Darrell & Sharyn

Playtime: We have a little destructor on our hands! By nap time, his toys are all over the house. If we are working in the garage, he will throw the toys over the baby gate into the garage. It has been pretty warm, so we have been spending a lot of time outside in the pool. We have also found a friend in a neighbor, so we go over and draw with chalk, or play with the pinwheels in their yard. All sorts of fun stuff.

Sleep: Sleep routine is still the same. Down around 8pm and up between 8-9am with a nap around 12:30 for about 2 hours. I have been trying to aim for him to be up for no more than 12 hours. Which means that if he wakes up early at 7:30, I put him down by 7:30 that night. If he wakes up late around 10am, I try to get him to bed by 9 so he will get a good sleep. We have noticed that when he doesn’t sleep well, he gets really cranky and it is harder to get him down for a nap. But overall, we have slid nicely into a routine. He is ok with occasionally changing up the routine when we need to be out late or up early though.

Food: It is watermelon season! Edward LOVES watermelon. If we have it in a container where he can see it, he won’t eat anything else. He has begun to only eat blueberries when they are mixed into something. He won’t just eat them fresh anymore.  Other than that, he still eats a bunch and almost everything we eat.

Teething: The outer front bottom two are working their way in now. He won’t let us brush his teeth anymore and would much rather suck on the toothbrush and crawl around the house. He is still chewing on everything and recently got into the habit of gagging himself. He shoves his whole hand in his mouth and will gag and continue to do that until he spits up. Hopefully it is just a phase and will finish quickly.

Clothes: We were just talking about how we need to pack up his 12-month clothes and move him into 18 month clothes. Sad that we only got to put some of the outfits on once if at all.

Movement: We officially got some first steps on June 16th! At first, he would only walk if we let go while he was close enough to something he could take a few steps, but far enough he couldn’t just grab it. Slowly he let go more and more. He is finally starting to walk on his own if he is holding something in his hands. It isn’t all the time, but we will be there soon. Oh.. and this boy is a climber! He comes over to the couch, grabs our hands and wants up. Then he moves all around the couch, climbs down and then does a repeat. Energy galore!

We had a lot of beautiful weather while Lorna was here. So not only did we head to the zoo twice… we also went to the beach. We hung out at the Edmonds Beach near the Edmonds/Kingston Ferry. It was a great afternoon and Edward enjoyed splashing in the waves.

And just a few extra photos from time with Grammy. Looking at flowers on the back deck and reading a story.

While Lorna was out for Edward’s birthday, she wanted to go to the zoo. Since we have memberships, we kindly obliged. We actually ended up heading to the zoo twice while she was here. They were also the first trips we took where Edward was more interested in walking next to us than riding in the stroller.

A whole year! We made it to a whole year old! It has been fun watching Edward grow up and learn new things all the time this last year. I know the next few years are going to be even better as he starts learning how to actually communicate with us and as he finally figures out how to walk and do things on his own.

He is now 24lb12oz and 32.25” tall. His height and head circumference is still in the same percentile they have always been in. His weight actually went back up. At his 6 month he was down to 75%, went up to 80% by 9 months and is now back up at 92%. A healthy growing boy.

Playtime: He loves to just get into everything and play with whatever he can hold. In our front room he stands on his folded up mat and looks out the window watching the chimes on the porch and the bees in the bushes. He also finds the drums and pounds on them and he figured out how to blow to make noise with the recorder. In our living room he plays with pulling blocks out and putting the on top of tables or next to tables or in a box. In the kitchen he loves to get into the cupboards and pull out the plastic containers and then bang them around and put them away. Recently he has started to enjoy just the motion of opening and closing the cupboards. He likes to empty the shelves on the door of the fridge. He has started to take his toys and put them over the top of the baby gates or push them underneath. He just finds something to do no matter which room he is in and it is fun to watch him explore his new area.

Sleep: Bedtime is between 7-9pm. Most nights it is right around 8pm, but some nights he is cranky so we put him down a little early or others he takes a late little catnap and isn’t ready for bed so we let him stay up for an extra hour. Most nights he sleeps through the night and doesn’t wake up until between 8-9am. Unfortunately, with the move, he has been waking up during the night. Many times when he wakes up, I can just go back in and rock him to sleep no problem. This last week was rough and I could rock him to sleep, but no matter how I did it, if I put him down and walked away, he would wake up. Even if I just rubbed his back until he fell back asleep, I couldn’t walk away. So I resorted to bringing him to a bed in the guest room for the rest of the night. I am pretty sure it is just related to his diaper rash and that he is teething again. Naps are still one nap a day. Now he is usually awake from between 8-9am and goes down for a nap between 11-12pm. Then he sleeps for about 2-2.5 hours and then is awake until bedtime.

Food: He is loving silverware. he doesn’t always use it, but he loves to hold a fork or spoon in his hand and push the food around his plate. He still eats about everything. I was packing for our trip and had put a couple peaches on top of the pile of food to go and had to take a load of things outside. Edward found the peaches and when I came back inside, he had almost finished one and had taken a couple of bites of the other (I had gotten distracted talking to the neighbors). We have definitely noticed he has occasional picky days. As we neared the one year mark, he would take a bite of something, fish it out of his mouth and then throw it on the floor. Then the rest of the plate would end up on the floor as the meal went on. It only lasted for a few days, so who knows what it was all about. I have noticed that he will NOT eat green beans. I tried to make them for him again and every time I have given them to him, he didn’t like them.

Teething: Still only has the 6, but I think more might be making their way in soon. We need to find a dentist and get him in for a checkup sometime in the near future.

Clothes: He is in 12-18 month clothes. There are some that are getting tight and some that are big, but overall most of them fit.

Movement: He is almost walking! He is to nervous to let go and take a step. While we are walking, he will stop, let go, and stand there for a minute. But he needs to grab back on before taking another step. He is crawling around non-stop. When he goes onto the back patio, he will walk on his hands and feet instead of his knees. His movements are definitely getting more graceful as he adjusts to his balance and learns what his body can do. Visiting other children (especially ones a year or more older than him) has been helpful as he loves to watch them and tries to do what they are doing.