One Year Stats

Dad took you to the doctor last week for a weight check and four shots while Mom worked.  Kudos to Dad for entertaining you for an hour...he's a keeper, that man.  You ran a slight temp for the next couple of days but seemed to react better to the vaccinations than you normally do.  Yay!

Here are the stats for the record books:

Weight: 24.3 pounds - 69th percentile
Height: 30.5 inches - 69th percentile
Head: 18 7/8 inches - 88th percentile

Dad was bursting with pride when Dr. DiMaria watched you run around the office and said you are on your way to being an athlete!  (But if you prefer music, that's good too.)

The many celebrations of Jack...

Two disclaimers:  I'm really behind on the blog, and this post is pretty picture heavy.

We spent about three weeks stretching out Jack's birthday celebration this month (and last month too, if we're being honest).  Keeping with his May Queen mother's habit of stretching out her birthday, next year we're expecting to hear the phrase "It's my birthday month!" being used for all sorts of shenanigans.  Hey, life is meant to be celebrated.  And celebrate we did.

Grandma and Grandpa Stevenson visited Colorado for a few weeks in September.  On their last visit with us, we had a birthday dinner for him (Qdoba quesadilla for the birthday boy, his fave) and enjoyed cupcakes.  He knew exactly what to do!

We came home to Indianapolis the weekend of his birthday to celebrate with our friends and their kids.  Our buckaroo was Sheriff for the day at the Sinders' Corral and we had a doggone good time hanging out with some special friends who we don't see nearly enough.

The Birthday Buckaroo with his favorites - Binky and Blue Dog

A tug on the sleeve in passing.  Livi's a good sport, I tell ya.

Monthly birthday banner above the cake table

A little snack for the trail (puppy chow)...

The birthday boy checks on his curls before the guests arrive.

Grab a hat and bandana, ya'll!

A HUGE THANKS to Rachel and Justin for opening up their home to us and hosting Jack's party.  Rachel and I had a lot of fun planning this party!  Owen and Livi are having their own Western party next weekend!  

Justin rocks.  

Rascia's Creative Cakes in Carmel made this masterpiece.  I hated cutting into it, and it tasted even better than it looked!

Exactly as I pictured it!

Love this picture, these boys, and these pretty ladies.

Our buddy, Jack!  Dressed for the occasion!  

Emily and her sweetie Kara.  I think that Kara and Jack are matched in their spirit.  Funny story - Jack was walking by Kara at the party and plucked her pacifier out of her mouth and directly into his, then kept right on walking.  She was.not.happy!  Brent saw it, took it out of Jack's mouth and put it right back into hers.  Then Jack was.not.happy!  I asked Brent if he didn't think to wash it off or anything before giving it back to Kara, and nah.  He said he was just trying to manage the chaos.  Haha!     

Emily, Bridget, and Scott's lower half.  

Thank you, Justin, for wearing the cowboy hat even when no one else was.  You're a real trooper!

The Steinbergs, minus Peyton who was probably helping with the cake.  She's a helper!  

I really don't know why I didn't take his shirt off for the cake smash.  Just wanted to get that out there, since you're probably wondering why I didn't.  I can't answer that, but I do know all the frosting came out of those clothes, so whatever.

And here's the part of the evening when he walked around clutching one of Owen's diapers.  I'm so glad Liam and Peyton could help with presents, because Jack was no help at all!

Yeah, yeah, go ahead and open my gifts.  I've gotta figure out how this dvd player works, Mom!  

We finished out the trip with a birthday celebration in Kendallville with Grandpa Bob, Granny Lou, and Uncle Rob.  He had another awesome cake and had the theatrics of the "cake smash" down at this point.  What a lucky boy!!

Cake, for little ol' me?

Don't mind if I do!

  

12 Months. One Year.

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow 

They'll learn much more than I'll never know 

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world 

One awesome year with my favorite little guy.  It's gone so.darn.fast.  I've said it before and I'll never, ever stop saying it as long as I live...I'm so lucky to get to be your mom, Jack!  Your dad and I are patting ourselves on the backs right now for keeping you alive, and thriving, to your first birthday.  In reality, you made it pretty easy on us.  You're a great sleeper, a great eater, and have a sweet disposition (if not a little boisterous).  Thank you, sweet boy!  


And a few stats for the record books:
Clothing Size - 12-18m are getting snug, 18m fits best, and I've also broken out the 18-24m.  18m isn't really so long anymore - funny how that happens overnight. Moved you up to a size 5 diaper last week.

Sleeping - No big changes here:  9:00 p.m. - 7:00 a.m. and two naps during the day.  The morning nap is 2 hours right now, and the afternoon nap is 1.5 hours.  Seems like a lot of sleep to me, but you play pretty hard when you're up so that must be why!

Eating - We've been transitioning you over to whole milk for the last month or so and we finished up with formula last week.  We packed up the bottles this weekend too, and you're doing okay with the sippies.  Well, now that Megan sent you the Toy Story sippies - those finally seem to be acceptable to you.  We have many, many brands of cups in our cabinets, folks.

Teeth - A fourth (a top incisor) popped through right after the last monthly post - so 11m, 2days-ish (for those of us -ME - keeping track for his baby book).  A fifth tooth popped through on the top about a week before your birthday. 

Movement - You took your first steps right after your last post, too, at 11m 1 day.  You walked three-four steps at a time for about a week, and by the weekend of 9/14 you started walking across the room in one pass.  Now, you pretty much refuse to crawl anywhere.  This new freedom has brought you a lot of satisfaction, and a lot of head injuries.

Words - you now say 'Mom' and 'Dad' in context, and 'bath' when prompted.  You've also picked up on the 'more' sign and 'all done' this month!  

Silly/Funny Things You Do: Tilt your head to the left when you're eating in your high chair and give us a silly look; beat on your chest with one hand - a form of clapping, it seems to us; wrinkle your nose at us and do a sniffing thing, which we do right back; carry around a mini contact solution bottle - whenever you see it, you just have to have it.