merry JIBJAB christmas

My computer is showing its age. To do everything it takes to get a picture posted takes almost all of Blue's daily naptime! I figured this little gem was worth it though.



They didn't know quite what to do with Lucy's snout, poor thing. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

(The site I usually use to post video has some restrictions regarding videos that are not personally created so excuse the poor quality)

happy FOURTEEN months

Blue has been into sitting on chairs/stools/pillows/what-have-you all by himself. He particularly likes when I plop him in the chair in his room and bring him various forms of entertainment, such as books and stuffed animals. Who doesn't love being pampered, right!

Since today is fourteen months and he was looking extra handsome in his blue stripes I decided to snap some pics. I wonder how long I have before Blue is over having his picture taken? For today he was all into it - blowing kisses, giving hugs, and big grins.

Side note: We have some big toothy grins here so if you look close you may be able to spot Blue's two new molars!!! Ten teeth!!!

happy PRE thanksgiving

Blue has traveled to both coasts and has a Jamaican stamp in his passport. Over Thanksgiving week, he added one more area of the country to his list: the great Midwest! My dad grew up in Missouri and his mom and two of his brothers still live in the St. Louis area. His third brother was going to be in town visiting for Thanksgiving so we decided to join in. It was nice having an extra set of hands while flying and Pops gets a medal for wrestling Blue to sleep on the plane.

I know it wasn't easy!

The weather was chilly and wet but we still managed to get out and enjoy the zoo and a downtown park.

We managed to forget the stroller back at the house so we rented one at the zoo. It was really more like a buggy and the boy thought he was so special to get such an awesome seat. The whole time he was leaned forward with his hands gripped to the sides looking around at all the animals. Back at the house we basically just all sat around and spoiled Blue silly with too much attention!

No permanent harm done!

wouldn't you KNOW

November 12th:
We have a first word and I bet you can guess what it is! His favorite thing - stick. We sent him to spend the day with my parents on Saturday while we did some landscaping work and he came home saying it.



Update:
Since I never got around to publishing the above post (shame, shame) we now have more words to report - thank you, cup, truck, soap, tick tock, the list goes on. Is his pronunciation perfect? No, it is not. Be he comes pretty darn close on some of them. Graham in particular thinks it is funny the words he latches on to. He loves cats and hearing us meow and we have been doing it for months. Has he ever once tried to sound them out himself? Nope. The first time I said tick tock did he say it right back? Yes. Who knows what is going on in that brain of his...

Oh, and I guess now you can also see that he blows kisses! He understands so much. We can say "bath time" and he starts walking to the bathroom. This morning we were playing in his room and I asked him if he wanted some oatmeal and he took off in a full sprint for the kitchen! Definitely a great age!

months or YEARS?

Oh, and Blue is 13 months old today. At what point do you stop caring how many months old they are?

hats are BACK

So my love of hats on Blue has been documented here before. I had despaired that he would never let me put a hat on his head again since for a long time he just pulled them off after two seconds. But lately he has been parading around the house modeling two fine pieces of headwear. One is a little too small and the other a little too large even for his big head. Oh, but so cute.

happy wacky HALLOWEEN

So, turns out Halloween is not Blue's favorite holiday. Not a fan of the costumes, scary or not. Dad tried to explain that they were just people underneath the masks and funny hair but it wasn't sinking in...

What he did like was walking around the yard brandishing his stick. In fact, this is probably his favorite thing to do ever. We are about to do some major landscaping so he can have a safer, cleaner area to play.

The non-profit that Graham started all those years ago is still going strong. Here we all are at their Halloween party fundraiser event. This was the first time I had dressed up for Halloween since freshman year of college. Graham and I were collectively inspired by Swamp People - a show on cable about backwoods Cajun alligator hunters. So Graham was the hunter and I was the alligator. I made my costume from scratch! Mal and Andy were Rachel and Finn from Glee. I wish you could see more of our costumes in these pics. They were pretty awesome if I say so myself. Mal's Teddy Bear and Hearts sweater vest was particularly special.

a sweet NAP

These toys started out the nap spread throughout the crib...

Graham shot this with his iPhone - love the way Blue has gathered everything into a pile in the center for him to snuggle with. Blue is working on coming down to one nap a day. It has been a little bit of an adjustment for both of us as we figure it out. He has started playing in his crib instead of sleeping during his morning nap which gives us both a little quiet time. Then he goes down for real around 12:30ish. The one problem is that he doesn't always take a long enough nap to make it through til bedtime. But he won't go back down for an afternoon nap. If all else fails we get in the car and run unnecessary errands. He likes getting out and about.

the RHINO song

Ever wonder what we do in the evening after a long day when mom needs a little break?



For some reason this particular video makes him grin from ear to ear.

pair of SHOES

I was feeling a little lost about Blue's shoe size so on Friday we headed off to get fitted. Store number one was a little miserable. I asked a general question and the lady just nodded in reply. Then I asked if she could look at his feet and help me find his size. She asked how old he was and went to the chart on the wall to tell me that he would wear a size 5. Not very helpful. Lots of really cute shoes in there though. We tried some on but I still couldn't tell how they were supposed to fit and how much growing room was appropriate. So we moved on to store number two. Which is actually where my mom used to take us when we were little. Night and day difference. I was just wondering around and the salesman approached me to ask if I wanted to get him sized. Asked if he was walking and what I was looking for. Yes please! Turns out Mister Blue is a size 5.5 (when I started walking I wore a size 2)!!! That leaves a little growing room but I was so surprised. They also told me the shoes I had him in were too small (even though they were for 12-18 months). If left to my own devices I probably would have bought him a 4.5 - whoops. He was so cute walking around in his big boy shoes.

one year STATS

A handy message from my mom-in-law reminded me that I never posted Blue's one year stats. They were not all that eventful, mostly same ole, same ole. But good to remember nonetheless.

