16 months

I just think every day that I need to freeze you, and then document each adorable thing you're doing right now so that I never forget it! Here's what I can think of at the moment. Some you've been doing for a little while now:

• You're a chatterbox. Even when I don't understand what you're saying, you're often telling me something, and pointing or grabbing my finger and leading me there and jabbering. But you also have lots of words! Here are the ones I remember right now.
• Mom, Daddy, baby (used to be ba-ba, is now bay-bee!), woo-woo dog, bird, mo (more), mo (Elmo), shoes, hi (constantly, all day long, just randomly waving and saying hi to us), bye (both with cute waves), tuck (truck-for all cars), wow, whoa, sish (sit-not sure how to spell it, but you say it and pat when you want me to sit on the floor by you to play, or you pat the chair you want me to sit on), tane too (thank you, with the sign), done (with the sign), boo, boom (when you do knuckles), uh-oh, ball, and many animal sounds (your meow when you see a cat is my favorite).
• You give kisses all day long. You just pucker up those cute fish lips, and I can't resist and kiss you. You do it while nursing, eating food, playing, anytime. You'll randomly come by and kiss my arm or leg too. You mostly kiss lips, but will kiss cheeks and get playful and do it over and over.
• You love playing with cars, your Sesame Street toys, and dishes the most. Either the real dishes from the kitchen, or toy ones downstairs with the play kitchen. Even better is when you combine them and fill a pot with cars or "mo" (Elmo or other characters).
• You are getting your molars. Your bottom ones were in about Thanksgiving, and one top one is poking through now and the 4th will be coming soon after, I'm sure. It made you pretty grumpy and you didn't sleep great.
• You sleep ok. About 8:00-6:00ish. Sometimes as early as 5:00 and on good days, you sleep until 7:00. You still nurse to sleep at night, and nurse once you wake up. You were waking up lots while teething, and only sleeping on your dad or I, then we couldn't sleep.
• You still nurse 3 times a day. Morning, after nap time, and at night. You'd prefer to nurse to sleep for your nap too, but I only do that if I'm desperate. Otherwise, we'll snuggle a bit, then you can fall asleep after crying for a few minutes.
• You love to be held and snuggled and carried around.
• You also love to run crazy and explore everything.
• You miss playing outside, but it's just so cold! You still ask for shoes and try to go out the door all the time. When we're going to the car, you just run straight out of the garage and try to run down the street.
• You love your siblings so much! You squeal and scream and grab their faces and hair and giggle and laugh as you "tickle" them. You hug and kiss them. You snuggle McKynlee to watch Elmo. You love playing games with Brady and having him chase you or play peek a boo and scream together. You can't get enough of Miles, even though he teases you constantly and makes you scream. You still want to be with him and playing with him and he makes you laugh so hard. You will push them off of me if I'm hugging or holding one of them, or if they sit on my lap.
• You love your mom and are yelling "MOM" all the time. You cry when I leave, and run to hug and kiss me when I come back. Even if it's just the bathroom. You give the tightest hugs and I love your arms wrapped around my neck. 
• You love Dad and yell "Daddy" and run after him when he comes home too. You love falling asleep together in your cozy chair in your room.
• You love baths and water.
• You love eating. You're always in the kitchen scavenging what the big kids left out, and climbing onto the chairs and then table and eating whatever you find if they didn't clean up. You'll also grab a bib out of the drawer and put it on, then climb into your high chair and yell gibberish until I bring you food. You're not subtle and let me know you're hungry.
• You eat most everything, and just want to feed yourself, preferably with utensils. You especially love bread, bananas, grapes, chicken, fruit/veggie packets, oatmeal, cheese sticks, and yogurt drinks. And sweets, of course.
• You love playing downstairs and will run for the stairs if I ask if you want to play downstairs. You'll also grab our hands and drag us to the gate and ask to go downstairs (it's a d-word with some gibberish). You love having music on, dumping out all the cars, and playing with the play kitchen.
• If I let you, you'd color every wall in the house and are often found doing just that, or at least trying to. You cannot be trusted with writing supplies, and are sneaky and will find them. You love getting into anything you shouldn't (like the kids' rooms, on the table, on the computer desk, in the bathrooms and sinks and toilets).
• You like doing silly things to make people laugh like tickle them or play peek a boo, or put on hats or glasses or something else to make us laugh.
• When I exercise, as soon as you see my video on the tv or computer, you start making shushing and blowing noises, like the teacher in the video does as she blows out. And you squat or dance with it.
• You blow on anything you might think is too hot, or towards the stove or oven when I'm cooking.
• You have the cutest curls on the back of your head that we just love, and everyone else loves them too!
• You love babies and point them out and watch them, wherever we go.
• You love animals. Whenever you hear a dog bark, you bark back. You love cats and we've had 2 neighbor cats who visited here often for awhile, and you loved petting them and talking to them. You had a special voice and gibberish and meows just for them. 
• You love to sing and sing along with the radio and kids, and also love microphones. When McKynlee's karaoke microphones aren't available, you use any cylinder toy as a microphone. Usually, the cylinder wood blocks. It's so cute because you sing into it, then stop and cheer and clap for yourself, and of course I cheer and clap too. 
• You're happy and fun and loving and we just would not be complete without you. We say all the time how lucky we are to have you in our lives, and to get to watch you grow.

