We had Lee’s first birthday party last Saturday, June 23. We had a great time and ended up having about 55 people at our house. It was crazy, but we feel so blessed that Lee is so loved by our family and friends. We had hamburgers and hot dogs and the kids just played outside in the water. They all seemed to have a great time. Lee had a blast and that’s what really matters! Here are some pics from the party.
Happy first birthday sweet boy – we had a great time celebrating with you!!
Baby Lee,
How has it already been a year since you were born?! I remember June 25, 2011 like it was yesterday. I remember every little detail (except for the part around the time I took the Ambien, but that’s probably for the best). I remember feeling so happy that I was going to meet you five weeks earlier than expected, but scared at the same time. I just wanted you to be a strong, healthy boy and I knew you were when the doctors told me you were 6 lbs 9 oz and you only had to stay in the hospital a week before you were ready to go home. You have proven to be such a strong and energetic little boy!
This year has been such a joy to your dad, me and all of our families. We have gotten to watch you grow, develop and discover the world around you. You put a smile on our faces every day. You have a way of doing that to everyone you see. You are so social when we go anywhere. You wave to everyone you see and flash your precious smile. You get so excited when you see something you like that you flap your arms up and down and make little gasping noises. Everyone always tells us we have such a happy baby.
You are all over the place and we’re constantly on our feet chasing you around. You just started walking right before your birthday, but you have been on the move since about 7 or 8 months. You have lots of energy and you just seem to be a typical little boy. You love to be very active…you love to swim, play in the water table, play with the water hose, go to the splash park, go to Gymboree, and play with friends.
You are also babbling so much now. You say mama all the time and it just melts my heart. I leave the room or leave your side and you start saying my name wanting me to come back. I know it won’t always be like this…there are surely going to be days that you want me to give you your space, but for now I’m enjoying the time you want me close by. You have been saying dada for a long time too, but now you really know who your dada is. When dad comes home from work you get so excited to see him and you want him to hold you before he can even put his bags down. You have gotten a little confused lately and think that all food is “nana”. You learned banana / “nana” because you eat a banana every morning. Now any time you want to eat or want more food you say “nana nana nana”. We’re trying to teach you the names of other foods, but it hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
I have so many sweet memories of this year that I will always cherish. You are such a blessing to us….words can’t even express it. I’m constantly in awe of God’s blessings and that He created you especially for us. We pray for you every day and our prayer is that you will come to know Christ at an early age and that you will grow up to be a man who loves the Lord with all of your heart, mind and soul. Your mommy and daddy love you so much and you have so many other family members and friends that love you too. You are so loved by many!!
This is you on June 25, 2011. Even though these pictures of you make me sad because you have so many contraptions hooked up to you, it reminds me of what a strong and brave little boy you were the day we met you!
Here you are at your 1st Birthday party! You had such a great time and we loved watching you enjoy the day!
How can it be…our baby is going to be one year old at the end of this month! Here is what Lee has been up to this month:
Weight: I think Lee weighs about 24 pounds now. All I know is that he’s heavy and it hurts my back to carry him. I am ready for him to be able to walk! I think Lee has had a growth spurt recently because we have had a lot of people tell us he looks big and a lot older than 11 months.
Clothing: Lee is wearing mostly 12- 18 or 18 month clothes. He is still wearing a size 4 diaper.
Feeding: Lee is taking a formula bottle 4 times a day. Although his afternoon bottle is usually just a little snack – 4 oz. Lee eats breakfast, lunch and dinner also. He usually eats all kinds of fruits and veggies or whatever we are eating if he can.
Sleep: Lee is still doing well sleeping – about 11-12 hours at night. He has gotten his wake up time back to about 7:00 or 7:30 which we like MUCH better. Lee is still taking two good naps a day also.
