A One Year Old

August is one year old.
He is a delight. A joy! A pleasure! and the cutest child ever spawned!
Needless to say, there's some favoritism going on in our household. Maybe he shouldn't be so perfect, so we wouldn't have to love him so much.

August, in keeping with his brother's traditions, is very active and physically capable for a on year old. He can now walk, climb up and down stairs, dance a cute little boogey, and climb on and off short furniture. He runs in short, excited little steps, and "tiptoes" in slow, exaggerated steps (towards a sleeping puppy, for example). He can even jump up and down! He usually bounces, springing his little butt up and down, but leaving his feet on the floor- but a few times, he's gotten so excited that he actually jumped with both feet off the ground! (He usually lands on his butt when this happens.)
He squeals and claps in excitement when he's happy or proud of himself. He waves bye-bye and signs all-done.



He gives the tightest, most sincere hugs. He really nestles in, wrapping his arms all the way around my neck, playing with the hair at the nape of my neck and tucking his face into my shoulder and holding on for minutes at a time.
August rarely gives kisses now, (but when he does, they're very sweet and intentional). Instead, he requests kisses. He will press his forehead into your mouth, humming for you to kiss him, or will lean into you for kisses if you hum.
Saying goodnight at bedtime is a long process, because he wants everyone to kiss him for several minutes. When he was in bed with me in the middle of the night recently (teething is the worst), he would pat and stroke my cheek in the dark until he found my mouth. Then he would press his face into mine, humming. (So I was forced to give him kisses!) If I didn't make kissing sounds as he did that, he would slam his head into mine until I did.
Even when he's annoying and hurting me in the middle of the night, he's the nicest baby ever.  What am I supposed to do? Not kiss my baby?

August loves other kids, especially little girls. He will follow his aunt Katie around, and laugh and scream in delight if he sees her across the room or through a window.  He follows around little girls at the park, waving and grunting at them until they notice how cute he is.





He loves to take baths, sing songs, and go on walks. But now that he can move, he doesn't like to be held much- he wants to be free to explore! August has loved being here at my parents with two dogs. He's not afraid of either at all, but follows them around, tries to sneakily feed them food off his tray, and likewise- likes to steal their food and play in their water bowls.

He doesn't like reading stories very much, except touch-and-feel books and the Very Hungry Caterpillar, which he will actually sit through. He's very into his index finger, and points and shakes it at everything.

August is a complete darling, and we love him. It's hard to believe that he's been in our lives for a year! That seems like both too long and too short a time to be possible.

Happy Birthday my little man.

A real birthday update, for the only two babies in the world who refuse to eat cake.

It's been almost a week since my boys turned one, and if you recall, I did not do a Birthday Update, like I do every other month. So here it is.  I set up an elaborate home studio to take Birthday Cake Smash pictures with the babies, but they 100% refused to touch or eat their cake.  

They don't like to be messy.

If I feed them the cake with a fork, they'd be much more interested in it.

So some pictures are from the failed photoshoot, and some are from the bath afterwards. 

In the last month, the babies have made so much progress with understanding social cues, games, and words. Yesterday Grey coughed and choked during dinner, and I patted his back and said "Oh, are you okay?" A few seconds later Micah fake-coughed and then looked at me expectantly. I patted his back and said "Oh, are you okay?" He giggled, turned to smile at Grey, and then fake coughed again. And again. And again. Every time that I patted him, he was so pleased with himself. They've also started initiating games of peekaboo.  In the past, if we hid behind something and popped out, or put a blanket over their heads, they'd pull it off and giggle, but now they will put a blanket over their own heads or pop out from behind things themselves. 

They run and hide from us and each other, they chase us and each other. 

They've just learned "So Big!" and walk around holding their arms over their head, until I say "How big is Micah? SO BIG!" and then they giggle hysterically. 

Travis put cake on Grey's head, and Micah was more interested in daddy's camera than in his delicious personal cake.

Now if I tell them, "We're going outside," or ask "Do you want to go to the park?" They'll walk to the door, and wait. And if I dare to tell them that we're going to the park and I don't take them, they begin having meltdowns. 

Oh, the meltdowns! They throw tantrums now to rock the roof off. Micah literally lies on the floor and pounds his fists and kicks his fists.  Grey prefers to lie face down on the grounds and scream into the carpet. And both love the drama of crawling or stumbling (they can't probably walk during a tantrum) into a corner, where they cry pathetically and hit us away if we try to help them. 

They have also become really snugly. When they were first learning to sit up, they refused to ever lie down. When they were learning to walk, they refused to crawl. When they could entertain themselves, they didn't want to sit and snuggle. But now that they can do all sorts of things, they do everything again.  They crawl around, they lie down on their stomachs and play with their toys, and they crawl on to my lap for a snuggle or a story.  

Grey will walk to me, turn around about a foot in front of my lap, and then slowly and carefully walk backwards until he falls into my lap. 

Micah will sit down on the floor next to me, and then slither and roll on to my lap. It's silly. I love it. 

The boys personalities are becoming so distinct, too. Micah is a clear daddy's boy, and Grandma's boy. But not ever a mama's boy. 

But at least I have Grey. Grey loves and prefers me over Travis (usually).  

Micah has taken to delighting in making trouble. He deliberately searches for doors and cupboards to open, and throws himself from high places, to see if I'll get there in time to catch him. He loves, loves, loves to unplug the tv. He'll stand in front of the outlet and make these high-pitched squeaking sounds "Ahhhh?" until I look at him.  Then he'll take a step backwards (towards the outlet) and do it again.  He'll put his hand on the cord, and then raise his eyebrows at me, and go "Huuhh? Hmm? Maaaama?" and then grin. The second I say "Micah, please come here," or "No no, don't uplug that," he yanks it out of the wall and begins to laugh hysterically. 

He knows he shouldn't do it. 

So he does it. 

Grey on the other hand, will walk to something (like the tv cord in the wall) and stand staring at it. After a bit, he'll slowly reach for it, and if I say "No Grey, please don't," he'll stop.  He'll stare at the plug for a minute, as if trying to decide what to do, and then he'll usually kind of wander away from it. 

But he'll wander back and unplug it later.  Sometimes after I ask Grey not to do something, he'll decide that it's worth it anyway, and he'll unplug the tv, or stick my computer cord in his mouth, or yank a full cup of water off the table, and then look at me guilty. He knows he's being naughty. 

Grey's also become obsessed with putting things in other things.  He moves toys from one toy bin to another. He fills the laundry basket with all the odds and ends he can find around the house, and he flips out at Micah if he dares to take toys out of their containers after Grey has put them away. 

They've both picked up a few new signs and words, and my favorite sign that Micah has learned is the sign for water. He signs when he needs a drink, which is really helpful and wonderful. I love that they're learning to communicate with me. 

Happy birthday to my sweet boys. It's been a lovely year. 

The best of all of my years. 

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Twelve months of babies

First of all, thanks for all your advice concerning saving, you guys are amazing! Keep it coming!

 

Secondly, I've been preparing for my babies' birthday, (which is on Sunday. SUNDAY.) and one thing I wanted to make was a photo banner of the boys' "month day" pictures from the last 11 months.

They may not be wearing the same clothes or sitting in the same chair for every picture, but those ideas always come a few months too late.

I have about 1 billion adorable ways to announce that I'm pregnant... next time.

But since the vast majority of you will NOT be attending my boys' par-tay, I decided to show off their pictures through the year.

Love, no?

 

 

I'd love a vote!