1 year!

We made it! And what a fast year that was! You practically grew into a toddler this last month too!

• You're walking!! You went from just barely standing on your own at 11 months, to walking as your main mode of moving by 12 months. It's been crazy! You started standing alone a little bit longer each day, then pretty soon Dad got you to take a few steps to him. After that, everyone was helping you practice walking to them every day. And pretty soon, you'd pull up on furniture and let go to walk somewhere yourself. Then, all of a sudden it seemed, you could get up off the floor and walk without pulling up on anything! All in a month!
• You aren't enjoying being fed by a spoon and prefer to suck down the pouches more. You are spitting out the green ones again, though, and totally prefer fruits. You'd also prefer to feed yourself most foods. You love breads now too.
• You still nurse in the morning, after each nap, and at bed time. You'll drink cow's milk and water, but only a few sips.
• You like to dance and turn on the radio in the preschool to dance to the music.
• You like to play with the remotes and try to turn on the tv, but you don't watch it when it's on.
• You love your brothers and sister and give them snuggles and kisses, and laugh and giggle for them.
• You still enjoy walks in the stroller and never whine when I put you in. However, you do scream and arch when I try to put you in the car seat.
• You are independent and want to be down and exploring any time we're not home and I want you near me. When we're home and I need to get ready, or do dishes or cook dinner, you are whiny and hang on my legs screaming and want to be held.
• You can sleep through the night, but sometimes you wake up to nurse at 5, then sleep until 7. When you don't do that, you're up at 6 and won't go back to sleep.
• You love to drive cars and crawl on one knee and drag the other leg as you drive them around the floor, making a car noise. You love the toy kitchen in the preschool and play house too. You love playing with the pots or bowls and a spoon, and taking things in and out of the bowls. You carry spoons or spatulas around a lot.
• You like getting into the kitchen cupboards and pulling out things to play with.
• You are busy and constantly going and climbing. You climb onto furniture, onto kids sized chairs and tables, or on your thomas train, or into and onto the toy cars outside. So so busy and daring. 
• You love to be outside and exploring out there. You especially love sticks and rocks.
• You say "hi" and wave to people all the time. We love when we walk in a room and you say hi to us. You now say "mo" for food, but sign eat more often than more. So, you say "mo" as you put your hand to your mouth when you want to eat or drink something. And you want to eat or drink everything we're eating and drinking. You will sign more to copy us. You'll repeat done, by putting up your hands and saying "du" when I sign and say done. You learned "bird" and melted my heart! We watch birds at the bird feeders out the window, and I showed you the sign. You'll now sign bird with both hands as you say "bir" and watch them out the window. You also say and sign bird for dogs and cats you see. You get very excited to see animals and point and say "ooh" in a high-pitched voice.
• You like to swim now and splash, especially in a pool shallow enough that you can walk or crawl and not have to be held. You tried splash pads and liked those too!
• You've been babysat a few times now by neighbor girls, Grandma and Grandpa B all day once, and a neighbor mom, and you've done great with them!
• You still fight naps and scream when I take you to your room, but you fall asleep rocking on my lap, facing out. Once this month, you curled up on my chest and fell asleep! I couldn't believe it, it'd been so long.
• We just finished up summer movies and you were so great, usually just sleeping on me during the whole movie. Sometimes you nursed to sleep, other times, just fell asleep on my lap as I rocked you.
• You love kids your size and telling them hi.
• You babble and tell long stories that we love.
• We love you so much, Colby!! We are so happy you're in our family and for all the joy and love you give! None of us can get enough of you each day!

11 months

You seem so grown up now!

