13 months old!

Sorry for the short sabbatical. No real words yet, starting to babble more.   When he wants your attention he yells "Ah!" so you look at him. Hopefully that will turn into some words someday soon.  There hasn't been too much going on here.  Our canines are popping through right now and those are a real "female dog." People aren't lying when they say those are the worst.  And of course our poor baby gets all 4 working at the same time.  Above is our baby lion after bath time.

We have also learned that our little boy is very smart.   He still resists playing so big, clapping, or waving.  But he likes to clap my hands together, when I ask him how big is Grayson, he grabs my thumbs and raises my hands up.   When I ask him where his head is, he crawls across the room to grab my thumbs and bring my hands up to his head.   He also signals hooray while playing if you are Happy and you know it holding my two thumbs and raising them up.   See a trend here?  We can't quite comprehend why he won't do it himself, but I guess that is considered mastering it???

We have been going to MyGym and hanging with our friends.  Below are two different play dates.  One with Sophie at her pool and the other with Cooper at his house.

And now we enter the "trouble" portion of our blog.  Grayson loves the door handles and locks.  He also likes to open the cabinets, even with the safety locks on them.  And lastly, caught cheating red-handed.   He doesnt need the basketball the game came with, he just pushes the lever inside.

Grayson with his friends the geese at our neighborhood lake.  He gets very excited to see them..

Sophie had a Minnie Mouse themed party.  Of course we had to go dressed up.  (The hat only stayed on for a few seconds.)

Dozens of toys in this house and he loves a paper bowl.  He had great fun with this sliding it all over the house.  We also decided to try round 2 at laundry basket choo choo.  Last time he wasn't so into it, this time he loved it!   We got big smiles and coos.

1 year stats and other holidays

 We finally made it to the doctor a few days ago for our 1 year well check.  He is standing strong in  the 50th percentile for both weight and height.  He weighs 23 lbs 1oz and is 30 inches tall.  He is however in the 90th percentile for the circumference of his head.  He must have a lot of brains in there!
Overall the doctor was pleased with Grayson, although Grayson was not too pleased with her. :)  She did say that the next 3 months are critical for him as far as speech goes.  We think he is a little behind the 8 ball compared to his peers.    He grunts and mmmms when he eats, but nothing recognizable.  In the past two weeks he has said gaga and yaya. This past week he has started to babble.  We are hoping that is the beginning of some words! We also started brushing Grayson's 12 teeth.  No toothpaste yet, just getting used to the routine.  It must tickle because he opens his mouth wide and always giggles. He has also started standing on his own for a few seconds.  We think he could do it for longer, but when he realizes he is standing alone he either squats down or falls forward onto one of us.  When he is playing standing up he also has started letting go with one hand.  We will see where this all takes us!

 Here are some pictures from our impromptu 1 year photo shoot the other day.  He loves his swing and his swing set.  Thanks Grammie, Gramps, and Uncle Andy!

 Now that he is a year old, we are decreasing the amount of formula he drinks and switching over to whole milk.  Grayson drinks 4 4 oz bottles a day.  We were a bit concerned because he has been on soy milk his whole life, but day 1 and 2 with real milk has gone pretty well!  We will gradually switch over until he is only drinking whole milk.  Mommy and Daddy are really excited to not have to buy any more formula!!   Since he is still taking 2 naps, and hopefully will continue to do that for a while as we are not ready to move to 1 nap, here is our schedule:
7:00- wake up and drink milk
8:00 breakfast, which usually consists of a fruit, waffles or pancakes, and yogurt melts
9:15- nap
10:30- snack (yogurt)
11:15- milk
1:00- lunch, ranges from pasta, to pizza, to ham and cheese, and a veggie
2:00- fruit and veggie squeezer (these delicious things from Happy Tot Organics that he loves!)
2:15- nap
3:45- milk
5:30- dinner, whatever we are having he eats.  He also gets two cookies afterwards.
7:00- books, bath, milk, bed
We are starting the transition in a bottle because we didn't want to throw too many new things at him, but once we are fully on milk we will switch to a sippy cup.  Doctor recommended that we get a different kind than we give him water in so he doesn't get confused.

 Happy Cinco de Mayo!   If you have a second click back to May last year and look at our picture. What a difference a year makes!

 Happy Mother's Day to me!  This was my second holiday with my non-furry baby.  Here is a shot of Mommy with her kids!

Grayson is 1 year old today!

 We can hardly believe that it has been a whole year!  We are so lucky to have such a sweet, caring, lovable little boy in our lives.   He makes us smile everyday!

Grayson's first birthday party!

 We had a very exciting weekend around here! We celebrated Grayson's 1st birthday with his friends and family.   We had a great time and only a few meltdowns. :)  We had almost 30 people here at one point, so you can't fault him for getting a bit overstimulated!   The party was initially planned for 4:00, but there was a huge storm coming through town in the afternoon.  I was so worried that the party would be rained out and we would be stuck inside, that I called up our guests and most were able to make it earlier, so party time was changed to noon.  I am so thankful for my husband, parents, and in-laws who all banded together and helped me keep my cool by getting the party all set up 4 hours earlier than we had planned.

 Here is our cute bug's party invitation.  The reason we went with bugs is that his FAVORITE show is and has always been Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends.

 The entryway to our bug party.

 I made bug antennae for all the kids to wear.

 Caterpillar with Grayson's name in green balloons!

 We thought it would be neat for Grayson to have a keepsake from his first party.  I got a Dr. Seuss book about bugs and had everyone write a note for him.

 The favors for the kids; a home for the insects they catch and all kinds of buggy stuff inside!

 For the last 12 months, I have been talking a picture on the 22nd of every month.  It was so neat to see them all strung together to see how much he has grown in just 12 short months.

 I attempted to make some of the food dishes "bugtastic."

 Grayson's smash cake is above and his cake to share is below.

 Thought it would be cool to see where the kids put their bees!
Below is a bunch of pictures of everyone having a great time outside!

 It is cake time!  Check out the video below to see more!

 Cake smashing wasn't all that successful.  We did get him to get a bit dirty by taking his baby cheetos and pushing them into the icing.  He will do whatever he needs to to get to his cheetos!

 Love this smile!

 Not everyone was able to come over at noon, so Grayson's BFF Cooper came over after a nap for another party!  The boys met when they were between 2-3 months old.   So neat to see how they have changed!

 Ahh...a love tap for Grayson!

 I thought it would be cute to have some sort of photo op at the party.   We all had a great time with this and I had a great time making it!  Here are just a few of the pictures we got.

PS.  The party went off without a hitch and it never really rained, but a small drizzle during the first party.  Better safe than sorry I guess!

http://youtu.be/91ZgFE9VYO4