Birthday Weekend

What a week it has been! Christopher and I have been super busy since his birthday... well even on his birthday actually because unfortunately we had running around to do that day too! Things have finally settled down and sadly all of our guests have gone home. We went to the doctor on Thursday for his 1 year checkup and she couldn't be more pleased with his progress. While she was talking to me about his checkup she pulled out a bin of books and it just warmed my heart that he started pulling the books out one by one and opening them, pretending to read. I think she was even quite impressed, especially when he started babbling like he was reading a story to someone.

Sitting in the chair like a big boy waiting to be called. (Can you believe I actually let Christopher out of the house in this outfit?!?!?)

We had to send a picture to daddy of us waiting... NAKED BABY! Christopher weighed in at 22 pounds 14 ounces... and gained an inch and a half... but I can't quite remember what that number was.... I do remember that he is in the 78th percentile though, which is where he was for his 9 month checkup as well. His head circumference continues to top the charts, being in the 89th percentile! My cousin Ryan calls him Mr. Potato Head. :( I think he is growing into that head!

When we got home, Christopher had a card in the mail from his Great Aunt Mary Elda. Here he is reading his card.

And of course, his day wouldn't be complete without standing at the back door waving to the workers!

Christopher's birthday party was Saturday. I tried to keep it small- family and a few friends. After all you know how long it takes Christopher to take it all in.  Even small it took him a bit to loosen up! We had a baseball theme and you would think that I would have pictures of the food and the baseball glove cake right??? I don't. I was busy being the hostess!

Here he playing with his toy from Ms. Jeanne with his buddy Austin. 

I know it's the wrong ball, but at least he has the right idea!

I made Christopher's birthday cake!

I think it was the Devil's Food mix with vanilla icing.

Still singing....

He kind of picked at the cake with his fingers and then Kelly told me to get a fork... so I got a spork :) and he started eating! It was funny watching him suck it off!

Yummmmmmy!

Playing outside after his party. He took a nap for the last hour, thank goodness. You could see that he was really tired and he went right down.

Uncle Anthony got him this truck! Christopher loves being pushed around in it. He is so funny opening the door and climbing in. It was really neat to watch his problem solving skills to figure out how to get in the truck.

Nana and Kate pushed Christopher around alot in his truck! The floorboard does pop out so once Christopher learns to use his feet (and gets a little taller) he can move it himself.

Nana the Scientist picked up a caterpillar to show Christopher. Thank goodness she was there because Kate tried... and then screamed.

Here are a few videos for you! The first is of Christopher walking. I don't know what was going on Friday but he was a walking fool! He would go from couch to wagon, wagon to door, door to table... It was great. And then, nothing Saturday. Big Daddy got a little bit of it on video. And yes we cheered like that everytime he walked. https://www.dropbox.com/s/sgqfdnnbh5j6uf8/Walking.mov

The next video is short and sweet- Christopher and Kate going down the slide!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0mj9nwddblk8kw9/Slide.mov

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today is Christopher's 1 year birthday!! I don't have any stats because we go to the doctor tomorrow. I uploaded all of his monthly pictures so that you can see how much he has changed over the year!  Months 1-5 were a cinch to take... and after that- we were just thankful to get a picture with him in it and the ball! :)

This is the only way I could get a picture with the ball showing the number and his face looking up.

I know the 12 month ball looks a little dirty... :) I had to use the last clean ball to get this made...

I wanted to have this to put on the door for his birthday, so I had to give away the clean ball. Isn't it adorable? I was so thankful my friend Amanda took on this task for me! She had made one for her house a little while ago... and I hadn't forgotten!

 

I was trying to think of all the fun things that he has experienced in just one year of life....

- first beach trip to Nags Head for a week in July

- 2 plane rides... well I guess 4 actually since we had to come back as well (1 to Pittsburgh and 1 to Norfolk)

- 2 weddings (1 in West Virginia and 1 in Nashville)

- 5 nights in a 5 different hotels

It makes me feel so blessed for all the experiences that we are able to provide for Christopher. Some people don't get to do all those things in a lifetime.

And just some randoms from his birthday...

Before daycare- trying out his new slide! Thanks Aunt Nancy!

We had to get up extra early today to go to Dunkin Donuts to get Munchkins for Christopher to take to daycare to share with his friends. He also gave everyone a Little People car as his birthday party favor.

