What We're Reading

Hello and welcome to the infirmary. We have been sick for over a week. Andrew came down with a cold right after his birthday party, and then I got sick and so did Brian. But luckily Brian was back on his feet pretty quickly.


Andrew has felt just fine and has had all his energy so it's been pretty awful that we've been stuck at home for this long. We've had to skip Gymboree and music class. We didn't even go to church this week because I didn't want to put him in the nursery.

I took him to the doctor on Monday because he had developed a bit of a cough and sure enough he had a little fluid in his ears. He never had a fever so I don't think it was a bad ear infection, but he seems to have turned the corner since we started on an antibiotic, so that's good news.

Now if only I can get well.

In other news...

I gave Andrew these Sandra Boynton board books for his birthday and he's obsessed.








He loves, loves, loves The Going to Bed Book. It's so cute to see him carrying books around the house.

We got a few of these books as baby gifts when Andrew was born, and I'm so thankful for the introduction. They're definitely a favorite around here.

What are some of your favorite baby and toddler books?

One

Dear Andrew,

You have been one for a week now. Wow! Your birthday week was a whirlwind, but it was so fun.

You had such a good time at your little birthday party. You love being the center of attention! I hope you're always ready to light up a room.


You are so busy and full of energy at one. (I don't think that's going to change any time soon!) We have to get out of the house and do something every day or we both go a little stir crazy.

You've transitioned to only one nap a day over the last few months and that means I really need to get you out to do something in the morning before lunch. This is a big change for us because we used to not really go anywhere until after your morning nap.


But we're both liking it. It's a good routine.

You're an excellent eater. You like blueberries, crackers, turkey, chicken, green peas, brown rice, waffles, peanut butter, apples, grapes, sweet potatoes, carrots, rice cakes, avocados. Really, you'll try anything I give you. Sometimes you're in a mood and just throw it off your tray for Fenway, but usually you'll eat it. I hope your good eating habits continue!

You're still nursing three or four times a day. I don't think either of us are quite ready to wean yet so we'll keep it up. I keep watching for signs from you that you're ready, but you haven't slowed down a bit. I figure it helps keep you pretty healthy, and it'll be so good for you in the long run that I'm not going to worry about trying to quit before you're ready.


You're growing like crazy! We went to your 12-month doctor appointment last week and you weigh 22 lbs, 13 oz and are 29.25 inches tall. You're still in the 50th percentile for weight and you jumped up to the 50th percentile for height. Yay! I was so proud!

Gymboree is currently your absolute favorite activity. You'd go every day if I'd take you. You love to run around the mats, crawl through the tunnels, throw the balls around and sing the songs. Have I mentioned how busy you are? :)

You say a few words - Dada, dog, ball and bye are your favorites. But you will NOT say Mama, at all in any way. You know who I am, but you're not interested in calling me by name. But when you see a dog, whether on TV, walking down the street or in a book you immediately point and say "dog." You've got that one figured out!

You do the signs for eat, more and all done but we kind of dropped the ball on the sign language. I love it when you sign all done though. You put your whole body in to that little arm wave.


Oh, I could go on and on about what an amazing little boy you are! You have brought such joy to your dad and me and to our whole family. What did we do without you? We all love you so much.

Thank you for making me your mama. I'm so, so blessed to have you in my life.

Birthday Boy

Look who's so proud of being one!

(Lots more about the birthday to come!)

Thursday, Already?

Oh my goodness, y'all. I can't believe it's already Thursday night. I've had so much to do this week, but I don't feel like I've gotten anything done, really.


Did you know that Andrew turns one next week? And we're having a party. It's a small party, but it still takes lots of planning and doing. So I'm sorry I haven't been around this week to share more cute pictures of the little guy.


He's a mischievous little fellow these days. He's not supposed to be playing with these blinds. But the light in our back room is so nice in the morning that I like to take his picture there. And if it means a little run-in with the blinds, well, I can work on discipline a little later, right?

Maybe that's part of the problem. He thinks it's funny when we tell him "no." I really do work on being consistent most of the time, but oh my word, it's time consuming. I know how important it is though so we're working on it.


But he's so much fun it's totally worth it. We ran a bunch of errands yesterday after his nap, and he was just as happy as could be. He's loving all the Easter bunnies in the stores right now.


We were at Kroger and they had one of those tall, metal displays of big bouncy balls. He got so excited when we went by it that I thought he was going to jump out of the seat in the basket. He pointed and squealed and said "ba, ba!".


Hope you're all having weeks filled with joyous squeals!

i heart faces Fix-It Friday

I'm participating in this week's Fix-It Friday at i heart faces again. This little guy's mom said she was having issues with the overexposure in the top left corner and was concerned with the blemishes on his face.

I can totally relate to her skin issues. Andrew almost always has a bruise or a scratch right in the middle of his face.

So, here is the original:


And here is my fix:

I used Photoshop Elements this week, and I'm really happy with my edit. I went through a lot of steps and often undid and started over so I'm not sure exactly what I did, but here's a summary:

-I started with adjusting the photo for skin tone, warming the whole photo
-I used the spot healing tool for the blemishes
-I used a Coffeeshop Action to soften the skin a bit
-I created a little bit of a haze and added a warming layer
-I sharpened using the Unsharp Mask

I'm learning so much participating in these challenges. Let me know what you think!

Sleepyhead

Have I mentioned that naps have been a little sporadic around here? Andrew has decided that it's time to transition from two naps to one. I'm sure this is a little early, but we're trying to roll with it.

(I really hoped we'd make it to his first birthday.)

He's always been a funny napper, sleeping in 45 minute increments. If he sleeps past the 45 minute mark I know he'll sleep for another 45 minutes. Once or twice he's napped for two and a half hours and that is the absolute longest he's ever napped.

And if he wakes up early, that's it. There's no putting him back to sleep. You might be able to rock him back to sleep but he will not stay asleep when you put him back in his crib.

Well, last weekend Brian figured out how to get Andrew to finish his nap.


Ahhhh....he hadn't slept like that since he was a little tiny newborn.

He'll be one, (ONE!!) in less than two weeks, and I'm feeling a bit nostalgic. *Sniff, sniff.* Can you tell?

Swing

A few weeks ago Brian and I took Andrew to the park for the first time. It was a beautiful, sunny day, still a little chilly, but a great day to play outside.


At first he wasn't quite so sure what he thought about the whole thing. There were lots of older kids there, and he was really interested in them. But he got the hang of the swing and decided it was pretty cool. Especially when he got to wear his daddy's hat.


We got him out of the swing and let him play on the big playground equipment for a while. He was running around loving the freedom when he tripped and hit his lip on a ladder on the jungle gym. He bled and cried and I felt terrible. But he got over it pretty quickly. I was afraid he'd have a giant fat lip, but it wasn't bad at all.



We put him back in the swing so he wouldn't end his first park adventure on a low, but I think he was kind of done with the park.

We'll go back, but I think I'd rather keep him in a softer environment for a little longer. :)