• You sign "more" constantly, to get everything you want. You've managed to get marshmallows from Aunt Shar, and chocolate frosting from Grandpa B. They just melt when you see them and immediately sign more, they have to give you more. I have loved knowing when you want something and are hungry, so it's great that you're communicating!
• You will finally repeat me and say "mama" but you don't call me that. Just repeat for now.
• You consistently wave and say bye ("bah"). And if you want to eat something, you'll sign more and say "um" maybe like num since I say num-num when something tastes good. So you say "um" when something tastes good.
• You climb more now and keep getting up onto the fireplace and love to go up the stairs.
• You still like the things from last month, peek a boo, doors, brother's room and bathrooms.
• You like to play with balls and throw them wherever, then chase them, and repeat.
• You seem to eat everything we do now, and are doing pretty good. We've had ripe raspberries and apricots growing and you love them both. You love treats the most and will attack anyone with a popsicle or ice cream and madly sign more until you get some. I love seeing you on tip toe trying to get your siblings' treats, and they love sharing with you.
• You're sleeping a bit better, back to mostly waking up once a night. You still fight naps, but are fussy at night and nurse to sleep pretty well again. And stay asleep when I put you down. That's the most important part.
• You're adventurous and I always worry when you're quiet, because it always means you're somewhere you shouldn't be, playing with things you shouldn't.
• You love water and baths and go straight to the tub when the bathroom is open, and try to climb in.
• You are starting to dance to music and it's cute. Mostly arm-waving or clapping.
• You like walking with your Thomas train, and playing the songs on it. It makes you laugh and dance.
• You like to brush and comb your hair. It's so cute. And put on necklaces, or put anything around your neck. You like putting things on your head and laughing too.
• Oh, your fake laugh is so funny. When everyone is laughing, you join in and kind of snort laugh through your nose.
• You like to sing karaoke into McKynlee's karaoke machine.
• You now let go of things you've pulled up on and can stand independently for 5-10 seconds.

10 months old

This month seemed like the one where you just grew up and changed so quickly!

• 8 teeth!! Right after you turned 9 months, your top 2 middle teeth came within days of each other. Then, almost a month later, right before you turned 10 months, a top canine and a bottom canine came in, so you had 3 on top, 3 on bottom. The last 2 came in about a week later. You were miserable with those 2 and screaming much of the night. I thought you must have had an ear infection, but you didn't, and then you improved once those 2 teeth popped through.
• You sleep terribly again and it's miserable! You went from sleeping in the night, to screaming about half an hour after you were put down. Dad would take turns to snuggle you and you'd fall asleep together in the rocking chair in your room. Then when I'd get you to sleep, you'd scream as soon as I got you in the bed. You also scream at nap time and don't want to snuggle in cradle position like you used to. But I eventually get you to sleep. Growing 6 teeth, going camping for 5 days, and having a cold all contributed to this bad month of sleep. I'm looking forward to you sleeping through the night again someday!
• Crawling like crazy, and added the bear crawl! Especially on tile floors, or outside on grass, dirt or cement, you get off your knees and bear crawl. And you're fast! You still like to pull up on things and walk too.
• Signing and talking! Your first word is "bye" pronounced "bah" in the cutest voice. I love it. You usually do it a minute after the person saying and waving bye has already left, but then you wave and say "bah." You're also learning to sign "more." All your other talking still feels like babbling, and the thing you say most is dadada. You like to "talk" and babble a lot.
• You like to initiate peek-a-boo and put your 2 cute little hands on your face to hide, or a blanket or pillowcase, or whatever else you find on your face or head. You also like to crawl down the hall to hide and just scream and squeal when we find you. It's one of the things that makes you laugh the hardest, and I can't get enough, I love playing it with you.
• You love to play with doors and open and close them. You're actually pretty good at not shutting your fingers either, you go pretty slow and stop when it hits your hands. You like to sit or stand and open and close it over and over, laughing if someone is on the other side.
• You're so busy and hard to keep up with, we are constantly running to make sure the bedroom, bathroom, and stair doors and gates are closed. You seem to know as soon as the boys' door is open and you hurry in to get their toys. We keep it shut because of the Legos mostly, but you also find all the nerf bullets, and everything else you shouldn't chew on.
• You love to be outside. You head straight for the dirt to eat rocks. You also like to swing, go on walks in the stroller, or pull at plants, and just crawl and explore. You've liked playing in water outside this summer too.
• You like to play with phones and watches and are always searching for them, and grabbing them when you see them.
• You've been going to the movie theater this summer and doing a great job of nursing and sleeping for most of it, which is great, because you're pretty busy and hate being held on my lap otherwise.
• You're doing great at eating most everything! You still prefer fruits or orange vegetables over the green veggies, but you'll still eat the green stuff, just slower. You love to feed yourself, and are still doing some purees, plus drinking from a straw sippy cup. You're always begging for our food and drinks and trying to steal some.
• You're still wearing size 4 diapers and some 9 month clothing, but mostly 12 month.
• You give the best kisses in the world. 
• You love to blow raspberries on people, especially your siblings' bellies. You love to poke their belly buttons too.
• You love your siblings and love having them home all the time. You still scream and squeal when you see them, and reach out to grab them. You kinda just grab their heads and hug them, and pat them while you squeal. McKynlee loves to tote you around on her hip everywhere, and she's great at taking care of you.
• You're a happy and wonderful boy and we love having you around! You've had a hard fussy month, and you're still the best and smiliest!

