A Letter to Carter at 12 Months

My dear, little baby boy, you are now 12 months old!  Should I be referring to you as a toddler rather than a baby?  Maybe.  But you aren't technically toddling around on your own yet, so I'm holding on to that baby label for as long as possible!  This month has been an absolute blast!  You are just so much fun and sweet and adorable.  Just a few days after you turned 11 months old you started crawling.  Now you are all over the place and your little knees are red all the time and look rug burned or calloused due to all your crawling.

It's hard to believe you've only been crawling for a month because you are FAST!  It still amazes me when I pop into a room for a quick moment and you make it all the way down the hall, into the kitchen, and are about to get your hand in Harper's water bowl before I get to you.  I think that's your favorite thing to do when you know I'm not looking.  I've even seen you look over to see that I'm not in the room and then hightail it to her water bowl.  You are a mess, little one!  You are now pointing at things and babbling.  Skippy is your favorite thing to point at.  You are also waving more now.  You usually wave good bye to daddy in the morning, but rarely do it for me when I drop you off at daycare.  The first time you waved good bye was to Uncie Jeremy.  One of your favorite things to do is to put your hand over your mouth when talking to make a wa-wa sound.  It's so funny!

It's so sweet how you follow me around from room to room if I am doing chores.  There have been a few times when you were busy playing in your room so I ran to the laundry room really quickly to do some laundry.  Then I would hear you crying as you crawled around looking for me.  I now always try to make sure you see where I go so you don't have to crawl around trying to find me.  You have become a bit more of a momma's boy this month.  In the evenings when we get home you will crawl around and play and then crawl over to me and lay your head in my lap for a while, then go off to play again.  You also tend to prefer to be held by me, especially if you are in a big group, around people you don't know, are tired, or are hungry.  That made your birthday party a little bit tricky, but you did really well that day!

You are now cruising quite a bit.  Not on the furniture, but holding onto someone's hands.  You love to walk around the house or even just stand and check things out.  You are so cute about it too.  You will go up to someone and start reaching for their hands.  Sometimes we try letting go with one hand and you will reach around searching for our other hand.  Every once in a while you let go of my hands as if you're going to walk on your own, then you freak out and grab my hands again.  When I'm sitting on the floor and I come over to you and hold my hands out, you grab a hold and stand right up.  You really started doing it a couple weeks ago and now do it all the time!  You will pull up onto your knees, but haven't pulled up onto your feet quite yet.  I'm sure that is coming soon!  You pull up onto your knees in your crib sometimes and pulled up onto your feet once, so we lowered your crib.

Talking is about the same as last month.  You are still making lots of sounds, but aren't saying words much.  You say mama and dada sometimes, but it's not an every day occurence.  You like to point at Skippy and say ki, ki ca, or cacaca.  You copy cat sounds all the time!  If you hear me say something, you try to copy it.  Last night I said hi to your daddy while holding you and you said what sounded just like hi after I said it.  Daddy tried to get you to repeat it, but you wouldn't say it again.

Saying kica to Skippy.

Playing with doors is still a favorite game.  You have slammed your fingers in the door a couple of times now which just breaks my heart.  You love opening the cabinet in the bathroom and pulling everything out.  I swear I put it all back in at least 3 times a day!  One of your favorite ways to play is to lay in the doorway.  You push the door closed and then open it again.  Then you'll crawl toward the wall to play with the door stopper.  Then it's back over to the door to swing it open and closed.  You entertain yourself this way every morning as I get dressed.  

You love the car you got from your Great Aunt Judy and Great Uncle Mike.  One side has a door that opens and the other side doesn't.  For some reason you have decided it's fun to climb over the side without a door.  Yesterday I walked into the other room to throw something away and heard you scream, so I ran back into the living room.  You were hanging over the side of the car with your head awkwardly smashed on the floor, stuck.  If only I knew what went through your precious, little head!  Your other favorite toys are these plastic fruit cups.  Your Great Papa eats the fruit cups and saves them for you.  Normally I can only build a tower with about 3 cups before you tear them down.  One day you were so busy playing you didn't notice the giant tower I built.  When you looked over, your eyes got big, and you immediately leaned forward to knock it over.  I was able to do it again and get your reaction on video.  Your eyes didn't get quite as big, but it was still adorable!

Driving in the car you like to play with me.  You'll pull your blanket up over your face until I say, "Where's Carter" and then you quickly pull the blanket down.  You've also realized you can see me in the rear view mirror and love to look up into your mirror at me.  When we are stopped at stop lights, I like to whip around and say boo at you into your mirror and you think it's hilarious.  You've also started jabbering and making lots of noise when you hear me on the phone.  I'm sure that will only get worse as you get over!

When I drop you off at daycare in the morning you take off crawling the moment you touch the ground.  I don't think you ever slow down either.  You love it!  When I get there to pick you up there is always a giant mess and I know it's all your mess because you are the only one in your room who can crawl.  Ms. Tracie says you like to crawl over to the toy shelves, pull all the toys off, not play with any of them, and go on to the next shelf.  That doesn't surprise me because you do the same thing with your toy box at home.  You still love playing with your buddy Abbygail and you love seeing Jasmine when you play with the kids in the one-year-old room.  Your first official day in the one-year-old room will be January 16th.  You are also eating more food offered by the daycare.  One day you at your afternoon snack in the one-year-old room.  They had applesauce and everyone ate one container, except for you.  You screamed after you had your container, so they fed you 2.

