Michael: 11 Months Old

Dear Michael,

Yesterday, you turned eleven months old!  Oh my goodness!  Only one month to go until your first birthday!   You are a sweet, smiley boy with a wonderful personality.  Each day, you find something new to do and I am so amazed by how much you've changed since the day you were born.  You are very much a toddler; I can hardly call you a baby anymore!  I know you'll be walking on your own before we know it!  You have a magnificent demeanor and you can always find something to laugh at.  You are proud of yourself and the new things you learn to do.  You are always seeking ways to do something new and exciting.  It is such a joy to watch you learn each day. 

Here are some of your stats:

Sizes:  Still in size 4 diapers.  Wearing 18-month onesies and 12-month pants or shorts. 

Drink:  You take four bottles a day: breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and bedtime (shortly after dinner).  You take sippy cups of water and/or unsweetened fruit juice made for toddlers.

Eat:  You eat baby oatmeal for breakfast, fruit for lunch, meat/veggie and a baby yogurt for dinner.  For snack, you can have baby cookies or cut up fruit or Nutri-grain bar, or pieces of biscuit or banana bread.  Even if you've eaten and had a bottle within the last 5 minutes, you still think you should be able to eat anything that your Daddy and I have on our plates.  You will crawl up to us, pull yourself to stand, and stand up beside us with your mouth wide open like a baby bird!  You're too cute for us to ignore, which means that you've been able to try some "grown up" food this past month to include:  a tiny bite of chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream, grain of rice, cheese sauce from mac and cheese, tiny bite of egg drop soup broth, juice from a clementine wedge, etc. 

Sick:  This month we've traveled back to our doctor to check out a cyst on your eye-lid.  You are almost done with a 10-day dose of oral antibiotic (orange flavored, which you love), and an eye ointment (of which you're not quite a fan).  The positive side of going to the doctor's office is that you got to be weighed.  You currently weigh exactly 22 pounds. 

Milestones:

• You clapped your hands!  Now, when I hold up one finger and say "One!" you clap your hands.  Whenever you randomly stop what you're doing to clap, we say "yay!" which makes you clap more.  When you get excited about something, you'll pause to clap your hands. This is the sweetest thing to watch!  Your daddy will say in a sing-song voice "Michael likes to clap his hands: clap clap clap clap" and you'll clap along to his song. 
• You pet Akuna!  You LOVE to sit down beside Akuna and give him a belly rub.  I remind you to be gentle by saying "Gentle gentle; nice nice,"  which makes you laugh and clap your hands.  You think you are such a big boy when you can pet Akuna and Akuna just soaks it up!  We love watching you interact with your sweet puppy.

 

 

I love being your Mommy!   You are such an adorable, precious boy and your Daddy and I are very blessed.

Love you forever, 

Love, Mommy

A New Addition

Aaron and I have always enjoyed the age gap between us and our siblings.  Being born in years close together, we have both really formed good bonds with our brothers.  Aaron and his brother, Andrew, are 18 months apart.  My older brother, Keith, and I are 17 months apart.  And my younger brother, Bryan, and I are 26 months apart.  Aaron and I knew we wanted to have children close together in order for them to be able to create a bond like we had with our brothers. 

Well, ta-da!  We are expecting our 2nd baby!  We found out a few days before Mother's Day that Little Baby P. 2 was on the way!  We are so thrilled and are so excited to begin another pregnancy journey!  Michael will be about 16 and a half months when Little Baby P. 2 arrives, so their age gap will be perfect and I hope they will form a strong bond as they grow up together!

I've heard it said that the first child usually gets his or her baby book filled out completely, and that the 2nd child might get a few pages filled in, and the 3rd child etc. might only get their name in the book!  :)  I am going to try my absolute hardest to fill out every baby book for each of my little kiddles.  I am also going to try my absolute hardest to provide weekly updates during this pregnancy.  Due to the time contraints of caring for a wiggly, mobile, and at times very loud little boy, I will most likely update the blog on Friday nights or Saturday mornings.

This week, we reached the 14-Week mark and are starting our 2nd trimester!!! Yay!  I look forward to the 2nd trimester because it brings the hope of more energized days and less nausea.  During the pregnancy with Michael, I didn't notice a significant change in fatigue levels during any of the trimesters.  I have been sooooo tired during this pregnancy that I'm really hoping this trimester brings some energized days.  Although, I will understand if I continue to be tired throughout this pregnancy since Michael takes up most of my free-time and work takes up the rest! 

I made the promise to myself at the beginning of this pregnancy that I was going to savor it and enjoy it.  So often during the pregnancy with Michael, I wished away the days.  I was constantly so ready to have my baby in my arms!!! When August 2012 rolled around and it was finally my turn to have my baby, I couldn't believe that it had actually arrived!  This time, I'm trying to really enjoy the time I have with Michael while he's still an "only child on the outside of the womb."  :)  I'm also trying to savor the pregnancy and enjoy all the milestones that come with it.  It's fun to read about Baby 2's development and remember how I felt at that time during my first pregnancy.  And now that I know what baby kicks feel like, there have been a couple days when I've even thought that I've felt this baby kick!  It's fun to think about what life will be life when this baby arrives.  I know that January will be here before I know it, so I'm trying to soak up all of the memories to be made in the meantime.  Also, BIG HUGE BLESSING, Michael has been sleeping through the night for about a month!  So, I've been able to get some really great nights of sleep and I'm focused on enjoying those nights before the new baby comes and brings me back into the middle of the night feedings and diaper changes.

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue on this journey! 

Much love, Reba