing mass of arms and legs. Especially if an octopus shrieks and screams in the process, and tries to roll over on the changing table with a diaper full of poop.
• Has been all over the dog lately. He will crawl up to Drift to pet him, taste his fur (yuck), or hug him. Boyd will also do this thing where he'll use Drift's body as leverage to get into a standing position. The other day he did this and then promptly tumbled over Drift.
• Yes, our baby has been standing BY HIMSELF for a few seconds at a time. I'm not sure we're ready for our Tasmanian Devil to start walking yet. We just put up baby gates to block off his access to both sets of stairs. He is quite the fast crawler and moves faster than I thought possible.
• Another thing he loves to do is a baby-modified version of the Captain Morgan pose (crouching with one knee up).
• My mom works with him on vocabulary when she watches him, and at home D and I explain things to him so we think he's picking up a wide range of language skills.
• He absolutely is a music fan. Likes to do his version of dancing - sitting on his knees and bouncing up and down. We'll say, "let's play music" and he'll hit the music player's buttons. 
• How exactly do you discipline an 11-month old? Anything we tell him not to touch (e.g. the stand-alone radiator in his room, the pet water bowl, etc.) he of course touches and gets a big smile on his face. I know it's a big game to him but I'm getting tired of pulling him away from this stuff.
• We're pretty thankful that he loves food - all and any types. He's still drinking breastmilk, although less than before, and when he turns 1 we'll start supplementing with whole cow's milk. Or I've heard goat's milk is really beneficial (it's most like human milk) but I'm not sure where to get that in Anchorage. 
• This week there were a couple challenging evenings when he we would wake up about 40 minutes after bedtime and couldn't soothe himself back to sleep. I'm thinking he has too much excitement about learning new skills (like he can't turn his brain off). So I would have to go in to calm him down, which mainly consists of singing songs (which he loves) and holding him. He still goes down sleepy but awake for naps and bedtime. We're on a fairly consistent schedule for sleep (most days). Nap times are around 9:45 a.m. (takes about 15 minutes to fall asleep) and 2:30 p.m. (15 mins to sleep).
  At night we start the bedtime routine at 6:45 p.m. (diaper, jammies, nursing/milk, books and songs, then sleep.)

Super cute outfit my friend Stephanie bought Boyd for Christmas!

Even has flap on the butt - adorbs!

Hanging around outside during the warm days earlier this month.

I love his little off-center hair swirl. 

Broccoli, cauliflower and cheese.

Video: Crab fest - 10.75 months

My mom's birthday was earlier this month so D, Boyd and I took her out to a really nice Asian buffet here in town. The restaurant features crab at dinner time so my mom loaded up and even shared with Boyd, who apparently loves shellfish too.

Video: New shoes - 10.75 months

Why can't they make baby socks that actually stay on feet? I've started putting shoes on Boyd when we go out because those darn socks always fall off. Now he likes pulling off his socks AND shoes. These shoes were a gift from my boss - very cute!

Video: Reaching out - 10.5 months

Daddy teases Boyd using a tape measure.