Activities: Lee is pulling up really well, cruising around and he has started to stand on his own. He’s not too interested in walking though. He’s a fast little crawler, so if he sees something he wants, he knows he can get there quickly by crawling. Lee has gone swimming a few times this month too. He loves the water and floating around in the pool. Lee is talking more and more. He has said mama some, he says “nana” for banana, “ba” for ball and “da” for dog. He also continues to frequently say dada. He also has been saying “lalala” a lot. I realized the other day at Gymboree that we sing a song that has “lalala” in it. I guess that’s where he picked it up because when we were singing it in class he was saying it along with us! So funny! Lee is still very social, waving to everyone. He can put a smile on anyone’s face by giving that little wave – it’s so sweet. This month, Cole and I went on our first vacation without Lee. We went to Turks and Caicos for 4 nights and my parents and aunt Nelda came over and took care of Lee while we were gone. Lee did great and they all had such a fun time. Cole and I had a great trip and were able to relax and sleep in which was much needed!
This picture just about sums it up. I’m not sure how I even got this shot, because I had about a nano-second before he was trying to throw himself off the chair. Lee keeps us laughing and on our toes. He’s into everything these days and we can’t take our eyes off of him!
Weight: I’m guessing Lee weighed about 22 to 23 pounds at 10 months.
Clothing: Lee is wearing 12 – 18 month clothes. He is still wearing a size 4 diaper.
Feeding: We worked on getting Lee weaned this month. He was officially weaned a little bit after he turned 10 months. He seems like such a big boy now that we just give him his bottle and he can give it to himself with no problem. I just look at him when he’s taking his bottle and can’t believe how big he has gotten! Lee has been eating a lot more solid foods too. He loves turkey, avocado, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, sweet potatoes, peas, spaghetti (messy, messy)….really pretty much anything we give him.
Sleep: Lee is still doing well sleeping. He went through a little stint where he decided to wake up early (like 6:00 or 6:15). We would just leave him in his crib for about 30 minutes because we didn’t want him to make that his new wake up time schedule. Well, it turns out when he was in there, he was chewing on his crib – ugh! There are teeth marks ALL over it. We had these grand plans that we were going to have this nice furniture that we would be able to use for a long time…I never thought a baby could be so destructive with their furniture. Lesson learned. I guess we will just have to get it refinished at some point. Also, he gave us a little scare this month. During his nap one day he reached through his crib and yanked the cord to the video monitor out and pulled it into his crib. When Fran went in there, he had the cord all wrapped around his hands – so scary. All I could say is thank you Lord for protecting Lee and we are baby proofing more and more. We moved the crib really far away from the wall so he can’t reach the cord. I just had no idea he could even reach it in the first place. Again, lesson learned.
Activities: Lee continues to say dada all the time. He also loves to wave. We go to the store and he just sits in the cart and waves to everyone – it’s really cute. He seems like he is going to be very social! We also started going to Gymboree this month. I felt like Lee needed an activity to get some of his energy out. This has been great for him, he absolutely loves it. He loves interacting with the other babies (and moms – yes, he’s not afraid of anyone). On the first day of class, he went over and crawled in another mom’s lap. Also, during parachute time, he took off to the other side of the parachute to hang out and wasn’t concerned at all about where I was. The class wears him out and he always takes a great nap afterwards. We are staying busy and trying to do lots of activities to keep Lee busy!
Well, I’ve finally found time to sit down and catch up. I thought back to why I haven’t blogged in a while, and I realized that I haven’t had as much time to just sit since Lee started crawling. Wow, that really changed things around here. Lee is on the move and he is just a typical active little boy. In an attempt to not forget everything that has been going on the past few months, I’m going to try to finally get it all down.
Weight: We went to the doctor for Lee’s nine month appointment and he weighed 21 lbs. 14 oz (75%).
Length: Lee was 28 1/4 in. (55%).
Head Circumference: 40th % – he is really catching up now!
Clothing: Lee is wearing mostly12 month clothing. He is still wearing a size 4 diaper.
