Happy One Whole Year Old!! (+ a few weeks)

SS has been ONE WHOLE YEAR OLD for a few weeks now, which means I am overdue on a monthly update on him. It also means that I have an adorable First Birthday Party to tell you all about! Here's a sneak peek at his party invitation to tide you over until I get around to posting the whole shebang.

At one year old, SS measured in at:

30 inches

50th percentile

&

18 lbs 7 ozs

10th percentile

Did you get that? 

10TH PERCENTILE! 10TH!!!

A substantial jump up from the 2nd percentile, where he was hovering at 9 months old.

My baby is normal-sized! Cartwheels! Fireworks!

SS now pulls himself to standing, and is even cruising along the couch in the living room a little bit. He stands in his crib and throws his pacifiers on the ground and then cries and cries if he wants our attention. 

Ever since SS turned one year old, it's like an internal switch was flipped and our happy, mellow baby has become demanding, expressive, and passionate. He went through a stage of throwing a full-out yelling fit while we prepared his food and he waited in the high chair. He hates having his face wiped or his hair washed. Or getting out of the bathtub. Or when I take away his toothbrush. He gets mad when he can't reach something he wants on the couch, especially the remote control or the cell phone. Has anyone seen my perma-happy baby? Although SS is still pretty happy - his happiness is just punctuated with "personality" now.

SS chews everything. With his two bottom teeth and four top teeth. He has 6 teeth fully broken through now, with two more sitting in his gums.

SS's favorite foods are cheese and peanut butter and jelly and any fruit. And he eats at least one banana a day - SS loves bananas (and so does mama, they're such a quick, easy thing to throw on his high chair tray). The kids ate a lot of apricots when Tada was with us, because apricots are Tada's favorite. Speaking of which, "fave-wit" has become a thing in our house - anything BB likes is his "fave-wit" ever since Tada told us all about her favorites. Okay, back to SS. He's drinking cow milk now. No more (having to buy) formula! He started out only liking the milk if it was warmed up, but after a few days he started drinking it cold, and now between BB and SS we go through 1/2 gallon of whole milk a day.  And SS drinks out of a sippy cup sometimes now too!

SS's favorite toy right now is this stacking shape toy that GG bought BB before he was born. And he loves his stuffed soccer ball and his taggie ball - both were first birthday gifts. And he plays with the Fridge Farm a lot.

SS has said "Dada" to J a few times - I'm calling it, "Dada" is his first word. He also chatters "Mamamamama" while looking at me in his high chair, but also while waiting for his milk, so it's hard to say which beloved item he is referring to. And just this week SS copied Daddy and said a slight-adjusted "BB" - just the way BB said his own name when he was learning.

I wish I could find the words to fully capture the WHO of this little person, this little one year old, but he is too much, too full of life and joy and self to be contained by letters on a page.

But hopefully this helps share him a bit with you all.

A thousand words could never be enough.

Mr. Potato Boy

SS did this all on his own, no prompting or posing!

So of course I added the hat. 

Greetings from Capeside!

Life is finally starting to feel a bit more normal as we settle back into our usual routine now that B and Tada are home and SS's first birthday visitors returned northwest. This past week was supposed to be filled with blogging and crafting since I got all of my big "chores" (cleaning the house, grocery shopping) done at the end of last week, but instead I used my free time to have a daily Dawson's Creek marathon courtesy of Netflix, and turning my brain off in this way feels amazing. I am not normally someone that "does nothing" very well - I am production-oriented, to-do list driven, totally type A, but after and amidst our most recent life events, Dawson's Creek has been a haven that allows me to mentally check out a little.  

B is home, and has attended the last three days of school for the full day. Since B's second surgery she had to have another small CSF leak patched, developed what the doctors think was meningitis, came home on IV antibiotics, continued to develop fevers, a rash, and have unexplained pain, and then the doctors determined that B has an allergy to her antibiotics. All with a couple more hospital visits and procedures sprinkled in there. So her IV line came out and they stopped her antibiotics, and now she is back in action. Whew. Matt and Serene are still working out the plan for her radiation treatments, which will take place in Boston over 5-8 weeks.

And Tada started kindergarten. The girls came over for a little bit last night, and Tada was bouncing around saying "I'm just so excited for tomorrow! Because of kindergarten." Girl loves kindergarten.

The boys are fabulous.

And in another sphere of life, my manager at work resigned and my contract terms were changed. Which is okay, except that my manager was wonderful and I am totally going to miss her and I hope our unit doesn't go to shambles without her. 

And then there's J's job. Ugh. His team structure was changed so he got a new supervisor. And he finally finally finally just yesterday got approved to teach his class again - the class he starts teaching on Tuesday. Cutting it down to the wire, much? (Not anything J could do, totally because of some political type of issues from the higher-ups). I don't want to say a lot about J's job issues, but let's just say that if we sat down for coffee I'd have plenty to discuss.

Because what else do you need in the midst of family crisis but bilateral job upheaval? 

Hence, Dawson's Creek. 

I have been working out again this week, thank goodness. I go a little crazy when I can't exercise - exercise is how I deal with my anxiety, and the endorphins balance out my melancholy spells. I still play soccer once a week - I am a proud Pouncing Puma. Soccer is my newest-found love in life. And I usually run 2-3 times a week as well. In fact, a couple months ago I did a 50 Mile Challenge, where I didn't eat dessert until I ran a total of 50 miles. Which is totally wing-bat-crazy, because I looooove dessert. That's why I knew it would be the perfect motivator to push me to run farther and more often. I finished in 18 days, and really enjoyed it and am planning another Mile Challenge soon to compensate for the last month+ of stress-eating. But I have shin splints now, and my left knee is being weird, and I have groin muscle issues (soccer is a lil rough on me), so I am giving my legs a rest for the next couple of weeks and attempting to swim laps instead. I just used goggles for the first time yesterday and now I think goggles are the most amazing thing ever created.

It also bears mentioning that I turned 30 earlier this month. THIRTY! I guess I'm a real grown up now. I celebrated with karaoke with friends the weekend before my birthday, and our BFFs C and Dr. A and Little C and Little A came down from Phoenix to join us in celebrating.  Fun was had by all. 

Okay, I'm way overdue on a monthly update on SS, and of course there's SS's FIRST birthday party post pending too. Trying to bust some of this out...even though Dawson and Joey are calling my name.