Weight: 22lbs 1oz (50%)
Height :29" (25%)
Head: 90th percentile

The percentages all stayed the same, but the numbers are up. We ran into one of our birthing class companions today at the toy store and the sweet little girl only weighed 16lbs! She was so sweet. She just sat there in wonder as Blue swung a hockey stick dangerously close to her face. Last time we went to this store was months ago and he could have cared less. Not so this time, he was into everything and loved it.

a birthday FAVORITE

One of Blue's favorite birthday gifts has turned out to be a little vinyl orange pot that he got from his Mimi (my mom's mom). He loves it. He carries it around the house with him and occasionally it seems to find its way back to his crib. This is the second time I have sneaked into his room to find this:

back to CLOTH

After a recent conversation with a mom happily cloth-diapering her baby I decided to give it another go. She suggested that using a special detergent might make the diapers more absorptive which seemed like a reasonable enough conclusion so I decided to put in the effort. I also decided to use brand new diapers so the leg elastic would be nice and tight. And lo and behold, we have been using cloth diapers during the day for a week or so now with no leaks!!! We are still figuring out our storage and washing cycle but, as far as their effectiveness, the adjustment has been easy. We still use a disposable at night which I think is fairly commonplace. The best part - they are super-cute on his little bum!

Even Lucy thinks so...

iPhone for babies

I took these photos in March so he would be around five months here. Sitting in the Bumbo seat he is all head!

in AND out

First we have Blue in Jamaica having way too much fun in the sand. It wasn't so much fun when it came out the other end...

quick look BACK

Before we move on in full force with Blue's second year of life I thought I would go back and fill in two events that I missed...

happy ONE year

We've moved on from months, folks. Now he is officially one year old. We had such a fun weekend celebrating with family. He loved every minute of it - new toys and lots of smiling faces and arms to squeeze him tight. I asked him if he wanted to stay up all night so tomorrow could be his birthday too and he answered by playing in his crib for an hour plus after I put him down. Usually he is right to sleep. I can't imagine a better first year. I have had so much fun with him!

I didn't think he would be a big fan of cake but given his enthusiasm for yogurt I figured ice cream would be a good bet. In the end, I actually ended up making homemade frozen yogurt (vanilla with strawberry pieces). He loved it. But we had a cupcake so we could stick the candle into something. As expected, it was not his thing. Didn't even want to get his hands dirty with it. Picked the blueberries off the top though!

We love you so much, bud. I hope year two is as great as year one!

a good MORNING

Blue was wearing extra cute pajamas this morning so I thought I would document our morning for you all...

This is the cute smiling face that serves as my morning alarm clock. Not bad, huh. Blue has taken to putting his hands on Lucy's face and attempting to give her a big slobbery kiss. I know it may not look like it but I got there in time!

at LONG last

After a weekend long battle with my various electronic devices I finally have a video to show you!

CHEERS for blue

Ah, for some reason my computer is not recognizing my camera so no photos here. BUT, I had to go ahead and share the events of the week.

On Tuesday my mom came over and we spent the evening cheering Blue on as he walked back and forth between our laps as we sat on the floor of his room. He had been taking the random one or two steps to get from the coffee table to the couch but he was still pretty nervous to venture out on his own. We started small and would give him big cheers and hugs when ever he made it from one lap to the other. At the end of an hour he had taken twelve consecutive little shuffle steps basically walking across the floor of his room. It was just the confidence boost he needed and now he is walking all over the place. He can stand up on his own without holding on to anything and he is pretty steady on his feet. He still crawls quite a bit, especially when he wants to get somewhere fast, but more and more he is choosing to walk.

i LIKE to

dance, dance!

This little routine started pretty recently where he puts his hands in the air in celebration. But today he did it to the music!

just being CUTE

I don't remember when this started but it sure is cute. It is our little trick. And he knows it is cute.

the WHOLE shebang

Posted these over at micaelandavis.com but thought you all would like to see them too!

two OCTOBER babies

We are doing an organizational overhaul on our computer files and I stumbled upon this oldie while looking through a random set of images. This is Lucy at four months when Graham found her sitting sweetly at the pound!

Sweet thing. I wanted to make sure it didn't get lost again so thought I would post it here for posterity. Blue is coming up on one year but Lucy is also coming up on 10!

uh uh uh

When Blue wants you to look at something or take him somewhere he will stick out his finger and make a sweet little uh uh noise (anyone seen Spirited Away? it is the same noise that big black figure makes...).

happy ELEVEN months

We were in Jamaica on the 9th but Ashley and I had an impromptu photo session to celebrate the big 11.

I have a whole series of these adorable shots but this is all I have access to right now. Maybe more to come. Happy eleven months, sweet boy. Next month is the big one.

snorkeling for THREE

It should be no secret that Graham likes to snorkel. I think he went at least once every day we were gone. Most days he went twice. And Ashley is his favorite snorkel companion (I just like to float near the surface, not as much fun for him). These pics were taken by one of the staff members at the resort. They have a whole crew of people on staff to take pictures of the various activities. Which is handy because you don't really want to bring your camera snorkeling. What is not handy is how much they charge for each image...

The resort also offered free childcare. Which is where Blue was hanging out while we were out exploring the depths. They loved him. As soon as we walked in the door they would shout "Hey Blue Blue". I called them his Jamaican Mamas.