11 Months!

Dear Trey,
We're one month away from your first birthday, and it's so hard for me to deal with that!  While it's hard to remember what things were like before you joined our family, I can't believe a whole year has almost passed us by.  This last month has sure been a busy one for you!  Keeping up with all of the new things you do has been a challenge, and while Daddy and I are thrilled to see all that you have learned, it reminds us how quickly you are growing into a little boy.

You haven't been to the doctor in a while, so I'm not sure how much you weigh or how tall you are right now, but you're still wearing size 3 diapers and are wearing 12-18 month clothes.  You have a few long sleeved t-shirts you wear, and I think you look so much more grown up when you're not wearing a onesie.  I have NO idea what size shoe you wear because you don't have any shoes! :-)

On the 6th, you all of a sudden decided you were done with nursing.  It was a bit of a challenge at first because you didn't seem to want to drink from a sippy cup, but after a few days of working on it, you were a pro.  Other than a couple of times when you seemed to want to nurse just out of habit and would get a little upset, you handled the whole thing without missing a beat.  That's more than I can say, but after crying a few times, I think I have recovered. :-)  You're still not drinking quite as much milk as you did before, but I think you're getting plenty of liquids, and you're for sure getting plenty to eat!  You wake up around 7:15 and eat breakfast a little before 8:00.  Usually, you finish off a good serving of oatmeal with a jar of fruit and about 5 ounces of milk.  At lunch, you eat a veggie or fruit mixed with rice or oatmeal, and then around 6:00, you eat some sort of veggie with rice.  You keep your sippy cup pretty close to you through the day and are drinking around 20 ounces total.

This week, you have also discovered the Gerber Crunchies and absolutely love the Veggie Dip flavor.  I am impressed with how much better you are doing with texture and solid foods.  Once in a while, they get stuck in just the wrong spot, but that's happening less and less often.  It's funny watching you eat because you know to chomp up front where your teeth are!  I'm hoping that means you'll be able to eat some of your cake next month! :-)  Yogurt and graham crackers are also on your list of favorites, and anytime you see me or Daddy with food, you are right there beside us.  In fact, you got a hold of my box of Wheat Thins the other day and dumped them out on the tile in front of the door, and you and Callie were enjoying a snack!  I'm glad you can handle real food better now because you really really like feeding yourself.  Hopefully you'll learn to enjoy all kinds of yummy foods as you get bigger!

You have six teeth now.  Two on the bottom, and four on top.  I think the two outside teeth on the top must be bothering you this week because you haven't been sleeping very well. :-(  And apparently giving you teething tablets in the middle of the night is some kind of torture. 

Our day starts around 7:15, but instead of taking your early nap, you just take two naps now.  The first is around 10:30 or 11:00, and then you go down for another nap around 3:00.  They're both around an hour and a half, and you usually wake up very happy!  If you're cranky when you wake up, usually that means you need to go back to sleep for a little longer.  You're still on the same night schedule: dinner, bath at 7:00, read and play in your room, and bedtime at 8:00.  Except for this week when you've been waking up for several hours in the middle of the night, you have been doing a good job of sleeping through the night.  Hopefully once these teeth stop bothering you, you'll go back to your normal sleeping so everyone else can sleep, too! :-)

You're definitely a professional at this walking business, and I find myself having to tell you to slow down because you're trying to run!  Even socks on the tile floor don't pose much a problem for you anymore, and your reflexes and balance are getting much better.  You don't have to have anything to hold onto to stand up.  You either just stand right up or put your hands on the ground, straighten your legs, and get up that way.  This week, you started spinning around in circles when you hear music play.  After about one, maybe two spins, you lose your balance and fall over, but it's pretty funny!  You have also started bending over at your waist and putting your head on the floor.  I'm not sure what you're trying to do though!

One of my favorite things from this month is that you've started to give me kisses at bedtime.  Last Friday, I was rocking you to sleep, and you lifted your head up, so I kissed you.  You put your head back down and popped back up right away and wouldn't lay back down until I kissed you again.  I bet we did that ten times. :-)  You've given me kisses a few other times through the day, but most of the time, you give them out at bedtime.  Even Daddy got a kiss the other night when he rocked you to sleep (he can do that now since you're not nursing!) and got one before Mommy put you to bed last night. 

You are such an easy going little guy.  If I need to get something done, you are very good at entertaining yourself.  You don't play with any one thing for a long time, but kind of mosey around finding things to investigate.  The kitchen is one of your favorite places to play because you can toss around all kinds of plastic containers and lids or bang around in the pots and pans.  You've started bringing your little purple phone to me and will hold it up to my ear so that I'll pretend to talk on it.  I love how you are learning to play and interact!

The thing that amazes me the most this month is how much you are starting to understand what we say to you.  Last Friday, you responded to the word "drink" for the first time.  I asked you, "Where's your drink?" and you walked over to where it was on the window sill and took a drink.  I tried it again later and set you down in the hallway and asked where your cup was.  You looked around and spotted it in your bedroom floor, and took off to get it.  When you picked it up, you turned around with the biggest grin on your face and came running back to me.  Other phrases/directions you understand are:

• Bring me your book.
• Where's Mommy's phone?
• kitty

You have started talking a lot, and most of it is just jabbering, but once in a while, something familiar pops out!