Waving to the guys out back building us a new deck!

His wagon filled with clothes, books, stuffed animals and blocks.

You can also see his new picnic table from Nana and Granddaddy.

His basketball hoop!

He has one that is attached to the side of his hoop and he stands on his

 tippy toes and puts the ball in the hole!

I hope you weren't thinking this was going to be some mushy post. I am far from mushy as we all know! :)

Happy Birthday, Christopher!!!! :)

My 100th Post!

Here we are ... 100 posts later! Do you feel like you know pretty much everything about Christopher? Probably so. I am going to make this post a little more about Matt and I ... but before I do that, here are some of the random pics I have from the last few days!

I let Christopher eat his snack Thursday in front of the television. TV does not normally hold his interest. When he is playing on the floor, he will occasionally look up at it for a little, and then move on to play. But sitting there in front of it with food was totally different. He would hardly even look down to pick up his Goldfish! Stroonz likes Goldfish too, but he didn't get any. That's probably why he bit him later on.

Just pushing his doggie right along. Christopher has really stepped up his walking game. This past week he has started taking 2 or 3 steps to get from one object to another. He was doing really good Friday when mom got here. Matt, mom and I were sitting in a triangle and Christopher was walking to each of us. I think the most he got was 6 steps. He does the whole lunge forward thing at the end once he knows he is within reach.

Playing Peek-a-Boo out the window!

Speaking of Peek-a-Boo.... Christopher has been playing it with everything. He will get on one side of the couch and squat down and pop back up.... or gets behind a toy and pops back out. Here is a video of him playing Peek-a-Boo behind the coffee table. He had been doing it for awhile and then I break out my camera.... and I get like 10 seconds of it. Better than nothing I guess!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2fcb5gv16z7h9rp/Video%20Apr%2011%2C%207%2044%2005%20PM%20%281%29.mov

And another Peek-a-Boo video with the help of Matt...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s2z0xjpdrgs1fhz/Video%20Apr%2011%2C%207%2046%2026%20PM%20%281%29.mov

This next video is a 2 parter...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m425kgv7cu253b4/Video%20Apr%2011%2C%204%2001%2021%20PM%20%282%29.mov

And the ending....
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0b7ipqrhvad2l0o/Video%20Apr%2011%2C%204%2001%2055%20PM%20%281%29.mov

And now... onto our weekend!
Mom came in Friday... after being delayed for 3 hours :) to babysit Christopher so that Matt and I could go see Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean at the University of Georgia! We have had this planned since August. Matt's rock star cousin got us tickets and we are soooooo appreciative! He never disappoints! It was the perfect little trip away. You can't beat an hour and a half away and your mom (and brother?) watching your baby! The concert was amazing and so was the weather!

These are the "arches"- whatever that means! :) Apparently, it is important or memorable to UGA people. We went to the concert with Matt's sister Cindy and her husband Mark.

After awhile, ole pale boy had to reapply.

My friend Kelly was there looking all cute in her new cowgirl outfit!

And I am rocking one of my new chevron scarves by Sweet Designs by Maryum!

Luke Bryan was AMAZING!!! Definitely entertainer of the year!

Yes, our seats really were this close. We had seats 1-4 in our room and seat 4 was the edge of the catwalk. Thank you, Patrick!!!! :) :)

Luke came back out to perform with Jason Aldean.

And then came Ludacris!

Such a fun concert!!!

Spring Break is now officially over. Back to reality tomorrow. We have a super busy week... cramming the last few standards into my kids brains all week before testing which means stressing about everything they forgot along the way... Christopher's birthday on Wednesday... out of towners coming on Friday... and Christopher's birthday party on Saturday!

Poor Baby...

I think this picture pretty well sums up what this post is going to be about! It has been almost 12 months and Christopher has not been sick once. He has had the occassional runny nose, not lasting more than a week and all but one of those were accompanied by teeth. I took him to the doctor yesterday after he cried the whole way home from Matt's work because he has his first ear infection! This certainly explains Mr. Grumpybutt though from Monday! The doctor seemed none too concerned- well he does have a litlte fluid in there... So we got our meds and this is what he did when we got home. Not for long because you know he can't sit still for longer than 5 seconds, but long enough for me to snag this cute pic! I actually thought he was in good spirits when we got home. He carried on a huge conversation with our PestBan guy about ants!

