Andrew's ONE YEAR Update!

Dear Andrew,

YOU ARE ONE!  We made it!  I really can’t believe it… time has just flown by.  You are becoming your own little person more and more each day.  For your birthday we had a small gathering of family and few of mom’s friends from work.  It was a WILD ONE theme with chick-fil-a as lunch and of course you had your own smash cake!  The rest of us had cupcakes that were delicious.  You didn’t seem to like eating the cake, but once dad put your hands in the cake you quite liked smashing it and throwing it on the floor.

This past month we went to the beach with Uncle Ryan, Aunt Stacy and cousin Asher!  We rented a house on the beach and stayed there for 3 nights.  We had so much fun.  You loved the beach!  The sand didn’t phase you one bit and you also liked splashing in the water.  You HATED wearing a hat so you had really, really crazy [and somewhat nasty] hair because of all the sunscreen we had to use on your head.  We had to watch out for the seashells with you because you very much loved putting them all in your mouth.  And there were A LOT of seashells.  You even cut your tongue on one.  But, you didn’t let seashells, sand or salty water rain on your parade.  You did great.  A real trooper and super easy at the beach.  We’ll be returning since we all had so much fun!

You also ended up with a double ear infection in September…  Which explains a lot of your behavior in early September; I wish I would have taken you to the doctor sooner.  You were super grumpy and it was because your ears were hurting!  Something also started messing with your tummy and gave you a really, really bad diaper rash.  We’d been lucky on the diaper rash front this first year, but you almost made up for it two weeks ago.  You were in so much pain and even woke up while sleeping because your bottom was burning.  We’re all better now, though!

You are enjoying being in the toddler classroom at school—not napping super great at school--- but really like being able to play outside and do fun stuff in the class.  You can clap your hands and sign more, which is sometimes a clap, and also sign all done, which can turn into just waving your arms above your head.  You are a good eater--- eat everything we put in front of you as long as we cut it small enough to your liking.  The only thing you don’t like is drinking whole milk.  Going to have to figure that out bubba.

So, let’s see my sweet baby boy.  At ONE YEAR, you:

•         Weigh 21.3 lbs (47^th percentile) and are 31.5 inches tall (96^th percentile).  Your head is still small, at 17.52 inches (10^th percentile).
•  Wear 12-18 month clothes and size 4 shoes although you’re really close to growing out of the size 4 shoe.
• I’ve heard you say mama, dada, gaga and recently I really thought I could hear some form of all done come out of your mouth.
• Enjoy knocking over towers we build you and doing whatever big brother is doing.  You’re never far behind from big brother.
• You love playing chase with Parker and giggle time in his room before bed.  You also love bath time with brother and climbing the stairs with him.  You just cackle and laugh with brother whenever you’re doing those things.
• You like playing outside and pushing different scooters around while brother also does the same.
• You really like the cozy coupe and you can get yourself inside and close the door all by yourself.  Getting out is a little bit harder for ya.
• Still drink 4 bottles of 6oz of formula--- but the day is coming soon with no bottles!  Will probably be a rough few days from that standpoint.  Hehe!
• Nap 1-2 hours at school, but still need 2 naps a day when you’re at home for about an hour in the morning at 2-2.25 hours in the afternoon.
• Sucking your thumb and rubbing your ear is still something that you do to soothe yourself.
• Sleep from 8-8 on the weekends and we wake you up around 6:45 AM in the morning.
• Busted your lips several times over the past month because you run around with things in your hands or your mouth and then you trip over something and fall with those items.
• Have 8 teeth with FOUR MORE on the way.  Your gums are all swollen and I can tell your are very irritated by them.

You are so much fun at this age and starting to show when you’re upset when things don’t go your way.  You’ll be giving your brother a run for his money very soon!  Mom and dad love you baby boy.  Always and forever.