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

Passover/almost a year old!

So crazy to think that the next blog I will be writing is about Grayson's first birthday party! Where has the year gone??!! This weekend was beautiful weather so we were outside for most of it. Today Daddy did a lot of yard work, so we kept him company. This little boy loves the outside! Big news: He has started to mimic a waving hand. He does it when he pleases, but at least he is starting to do it! We'll see how he progresses with that. He has also been clapping my hands together and looks very interested when I do it, but still doesn't want to do it with his own.
Watching Dad hedge the bushes. He loved when the chainsaw would stop. He would look at me and give me a huge smile.
We celebrated Grayson's first Passover this year. He rocked his I Love Matzah bib and enjoyed some of the real stuff. We read books and he especially loved the one called Dayenu!
This kid thinks that he should rub his hands and run his fingers all over his head on spaghetti/meatball night.
Had a great visit with Nonny and Great Grandpa Ra. We did lots of cool things together. We loved having them here!
I took Grayson up to school on a planning day and heard that one of the teachers had baby ducks in her classroom. We went to see them. Grayson crawled right over to the container on the floor and pulled himself to a standing position to see them. They look just like the ducklings in our touch and feel book so he was going crazy. Check out the video below!

11 months old

So we are 11 months old!

We have 11 teeth. Our two top molars came in and the bottom right has poked through too. We can see the white on the top of the one on the left so it should be in any day. This kid is a tooth growing machine.

We are still working hard on other skills such as "so big!" clapping and waving.

He is still crawling like a madman. We had to finally get some cabinet locks and some gates. We have one that is drilled into the wall when you first walk in so he can't get to the stairs and another moveable wooden one that we can use to keep him contained in the living room or out of the kitchen.

He is also cruising around the furniture that we have. In the living room we have 3 stand up toys lined up against our wall unit. He starts at one and works his way down the line. He also can cruise from the ottoman to the couch and walk down the couch. We got a walking toy that arrived today that he started to use. He is doing great with it, although he would prefer to play with the toys that are on the front of it and walk, but we'll get there!

We are getting things ready for his first birthday party. I can hardly believe he is going to be one!
Grayson is doing great with picking up food off of his tray! Here is our first really good spaghetti sauce face picture. He LOVES pasta. He just shovels it in. He does a good job with meatloaf too. For pancakes and grilled cheese he doesn't like for them to be cut into small pieces, he would just prefer holding the whole thing and taking bites off at his own discretion.
We started looking into big boy carseats. Here we are "trying one out" at our local store.

Just a rare shot of affection from Layla- mid-lick :) He loves pulling himself up to stand up by the couch and letting her lick his hands. He really likes to play with the tags attached to her collar.