It amazes me how much you eat.  I swear every night as I put food on your tray I think in my head, that is way too much food.  But then you eat it all!  Every morning when you eat your oatmeal I give you your spoon.  Most days you take your spoon and immediately throw it on the floor.  Sometimes you eat a few bites off your spoon, throw it on the floor, and then refuse to use it anymore.  This morning you actually ate your whole meal using your spoon.  You still threw it on the floor multiple times, but would take it again after I washed it off.  Next up will be learning how to fill your spoon!

You have mastered the sippy cup.  It's so cute to watch you eat.  Partway through your meal you will reach over, grab your sippy, and chug it down.  You've had water, breast milk, and apple juice mixed with mostly water out of your sippy.  You haven't tried cow's milk yet because we still have frozen breast milk to use.  You are pretty much all the way weaned from nursing.  It was so easy because you were ready.  It also helped that you were used to drinking milk out of bottles at daycare.  We went from 2 bottles and one nursing session at daycare (morning snack, me nursing you at lunch, and afternoon snack) to one bottle (afternoon snack) and one nursing session at lunch.  Then you went to water at both snack times and me nursing you at lunch.  After a while I would come at lunchtime to nurse you and you were asleep.  It worked best for you to sleep at that time because it's when all the other kids nap and if you nap later, you don't nap as long because they are up playing and making noise.  So I stopped coming at lunch.  It was so hard and I missed you so much, but I knew it was the best thing for you.  So then you were getting a bottle at lunch and water at both snacks.  I was still nursing you after breakfast and before bedtime.  One day I forgot to nurse you at breakfast and you didn't even notice, so we took away the breakfast nursing session and only had the bedtime one left.  I've only been nursing you at bedtime every other day to ease myself out of it and then you will be fully weaned.

Speaking of nighttime, you have been sleeping through the night all month!  You go down around 8:00 and sleep until 6:00 or 7:00 every morning!  You've had a couple nights where you fuss a little in the middle of the night and then go back to sleep.  Watching you on the monitor, I'm not even sure if you wake up when you fuss.  You may just be doing it in your sleep.  You go down so easily now!  We'll lay you down and leave the room.  Typically you don't cry at all, but some days you cry for a couple of minutes.  Then you situate yourself and go to sleep.  I love watching you on the monitor.  Sometimes you sit up in your crib for a while.  Other times you crawl to a different spot in your crib before laying down and going to sleep.  While often times you stay where we lay you down and just go right to sleep.

You've popped out another tooth.  Now you have 4 top teeth and 2 bottom teeth.  I can see white through your gums, so I'm sure you will have more teeth coming through this month.  As you've gotten older teething has gotten easier.  It doesn't effect your sleep as much as it used to.  It shows itself more in the fact that you like to bite things.  You bite your toys, my clothes, my skin, my hair.  You've also been caught grinding your teeth on Christmas ornaments and decorations.  One made such a horrible sound it haunts me at random times in the day and causes me to break out in goose bumps!

When you are at home you get tired about 2 hours after you wake up and take a little 20-30 minute cat nap in the morning.  Then you take a longer 2-2.5 hour nap in the afternoon after lunch.  At daycare you skip your morning nap and just take a 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon after lunch.  Sometimes you take a little 30 minute nap after I pick you up while we are running.  You play so hard at daycare you are just exhausted when you get home!

You have tried lots of new foods this month.  You are quite the eater!  I love that we can feed you the same thing we are eating for dinner!  New foods you've tried this month are: flax seed (in your oatmeal), cherries, cranberries, white potatoes, peppers (red, yellow, and green), kidney beans, beef, mozzarella cheese, pasta, strawberries, spinach, tomato paste, and chicken and rice at daycare.

It's hard to believe with all that eating your weight is only in the 15th percentile, weighing in at 20.3 pounds!  Your height puts you in the 62nd percentile at 30.2 inches long.  Your head continues to bump up in percentile as it is now in the 83rd percentile at 18.8 inches.  You fit perfectly into 12 month clothes although you are also wearing your 18 month clothes.  Some of your 18 month onesies are a bit big in he neck hole and some of your 18 month pants are a bit big in the waist, but for the most part they fit pretty well.  You still fit into your size 3 diapers and size 3 shoes.

We had so much fun celebrating your 1st birthday with you and all of our family.  We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with you as well.  You are such a fun child, so easy going and happy!  You are a joy to be around and I treasure all of the little moments I get to spend with you.  Thank you for making my life infinitely more fun and full of love.  I love you so much, big boy!

Now on to daddy:

It is hard to imagine that one whole year has passed since you were born. You have changed so much but are still the same.  It is hard to explain. Watching you for the past year has been one of the best years of my life.

We had so much fun at your birthday party. All of your family and some friends were there to help celebrate with you and you absolutely loved all of the company. You got several great toys and a lot of good photos to remember it by.

Since then we have been getting ready for your SECOND Christmas! You were so small for that Christmas it's so amazing to see you crawling so much and almost walking. It will be so much fun to see you tear into your presents!

Your first Christmas last year at 11 days old.

It has been an amazing first year, son, and I cannot wait for many more. Watching you grow and learn is truly amazing. Some of your favorite things have been reading, crawling, and being with your mommy! You love to pull books out on your own and just start reading. Sometimes you even tell the story, we just cannot understand you yet!

Still loving your runs with momma which is good because I do not ever think that she will get tired of them. We got you a rain/wind cover so that it is not so cold for you in the winter. This should allow for running year round since it looks like we will be getting a real winter this year. We were able to get some sledding in this year which was a blast. Now we just need to find a good hill to send you down!

Riding on a sled with mommy while grampy pulled.

I love you so much buddy!