How is my tiny baby boy one already!? It's been said a million times but I'll say it again. It goes too fast when it's so sweet and easy! I would take another year of poor sleep to keep him little for longer (but who are we kidding, I'll probably have another year of poor sleep anyway) ;). And since we can't change the profession of time... We have the fun first year to enjoy! All the new skills and new words and ideas. I love it! And I can reassure myself that I did everything humanly possible to enjoy and soak up all the moments of his first year.
Some of my favorite memories from this last year are when Harrison was so little and slept so much. I would almost always take a nap with him and Emerson and I LOVED snuggling up with both of them. Our daily routines were just the essentials and so simple. I loved having him in the sling snoozin away while Emerson and I painted or did puzzles or cooked dinner. And I've loved our baths with the three of us (we still do those) and Now I cherish those mornings where they both snuggle in my bed with me for just a few blissful moments. Of course there's also been a LOT of joy this past year in watching my kiddos enjoy each other too. Emerson has been such a blessing and a help this past year. She truly is a wonderful big sister! And Harrison just adores her. Loves watching her and laughing with her. As soon as he sees her he laughs because he knows it's coming anyway. She's always trying to (and usually succeeds) make him laugh (no matter the decibel or silliness required).
This last month Harrison got really into clapping! When we sing a song, he claps, when we say 'yay!', he claps, when he's happy, he claps. He also blows kisses. That might have started last month (I can't remember!). It's so sweet. He is also saying a few more words, although not to the point that he'll say them if I ask him to, except "uh-oh" still. He says a very similar approximation of "mma mma" for mama, more and milk. And only slightly different "emm-ma" for Emerson. He mostly does that when she's not around and he's looking for her. He'll say "whoa" sometimes when it's appropriate and he says "buh" for book when we're reading, which he has a little more patience for now. A couple of times he's said "brr" when I was changing his clothes, but then he hasn't done it again in awhile. Oh and he does a kind of salute/wave to say 'hi' but no verbalizations there and nothing for bye yet ;).
He's getting stronger and his balance is getting better but he isn't quite walking yet. He really loves being walked and he's taken a few steps holding on with just one hand but you can tell it makes him nervous. He's standing up by himself in the middle of the room and holding it for a few seconds pretty frequently But again, he gets nervous and lowers himself down. His big motor milestone this month is backing off/down things. He turns and goes backwards to get off the couch and any steps he finds. He tries to do it off the bed, but it's a little tall still.
He also finally got his long awaited 8th tooth! I was beginning to wonder if it had gotten lost in here.
Harrison was 29.5 inches long and 18lbs 11oz at his 12 month appt. He is still wearing some 6-12 month clothes and 9 month clothes but there are some 12 month clothes hat fit him too. Depends on the brand and the amount of washing they've experienced ;).
He's on the second rise in diapers and has 4-6 snaps open in the front. We started potty training Emerson at this age, so we'll give it a go with him too, starting with #2 because it's the most obvious. We did give him a straw cup with water and a splash of nettle tea and he sucked it down right away, so we put him on the potty and he went!! However, he was really not engaged so we'll see if his awareness comes along or if we put it away for awhile. It's pretty laid back, no pressure training anyway. More like elimination communication kind of training.
Harrison is switching up his naps and our unruly schedule doesn't help. He used to take three naps, 30-ish morning, 1.5-ish afternoon and 30-ish early evening; but now he frequently misses his morning nap and takes a longer afternoon nap and then doesn't really want an evening nap until almost bedtime (but not quite bedtime)... so he's either really cranky during and before dinner or he takes a late nap and he's up late.. It's fun. I wish I was better about his nap schedule but if we ever want to leave the house and still have Emerson take a decent nap (which we all want) it's his naps that suffer. His nighttime sleeping hasn't changed much unless he took a late nap. He goes to bed between 8 and 9 and sleeps until about midnight for a quick snack, then he's up again between 6-7. He'd like to sleep a little more after that and get up around 7:30 or 8 but usually Emerson wakes him up before that.
I wish I could capture all his personality, sweetness and silliness but it's hard to get all that in a split second photo. Here's what we got :)
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| (Not scary... silliness) |
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| (Emerson took this) |
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| Photo credit: Emerson :) |
And a little behind the scenes shot.. Chair, window, mirror, reflector (propped up on a laundry basket).. stuff on the changing table.
