Oh My Gosh February

We were busy. Also, we had guests staying in my computer room, so blame them for my silent blog, please. :)

Get out of the way, Tom!

David turned one on the 24th, and we celebrated his hugeness, how he can do everything himself, how he is too big for his swaddle blankets and all his cutest outfits. At no point did he succumb to sudden infant death, choke on solid food or sacrifice his extremities to the elements, and he breast fed for a year. I call that a success!

In retrospect, that might be how the giraffe’s neck was broken. It used to slowly move its head to music, and let’s just say it is pretty fast now.

A closeup of David’s slipper socks, which I opted for in place of boots because he never touches the ground outside and boots are very frustrating to put on a baby.

Here are the terms I consider to be in his vocabulary, although in true baby fashion he is pretty hard to understand sometimes:

Dada
Mama
Cat
Cracker
Cheese
Uh-oh (always in a gravelly voice, thanks to my dad)
More
Get down

I think he might sometimes say “yogurt,” “Ida” or “Tom-Tom” but it’s not a sure thing. He has also said “milk” and “all done” in sign language.

Up with the sun

He walks, although perhaps not as much as he crawls, and not as confidently. But every day the walking-to-crawling ratio is changing and I’m sure pretty soon crawling will be a thing of the past, or something he does around little babies to make them feel better about themselves.

His hobbies include taking baths.

I love my shower curtain

He still nurses, four times per day and occasionally once in the night (when he is teething). He is showing less interest in breast milk these days and really loves his 4% cow’s milk. When he is teething I give him liberal amounts of infant Tylenol, because I remember how much I loved my epidural when I was having contractions.

He has six teeth, four on top and two on bottom. I thought he was working on a molar last week, because he was chewing on things in that region, drooling like a hydrophobe and crying a lot in the night. But I haven’t laid eyes on it yet, so we won’t count it.

He sleeps 11-12 hours per night and takes two naps during the day that are usually decent, which to me means longer than one hour.

If you are holding him, you can say “Lie down” and he will rest his head on your shoulder. But just for a few seconds and then he is too terribly busy again.

Yes, he is falling down.

Don’t worry, he loved it.

I don’t know.

Peekaboo!

Watching snow

I got this toy back out, and Dave was about as thrilled as the cats. It took him about five seconds to have it all figured out, and then he kept taking it apart. Which was very annoying to the animals!

Tired hipster

My aunt, uncle and parents came from California to be here on his birthday. We think they are so amazing! The rest of the pictures were taken while they were here. Uncle George and Aunt Sue came a few days before my mom and dad, and left a few days sooner.

This is just to show that once in a while I can take a pretty decent picture with a cell phone. There is my camera for proof.

Aunt Sue read to him at bedtime. He always pulls his hair when he’s tired.

Cousin Adrian’s overalls

It was nice having someone else around to get pictures of the three (five) of us. This was probably taken first thing in the morning, judging by my pajamas.

I like this one more :)

Watch out for Tom reading over your shoulder.

Goldfish in the cheek

He liked when I talked about the polar bear and growled like a crazy person in front of the other customers.

After dinner on his real birthday he had his first-ever cupcake, which was funfetti, and his hair looks terrible because he rubbed soup in it.

Asking for clarification

Shopping again, poor boy. The hat from Aunt Betsy is so soft it was allowed to stay on.

So, I bought a ball pit. At one point I freaked out a little at the prospect of having 3 one-year-olds at my house (David’s birthday party) with nothing to do other than empty the DVD cabinet. Turns out the other one-year-olds were no-shows, but the older kids got some use out of it! Dave seemed mildly interested, but not enough to justify keeping it in the living room. So it’s in the basement, and might not get much attention until next winter when I think we’ll be glad we have it. I dropped Ida in and she was terrified, but Tom went in periodically and at one point lay down among the balls.

My poor mother felt sick one day and Ida gravitated toward her vulnerability.

Tom was similarly attracted, and with their powers combined they managed to restore her to health.

This was the night before Dave’s party, and I took a picture because I wasn’t sure the balloon chandelier would survive until morning. It did though! Lazy cats.

Making pizzas. Thank you, Mom!

I did not take pictures in the middle of the party, but we did have two families from Josh’s shop and three of my friends from when I worked at the bank. Dave seemed to enjoy the hubbub and he got some fun gifts out of it. Tom slept through the entire thing on the cat tree in the living room, but Ida made the rounds.

Ida chewed through a package of airline cookies, because she is addicted to carbs. I suppose making her wear a bib falls under animal shaming.

Please notice my FIVE STRIKES.

Uncle Geo

I have been appreciating the Suburban lately.

I am stopping there because February stopped there. Perhaps one day a March blog post will show more of this lively group.

I just love when people come visit us. :)