9 months old

Major milestone today! I can't believe you're already 9 months. Same time on the outside as the inside now.

• You are a cruiser. You always want to be standing and pull up and stand on anything you can. You've gotten stronger and can just hold on with one hand and stand now.
• You crawl just on hands and knees now. You used to drop to the army crawl for speed, but I haven't seen you do that for about a week now. So you crawl for reals to the couch or mantle or chair, and then stand and cruise!
• You've climbed up the stairs with mom behind you.
• You slept through the night!!! A grand total of 5 times now, so I think we're set!
• You got another tooth! The top left one came in, the one next to it is almost poking through.
• You weigh 20 lbs and are 29 inches. 60%ile for weight, 90th %ile for height.
• You still like to spit to talk, but prefer loud squealing now. There's a lot of da-da-das, and ba-ba-bas, and bom, and just happy squeals.
• You're harder to put to sleep. You cry and fight naps, but I just keep rocking you and you eventually fall asleep. Sometimes at night you seem asleep nursing, then just pop up talking again.
• Your favorite toys have spinning parts and you just sit and spin them with your finger.
• You like to push cars back and forth on the floor and get up and crawl while pushing a car for a bit.
• You're a great eater. Still eating pureed stuff, but also getting more table foods. You had rice, black beans, and salsa chicken that you liked. Other stuff that was new was just different flavors in purees like spinach and zuchinni. You also steal and bite my food and have had cookies and cinnamon rolls. You also love watermelon now.
• You spend all your time pulling up on me to stand, then grabbing both my hands and clapping them together. Seriously. We do this all day long. I sing pat-a-cake, but you don't care about the song, just the clapping. If Brady or Miles are close, you clap one of my hands to one of theirs.
• You've been riding in the stroller with dad in the morning for walks and liking them.
• You want to get into anything you're not supposed to. It's like you sense with the bathroom or boys' bedroom doors are open, because you bolt for them. You like to play with toilets, and any toy you can get in the boys room. It's your favorite, but I have to keep you out because of the Legos everywhere.
• You love playing with the toys downstairs, and that it's finally clean enough that you can play down there and crawl down the hall to find Dad in his office!
• You want to be held a lot and cry when I put you down.
• You constantly follow me and climb up my legs to stand, and it makes cooking really difficult!
• I love how much you love me and need me and that you can stop crying as soon as I pick you up. I love carrying you around on my hip because you're so happy and content and chill as you just watch what's going on and point and babble at everything.
• We love you lots and can't stop kissing those squishy cheeks!

8 months!

You're a mover and a shaker and a big, sweet boy.