• uh oh
• wassis (What's this?)
• kitty
• you even try to meow like a kitty!

Even with all of these things, I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting.  I've started keeping a journal where I can jot things through the day so that I don't forget because you are just changing so much.  I'm looking forward to putting things together for your party next month, and although I know I will cry, I can't wait to celebrate your first year of life with all of our family!

I love you,
Momma

Cold turkey?

Well, we ran into our first significant nursing obstacle this evening.  Trey has still been nursing 4-5 times a day, but today, after nursing before his first two naps, he started biting me.  He was pretty persistent with it, so I would tell him "no" and pop his mouth (not hard, but enough to get his attention) and then wait a while before letting him try to nurse again.  He had some baby food between his first two naps, and had some graham crackers and water early this afternoon, but I was never able to get him to nurse or nap again.  Even at bedtime, he would turn his head away and fuss, to the point of getting fairly upset if I continued to offer.  Since it had been so long since he had nursed, I was a little concerned about dehydration.  He fell asleep very quickly at bedtime, and I thought once he was asleep, he would nurse without a fight but no such luck.  I tried every hour and a half or so and couldn't get him to nurse or take a bottle or sippy cup of milk or water.  At around 9:30, I gave him some acetaminophen for his teeth and thought I'd slip a few droppers of milk while I was at it.  I had Steve bring me in a cup, and all of a sudden, Trey was all sunshine and roses.  He took the milk out of the dropper easily enough, so I tried the bottle again, and he actually sort of took it.  The way he was gnawing on it made me a little nervous and a little relieved when he still refused to nurse, but I was at least able to get an ounce or so of milk into him.  I'll probably try to nurse him once more before I head to bed, but I won't be surprised if he won't.  I realize that he's almost 11 months old and that he was bound to wean eventually, but I guess I thought it would be a little more gradual...you know, cut out the daytime feedings but still nurse before bedtime for a while.  The thought that this morning's feeding might be his last makes me sad!  Especially since I'll only know in hindsight.  Had I known, I probably would have taken the opportunity to enjoy it a little more.  But dwelling on it won't change things. :-)  I guess we will see how the rest of the weekend progresses and see if he'll go back to nursing or if my faithful old Medela and formula supplementing are in our future!

Christmas Eve

This was my 28th Christmas Eve in Gentry.  Well, 27th I guess since we missed the year we lived in Colorado when I was little.  A BIG tradition either way!  Jenny (and her pup Bosco), Leslie, Lydia, Sarah, and Libby all spent Friday night at our house, so we got up the next morning to pancakes and bacon and sent Steve off to work.  We headed over to Gentry at around noon and enjoyed just visiting and munching on all kinds of yummy food!  I was even a super nice wife and made Steve a plate and hid it in the fridge until he got there around 4 or 5. :-)

Some highlights of the evening:
- round robin ping pong
- photo props
- gift exchange (Steve - ear buds, Trey - stacking bowls with ball, me - bread recipe book)
- food, food, food
- playing cards
- watching Trey play with his cousins (of some variety)

Leslie and Jenny came back home with us to stay the night here and then left the next morning after church.  We didn't do presents here but got to open stuff from Mom and Dad.  We got our stockings, and then Steve got a holster and a flash light, I got two decorative lanterns and moola for Hob Lob, and Trey got a noisy little hammer. :-)  It was nice to just have a nice, quiet day at home with the three of us, and it was even nice enough outside that we took a walk that afternoon.

We didn't really make a huge deal about gifts this year, but we enjoyed a lot of time with our families! 

Christmas with the Welches

**I'm having trouble uploading pictures, so I will just add them later.**

Here's our holiday catch up!

Our celebrations started on the evening of the 22nd.  The Price kiddos came over to spend the night before our get together with Steve's family on Friday.  We made s'mores and let the kiddos open their presents that evening and enjoyed playing the games together after Trey went to bed.  We discovered that Hattie is a pretty good mancala player, and Zeke loved his Angry Birds game.  Steve, Ash, Chloe, and I battled each other in a few rounds of Dutch Blitz, and I must say the girls were quick learners!

Friday morning, we headed off to the kitchen and started our Christmas baking.  While Ash made the bags for our goodies, Chloe, Hattie, and I made some puppy chow.  Then we tried our hand at these melting snowman cookies.  We definitely weren't professionals, and I'm sure there was enough sugar on each cookie to put Goliath in a sugar coma, but at least we had fun!

We headed over to the Price home that evening and had a yummy meal and exchanged more gifts.  Trey had eaten table food for the first time the week before at the Christmas dinner we had at my grandparents' house, and he was pretty excited to have some more mashed potatoes and stuffing!  Trey got a Hogs shirt, a snowman pillow pet, and a talking/singing puppy.  Steve and I got a picture frame, a jacket (Steve), and a baking stone (me).  I've already gotten plenty of use out of the baking stone!

After hanging out for a while, Trey and I came on home to put him to bed, and Steve stuck around for a bit of a work meeting and caught a ride home later.  Definitely an enjoyable evening!