Joshua's First Birthday

First I'll say this - the first year went by SO MUCH FASTER with him than it did with Audrey. Its like I looked away for a moment and he was 6 months old, then I blinked and he was a year old. Luckily I have the blog and plenty of photos and videos to refer back to when I need a reminder of what he was like at those baby stages. 

 

For his first birthday party, we decided to do a brunch and pajamas party instead of our usual cookout type, since it so cold and we didn't want to have to be outside. Good thing too, because the weather was crappy and there was slushy snow on the ground. We served a bunch of yummy brunch foods, mimosas, homemade hot chocolate, and some other treats and most of the party was spent eating and socializing. The house was so full! We definitely need a bigger house now that we have a winter birthday, because 30+ people left us all feeling squeezed. I'm going to have to get creative for his birthdays in the future because I'm not sure we can keep doing the inside-our-home thing year after year. He got lots and lots of new toys and clothes so he's really set for quite a while. Thank you everyone for being a part of his first year and for celebrating with us!

We had his one year photos done with Misty a few days after his big day. She did such a great job as always, and even got some good family shots (and our big announcement!) and some nice ones of the kids together. When he got to the cake smash, he needed a little encouragement, but not much! He mad a huge mess and went straight to the bath when we were done. Crashed for a nice long nap afterward, too! I'd like to say this was his first time eating cake/sweets as it was when Audrey turned one, but this poor second child has been getting little sneaks of treats since he was 7 months old. Parenting fail?

I had hoped he would be walking by his first birthday, but he definitely was not. In fact, he was only beginning to stand without holding on to anything by that time. I'm happy to say that now at 13 months, he's walking and looks so cute doing it. He takes these tiny baby steps with his arms out and he's very slow and careful about it. Such a different experience from Audrey, because she learned to walk and never crawled again, only ran. He got his first pair of walking shoes last week and I've been encouraging him to walk when we're out, but after a dozen steps or so, he gets tired and just wants to crawl to get there faster. I understand that since I'm pretty lazy too. He definitely likes to keep me on my toes even when he's not walking though - he is a climber. He will push furniture across the room in order to be able to climb on top of a table. I had to remove the two pink chairs that go with the coloring table because he would climb them to get on top of the table and would just sit up there and stare out the window or play with his toys. He hasn't fallen yet, but I know its coming so I went ahead and took the chairs to another room. He tries to climb out of his crib but he's still to short. I'm sure its only a matter of time before his arms are strong enough to pull his body up...or he discovers that he can pile up his stuffed animals and blankets and use them to climb up.

 

He eats like a grown man. I swear every time I turn around he's signing "eat" or "milk", and he's been out-eating Audrey for months. I didn't expect to have to add him in to our food budget so early, but he can eat a whole pork chop by himself if I let him! Must have daddy's metabolism because at his 12 month appointment I think he was only 22 lbs. He's got such a personality now too. A fiery one. He is such a little snuggle bug most of the time, but when he's angry you better watch out. He throws things, hits, yells, and throws tantrums that I did not expect from a just-turned-one year old. He is also a crybaby and can turn on the tears at any moment. He's lucky his crying face is so cute (well, it is to me) because it usually means he gets picked up....which probably only encourages him to throw tantrums more but whatever.

Joshua's first year was so much fun and I can't wait to see him grow over this next year. He's currently in my very favorite stage...the young toddler months. I know he is going to change so much in the coming months and of course I'll be taking a million pictures to document it all. Hopefully I can find time to fill in here, too!

Wrapping up a very blessed 2013

We have already had a very busy start to 2014, but let me back up a bit. The end of last year was packed full with Joshua's first birthday and Christmas, and all that goes in to that. My mom came for Christmas and Josh's mom came for JJ's birthday, so our house was packed full for the month of December!

Gigi and her babies

Christmas came right on the heels of Joshua's birthday, but luckily we had gotten much of our shopping done already. This was Audrey's first year of really understanding Santa and that he brings presents and everything. She was so excited which also made it really special for us. It was fun to stay up wrapping presents and to see how excited she was when she got her Hello Kitty Helicopter that she's been asking for since September. She was nearly in tears when she opened it! They were given so so many gifts by our family and friends and for that we are very grateful. Thank you all!

 

Audrey's first Christmas preschool show was also in December. It was a short little performance of three and four year olds singing Christmas songs. Audrey was dressed as a shepherd and when she first came in I didn't recognize her. It took me a while to find her in the group and when we did find each other, she started jumping and screaming from the stage, "That's my mommy! LOOK LOOK!! MY mommy is here!" She also was telling the kids next to her that her Gigi was there and she screamed, "Where's JJ?!" since he wasn't with us. It was honestly the best feeling to see her so proud up there and singing her little heart out (I could hear her singing before I could see her!). She sure loves to sing.

We are still trying to settle back in to our routine, but it feels like we just can't get there. Josh's schedule just changed at work so we're adjusting to that, plus with all the snow days we have had it feels like we haven't had a normal week since the beginning of December. Audrey is also doing gymnastics once a week which she LOVES. It makes me so happy to see her in the gym really opening up and being confident self. It normally takes her so long to feel comfortable with new people and new environments but she took to this activity immediately. She' starting to open up more at school too. Her teacher tells me she's talking more and playing with the other kids more, whereas the first part of the school year she would just kind of do her own thing. Maybe my shy girl is finally coming out of her shell.

 

I had my 20 week ultrasound last week and everything looks perfect! No, we didn't find out the sex. Heartbeat was around 145, the baby is really active, and has all of his/her limbs, as far as we could tell. He is measuring 1-2 weeks ahead both on the ultrasound and when the doctor measured my belly, but they aren't changing the due date just yet. She also said the baby is sitting up really high in my uterus, which I already knew. I popped really early with this one so it should be interesting to see how much bigger my belly gets than with my other pregnancies.