• You are constantly on the move and I'm trying to stay one step ahead to keep doors shut and gates locked. You will take a few crawling steps on hands and knees, but are much faster on your tummy and eventually drop down and army crawl where you want to go.
• You have mastered the art of getting into sitting position on your own. So now you can get wherever you want, and sit right up to play.
• You also love standing! You are constantly pulling up on everything, especially the couches and me, so you can stand. You do a bit of cruising/walking too, but mostly just stand there so proud. And then fall over, sometimes cry if it was a hard fall, then right back up to standing again. When I try to put you down to sit, you straighten out your legs and just want to stand.
• You are eating much better. The only new foods I can think of are pumpkin and finger foods like puffs and yogurt melts. You liked chicken too. You still prefer orange over green food, but will eat the green stuff.
• It's finally warmed up so you've gotten to be outside more and like exploring in the grass and pulling it out and trying to eat sticks. You like to swing too and love to giggle at whoever is lucky enough to push you.
• You sleep ok. Often you just wake up once a night, but sometimes twice. You are up by 6 am, which is just way too early! I try to push back your bedtime, but 7 is the latest I can start because you're so fussy by 6:30. Dad often gets up and spends mornings with you after you've nursed. You nap twice a day. And I still snuggle you to sleep in your rocking chair in your room. I love that part of my day.
• You're in size 4 diapers now and some 6-9 month clothes, and moving into more 12 month clothes, especially pajamas.
• You are happy and love attention. You laugh and scream and squeal at us. You laugh for your brothers the most it seems. You like to be tickled and played with and talked to. You love playing peek a boo and patt a cake. You like to hold my hands and clap them. You also poke at and scratch us all the time when you're trying to play. You like when McKynlee holds you on your hip and bounces you, and when Brady plays peek a boo by jumping out from behind your door, and when Miles talks to you in his cute baby voice to cheer you up-and you love grabbing his hair and kissing his face.
• We all love your slobbery open-faced slobbery kisses.
• Your favorites toys are the remotes and parent's phones, but actual toys, you like your phone toy and balls and anything with wheels you can spin. So, some baby toys, and some cars and things of your brothers that have spinning wheels. You also like to chase their remote control cars.
• You're starting to get some stranger danger and definitely prefer Mom when you're sad or tired. You do love Dad and dive out of my arms for him often. But you'll also cling to me and turn away from people who want to hold you.
• Your favorite form of communication is spitting at us. The fart-noise type spit. You spit at everyone all the time. It's a constant.
• Your cute grin with your bottom 2 teeth poking out is our favorite thing in the whole world. We just can't love on you enough and I know I always say it, but I wish I could freeze you as the little snuggly baby you are!

7 Months!

I hate that you're growing so fast! I'm at least satisfied that I can look back and say I really soaked in your newborn times by snuggling you and holding you all the time, and I'm still snuggling and kissing you as much as I can! Because it feels like any second you're just going to grow up and walk away. And I want you to stay a baby forever!

• Solids has improved. The first thing you readily accepted, shortly after my last post, was multigrain cereal. Then you ate butternut squash and loved it. You will eat a whole container of that and sweet potatoes and lean in for more, or grab my arm as you lean forward with your mouth open. You are not as enthusiastic, but have also eaten green beans, peas, carrots, and avocadoes. You've had some small pieces of pulled pork and chicken.In your mesh feeder, you've enjoyed grapes, strawberries, and bananas. You get so excited when you see this and suck out every drop you can.
• You are army/wiggle crawling everywhere. And rocking on your knees a lot. You just fall forward on your face and go. You love remotes and shoes and paper and anything else that isn't a toy.
• You love to talk and yell and laugh and even "sing" loudly at church.
• You hate and refuse your binky completely now and cry if I try to offer it. You still snuggle in a cradle hold to fall asleep, but will often still cry as I hold you and cry yourself to sleep. I'm not sure why you fight it so much. But then I can put you in your bed and you'll sleep.
• You nurse to sleep at night. I love and cherish both of these quiet times of snuggling you. If someone else (usually Miles, but all the kids and Dad do it) doesn't barge in and wake you up. Sometimes I think it'd be more important to let you soothe yourself to sleep, but I'd rather hold and love on you while I can, because 7 months has already flown by.
• You sleep ok at night. You can do a 6 hour stretch. It's just inconsistent. Sometimes you're awake by midnight and want another feeding. Then you'll sleep until 6. Other times, you only wake around 2 or 3 and sleep till morning. And other nights you're up at 12 and 4 and 6. 
• You are the cutest little clapper and love to sit and clap and talk, or lie on your back and clap.
• You love your toys and play well on the floor.
• You love your siblings and save your biggest smiles and laughs for them.
• I love your big toothy grin when I'm getting you out of your crib after a nap. You're usually so happy then.
• Dad loves that toothy grin too, and you love him so much. He often snuggles with you in the morning and you get some extra sleep. You love to eat his nose.
• You're so serious for strangers and just stare at them.
• You love the store and looking up at the lights.
• You enjoy time outside and in your stroller on walks. But not if we're stopped. Then you gotta get out.
• You like attention and will roll and play awhile, but then get on your tummy and cry for me. You stop immediately in my arms.
• You totally prefer Mom and will often be fine with whoever has you until you hear or see me, then you cry and reach for me.
• I found you in your crib once sitting up, so you got yourself from lying to sitting somehow.
• You give the best kisses.
• You like peek a boo and silly games like that that make you laugh.