Baby B2: Twelve Months

Stephen can't really tell the difference between 11 months and 12 months and I'll be honest, the changes have been a little slower. But this mom can feel the difference--and needs to celebrate! Stephen is one! We made it! We survived and we are all still alive and learning to thrive as a family of four. Yes, it has taken a long time to find our routine. And I'm so grateful we finally did! I love us.

Stephen has been cruising around for a couple of months now, still not too steady on his feet so he isn't standing on his own quite yet. I have seen him do it for a couple of seconds so far. He loves walking when we hold his hands, he grins so big and his little legs go every which way! It's quite fun.

Stephen loves to eat. He does really well with finger foods: roasted sweet potatoes and carrots, soft green beans, crackers, bread, puffs, bananas and berries. We still offer pureed foods but he is less and less interested in them. Actually, he is just more and more interested in serving himself which is just too messy for me to allow. He does get the spoon in his mouth about 10% of the time, you can guess where it goes the other 90%! He drinks water out of a straw cup, he loves mom's 32 oz water bottle.

This little guy is a big explorer. At the park he loves to crawl everywhere, go up and down the slides, climb stairs, rope ladders and is doing much better playing in the with sand. He also loves the swing. At home he crawls under everything he can - like our rocking chair, table, and sometimes the bed. He loves opening and closing doors and putting toys in containers.

He loves basketball. William has a hoop on the back of his bedroom door that we adjusted so that Stephen can dunk it. This is his favorite past time and does it every chance he gets, usually first thing every morning. We have a couple of balls but his favorite is the real men's basketball. The only downside is that it doesn't fit in the hoop; but that doesn't stop Stephen from "shooting" it. My little baby can shoot a basket before he can stand up on his own!

There aren't any words coming out of his mouth yet, but he loves to scream and make loud noises. He understands us a lot better and can follow short directions. We are trying to use sign language but he hasn't really caught on to anything yet. So far, if he needs something he waves his arms, shakes his head and screams. It works.

He has been sleeping through the night much more consistently this month with a morning wake up around 5. We will give him a bottle and put him back down and sometimes he sleeps until 6 . . . one time he slept until 7! The boys now share a room for both nap time and night time sleep, which has really allowed us to feel like we have our space back (our living room turned bedroom space that is).

This has been a hard year, but we've turned a corner; my heart is so full of love for this little boy.
More about his Birthday here.

Stephen can't really tell the difference between 11 months and 12 months and I'll be honest, the changes have been a little slower. But this mom can feel the difference--and needs to celebrate! Stephen is one! We made it! We survived and we are all still alive and learning to thrive as a family of four. Yes, it has taken a long time to find our routine. And I'm so grateful we finally did! I love us.

Stephen has been cruising around for a couple of months now, still not too steady on his feet so he isn't standing on his own quite yet. I have seen him do it for a couple of seconds so far. He loves walking when we hold his hands, he grins so big and his little legs go every which way! It's quite fun.

Stephen loves to eat. He does really well with finger foods: roasted sweet potatoes and carrots, soft green beans, crackers, bread, puffs, bananas and berries. We still offer pureed foods but he is less and less interested in them. Actually, he is just more and more interested in serving himself which is just too messy for me to allow. He does get the spoon in his mouth about 10% of the time, you can guess where it goes the other 90%! He drinks water out of a straw cup, he loves mom's 32 oz water bottle.

This little guy is a big explorer. At the park he loves to crawl everywhere, go up and down the slides, climb stairs, rope ladders and is doing much better playing in the with sand. He also loves the swing. At home he crawls under everything he can - like our rocking chair, table, and sometimes the bed. He loves opening and closing doors and putting toys in containers.

He loves basketball. William has a hoop on the back of his bedroom door that we adjusted so that Stephen can dunk it. This is his favorite past time and does it every chance he gets, usually first thing every morning. We have a couple of balls but his favorite is the real men's basketball. The only downside is that it doesn't fit in the hoop; but that doesn't stop Stephen from "shooting" it. My little baby can shoot a basket before he can stand up on his own!

There aren't any words coming out of his mouth yet, but he loves to scream and make loud noises. He understands us a lot better and can follow short directions. We are trying to use sign language but he hasn't really caught on to anything yet. So far, if he needs something he waves his arms, shakes his head and screams. It works.

He has been sleeping through the night much more consistently this month with a morning wake up around 5. We will give him a bottle and put him back down and sometimes he sleeps until 6 . . . one time he slept until 7! The boys now share a room for both nap time and night time sleep, which has really allowed us to feel like we have our space back (our living room turned bedroom space that is).

This has been a hard year, but we've turned a corner; my heart is so full of love for this little boy.
More about his Birthday here.