Feeding: Lee is still breastfeeding – about four times a day. However, I started weaning him and introducing formula for one feeding at the end of this month. At our 9 month appointment, the doctor said we can start feeding Lee table foods. He can have anything except honey, peanuts/nuts, peanut butter and shellfish. His 4 top teeth were coming in this month. This caused a little discomfort, but nothing too bad.
Sleep: Lee is sleeping great - still 11-12 hours a night. He is taking 2 naps a day – his morning nap is always the easiest to get him down…sometimes he has been known to fight the afternoon nap!
Activities: Lee said his first word on March 25, the day he turned 9 months. He said “dada” and he loves to say it over and over and over! Cole and I were getting him in his pj’s and he was laying on his changing table and he just started saying it. The next morning he woke up saying it some more – he really seemed so proud of himself. Lee is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything , including Mollie. Mollie has started to run away from Lee when she sees him coming….it doesn’t feel so great to her when he grabs a chunk of her fur. Also, we took Lee to his first Houston rodeo this month. He had a great time getting up on the tractor and seeing all the animals! We are having a great time with our active little man.
Another month has come and gone and we are having so much fun with Lee! Here is what is going on this month…
Weight: I think Lee weighs about 20-21 pounds now. He has the chunkiest thighs (they are so cute)! I think most of his weight is in his thighs and cheeks – ha!
Clothing: Lee is wearing 9 month clothing and he is still wearing a size 3 diaper.
Feeding: Lee is still breastfeeding – four times a day (7 am, noon, 4 pm, 8 pm). Lee still has two solid meals a day too. He eats his oatmeal with a fruit in the morning (right before his morning nap) and then some sort of veggie in the evening (usually right before we eat dinner). He also loves to snack on puffs, cheerios and mum mums. It is so funny to watch how excited he gets when we pull out the puffs. I think he would eat these for every meal if we would let him. He has also been working on his sippy cup skills. We give him water in his sippy cup (the kind with a straw has seemed to work best) and he drinks some of it and manages to spill it everywhere too.
Sleep: Lee is sleeping great, but he is sleeping a little bit less at night. Maybe 10-11 hours now. He is still taking two naps a day. He is getting more upset at times when we put him down for his naps. I think he is just having so much fun playing that he doesn’t want to stop and slow down for a nap.
Activities: We officially have a crawler! Lee started crawling on February 8. We were so excited when he figured it out, but man, did things change quickly! The day Lee started crawling he was barely inching along. By the next day he was all over the place. It didn’t take him long to figure it out. He also very quickly figured out how to go from crawling to sitting up. A couple weeks after he was crawling, he started pulling up on things. We have baby proofed the house and we have to keep a constant eye on him. Lee is SUPER active and is constantly trying to get into everything…including Mollie’s water/food bowl. Speaking of Mollie, one of the other activities Lee enjoys is torturing the dog. He crawls around after her and when she lets him get close, he grabs her fur and pulls her hair out. Poor Mollie – she has been a good sport, but she is over it. Lee does love Mollie and gets the biggest smile on his face when he sees her come in a room. Lee is also waving now. His first wave was to the lady checking us out at Babies R Us, so I’m not sure what that means. I guess he feels comfortable there, because we go a lot. Lee is babbling a lot too. We aren’t sure what he’s saying yet, but a lot of times it sounds like he’s saying “Hey”. We haven’t heard anything that sounds like mama or dada, so we will keep working on that!
We took Lee to the zoo for the first time on MLK day since Cole and I both had the day off of work. We got a season pass to the zoo for Christmas from G-Mom and Duke. Lee loved the zoo and we are going to have a great time taking him some more this year! We thought it was funny because Lee seemed to enjoy watching the other kids run around more than he liked looking at the animals.
Looking at the elephants with Dad
The giraffe exhibit was so fun! You could get so close to the giraffes and touch and feed them.
My sweet boys!
