as my baby turns one

Grayson is about to turn one year old on Saturday.

ZOMG.

For the part month or so, he's really started to look like a toddler in the face. It's amazing the changes I've seen in him lately. I'll do a more formal update later this week, but I wanted to kinda go down memory lane and take a look at how my baby has changed.

Newborn
Teeny, all wrinkle-legged cuddlebug.

Two weeks: he didn't do much besides look cute. I so wish I hadn't been so sick during his first two weeks. I would have taken so many more pictures of my tiny brand new boy.

Month 1: his legs were finally started to fill out.

Month 2: this was such a fun month in terms of development. So much personality was starting to show through. His smile would make my heart flutter.

Month 3:  he still has the most gorgeous eyes.

Month 4: finally starting to gross a little longer hair

Month 5: oh the faces he could pull (and still can)

Month 6: we discovered his love of swinging.

Month 7: he's so affectionate and cuddly

Month 8: he's so silly. and man, he has gigantic feet.

Month 9: his laugh and smile are so infectious. he's turned into quite the social baby, and he charms everyone he meets on the playground. god, he's going to slay the ladies (or the men) with those eyelashes.

Month 10: I swear he knows more than he lets on, even from the moment they put him in my arms, and he blinked up at me and met my eyes.

Month 11: he laughs so easily and freely, loves to take everything in around him and soak it all up.

My baby is almost a toddler. He's got six days to go. I'm gonna try really hard not to cry, but I know I won't make through the day without a least a few happy tears.

grayson says, it's ON, grass

We went to the park and it was grand. I got to swing forEVER. Then Daddy took me over here so I could practice standing and crawling. I love to stand!

Hehehe, standing is so fun. Wait, what's this..?

Something is touching my feet.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It kinda feels prickly. Not like carpet at all.

I'm not so sure I want to sit down on this stuff.

No wait, Daddy. Where are you going? Don't leave me all alone with it!

Maybe I can push it out of the away and crawl over there.

Ew, what IS that?

Why do you keep touching me, stuff? I command you to stop it!

 If I can crawl over there, maybe the grass will go away.

It's FOLLOWING me. Stop touching me, grass! I don't like this at all.

Daddy, WHY? I kinda resent you right now.

Ew ew ewwwwww.

Stop touching me. Stopitstopitstopit!

I'm just gonna hold up my feet so you can't touch me anymore! But wait, you're still touching my other foot.

So I have to lift that one too. I wish I could raise both feet at the same time. Unfortunately, I don't have such magical powers. I think I'd just topple backwards, which means it would touch my head. GROSS.

You win this round, grass.

wordless wednesday: first few steps

first mother's day

I spent my first Mother's Day sleeping... a lot.

It was grand.

The babe decided to wake up at 5:30, and my loving husband got out of bed... well, I got out of bed too. I had to feed G, but then I got to slip back underneath the covers and conk out again. I was nudged awake sometime after 7 with the sound of my husband's voice and the smell of french toast. So I ate breakfast in bed to the TV in peace for a little bit until I felt like dragging myself downstairs.

After G woke up from his first nap around 10:30, we headed out to eat some lunch at Ghengis Grill. I really love that place. It's a little difficult to manage with a baby on your hip, but the two of us worked together to fill up our bowls. Grayson's been having some stomach problems - bouts of diarrhea that almost always leak out of his diaper - and he had an unfortunate accident on the way there. Ugh. Luckily, we were anticipating it and got him all cleaned up. Or rather, the hubs did, since it was Mother's Day. :)

After that, we went to Kohl's and found the hubs a shirt to wear for G's one year photoshoot coming up next month. We also got a pair of shoes for G to wear for photos as well. We never put shoes on him, so we're woefully inexperienced in getting them on his feet. It's almost like he doesn't have heels or something. We just can't figure it out!

Anyway, at that point, it was time for G's second nap, so we went home. I nursed the babe down, and then I knew exactly where I was headed - up to bed for a nap of my own! G slept for about 45 minutes, but I didn't roll out of bed until an hour and a half later. muaha.

We needed a few groceries, and off to the grocery store we went. Not very exciting, I guess. But after that we checked out a new park near us and G got to swing. He's gotten so much bigger than his last swinging experience - he holds on and everything. Oh my gosh, he's so big. My baby is going to be one in less than a month!

Anyway, we had some fantastic late afternoon light; all I had to do to these photos was a little sharpening and resizing for the Internet. I love them all, but especially the close up one where you can clearly see his two bottom teeth. The second one down is totally out of focus, but I love it anyway.

What a gorgeous little boy I have!

one month to go until the big O-N-E

Dear Grayson,

You're now just one month away from your first birthday. Mommy and Daddy have been busy planning your party. The invitations went out yesterday. We're doing a zoo theme since you love going to the zoo so much. I have no idea how you'll react to cake.

This was a big month for you (isn't it always?) in that you perfected a lot of the skills you learned right before you turned 10 months. Your sleep as been all over the place. Sometimes you sleep great and only wake up once. Sometimes you wake up several times and stay up for hours in the middle of the night.

You can pull up on anything and everything now. And, more importantly, you can sit back down without hurting yourself, which makes me so relieved. You're a pulling up maniac - up, down, up, down. You've also more perfected how to crawl, so you're trucking it all over the place. We put up some baby gates at your room's door and one to keep you out of the cat's food, water, and litter box. We need to put one up at the bottom of the stairs since you've figured out how to climb them. All over the house we had to finally baby proof since you're into everything you can reach.

Whenever we go to a playground, I keep hearing about how close you are to walking. And you really are. You've been letting go of things while standing and holding your balance for 5 or so seconds before falling. You'll walk along things and transfer from the coffee table, to the exersaucer, to my knee, and back again. I know soon you'll decide to try to take some steps without holding onto anything, and away you'll go!

You also cut two teeth this month. You cut the other bottom one that's next to your first, and you cut the top left tooth that will be next to your front left. We took you to a dentist for the first time due to some dark marks on your teeth (she said they were due to your iron-rich vitamin - boo! at least it can be scraped off later - yay!) and you did great. She really pissed you off, but then you were over it as soon as she stopped poking you in the mouth. It's unusual for babies to cut a side tooth before the middle ones, but I guess you're not wanting to do anything normal with your teeth.

In addition to all the mobility stuff, more of your personality is coming through. You're having your first protests when you don't get your way (they're kinda funny, actually). You wave back to us when we wave, and giving high fives makes the biggest smile pop up on your face. It's so easy to make you laugh now, too.

I'm still waiting to actually be called "mama" but you finally started saying it again! You started babbling with mama and then quickly decided that dada was way more fun to say. The past week you started up with the mamas again. It's so weird to hear you say that. I don't know how much you understand what you're saying, but we're trying to encourage by pointing at each of us to see if you get it.

We're still breastfeeding and beginning to work on more fingerfoods since you're seeming more ready. You had bits of broccoli the other day and loved it. You're a champ with eating chunks of banana but they're difficult to pick up without some crushed puffs on them. You're so excited to be feeding yourself, so we'll be working on that a lot this upcoming month. I have a feeling that you're going to start refusing purees once you get used to eating on your own.

Happy b-day, G. It's your last before we celebrate the first anniversary of the day you were born!

Dave took these pics today, and I edited them. :)