This is before we went out to lunch! Twirling in daddy's chair- hopefully Christopher put a magic "good luck-get a lot of starts" potion on daddy's chair!

One of Christopher's "birthday" presents was this painting for his bathroom! It looks so cute. I may not have hung it perfectly... so that picture will have to wait. Mom is coming this weekend and it seems like a job for her! I have one thing left to do in there... but that involves going to Ikea. Bleh. I hate driving downtown. Have you seen the pins where you take the spice racks from Ikea and turn them into bookshelves? I want to do that on the wall right next to the toilet. Just a couple for some leisurely reading.... :)

First off- I know you love my pants! I think my dad bought them.... 1975? Does that sound right? They used to be navy blue... they are purple now and are my favorite pajama pants! This was right before Christopher's morning nap. A glorious 2 hour nap and had there not been 3 huge bees flying around out back I may have been able to get more than an hour of sun today!!

We invited over Heather and Grayson for a little playdate today. It took Christopher awhile to warm up as it always does but after a bit they played... or just wanted the toy the other one had. I guess at this age that is playing?

And here we are NOW. Well, almost 2 hours ago. Christopher played, cried, laughed, etc for 25 minutes... and all I wanted him to do was TO GO TO SLEEP! Mommy was tired. And the moment he goes down- BAM. Maybe I should write the blog. Maybe I should do some summer shopping. Maybe I should make the rice for dinner. Maybe I should do some banking. REALLY? But here we are... and I have done all of the above... except nap.

I have figured out how to upload Anthony's video as well! Here is he jumping from plank to plank in mud. When we saw him on Sunday he was all bruised and cut up from this obstacle! Enjoy.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l7zd4j6yckbun0u/anthony%20tough%20mudder.MOV

1,2,3..... No More Bottles for Me!

Well, they did it. They took away all my bottles. I knew something weird was going on because I stopped getting a bottle at Ms. Jeanne's a couple weeks ago and was getting this new white liquid stuff. I wasn't a huge fan of it at first, but then Ms. Jeanne put some banana yogurt with it.. and I gobbled it right down!

I woke up Saturday and mommy and daddy were saying.. "Well, I thought we were waiting til Monday." "Why wait- let's just take them now." "But that means no more bedtime bottle already? I thought I had 2 more with him." "I just bought a whole thing of formula. What am I going to do with that?"

Needless to say when we came downstairs there was no cuddling on the couch with a bottle... there was just a sippy cup of milk, a little pancake and some banana! I gobbled that milk right down. I don't even need it flavored to drink it! It was kinda weird at first, but it was also kinda cool because me and mommy sat there eating breakfast together! We had some great conversations! :) I didn't get a nighttime bottle either! They read me some books- gave me a little milk in my cup and that was it! I am growing up so much. Soon I will be one!!!!! Can you believe it??!?!? Mommy and daddy are teaching me how to blow now so that I can blow out some candle... (Like mom will ever let me near fire.)

Here are some pictures from my week....

We came home from daycare this past week and our neighbor Miss Tiffany was home! I just love her accent. She sounds NOTHING like mommy. She is always saying how "precious" I am, too so obviously I love her! She let me use this cool Lightning McQueen car that her son has outgrown! My fingers were feeling lazy so I made mommy press the button and walk around all hunchback so I could ride in it! Check it out here...  https://www.dropbox.com/s/msjhx615rc256mv/IMG_2773.mov

Mommy says only girls with long legs can sit on hoods of cars... I am not quite sure what she means by that. Maybe I will ask Uncle Anthony. That sounds like something he would know about. 

Nicholas let me ride in his truck! He is always zooming around me as I am "walking" around pushing my toys and Miss Tiffany always says "Watch out for Christopher!!!"  At least I got in there this time. The next time I wanted to get in he told me I was too little... so I have been drinking my milk so that I can get nice and big and then I won't be too little.

Daddy walked in with my bottle! I couldn't wait to get that thing in my mouth. Had I known they were going to take it from me days later, I would have taken longer to drink it! 

Do you LOVE the outfit daddy brought home for me? Apparently daddy wanted some new video game and mommy only agreed as long he bought me and her something and this is what I got...WHAT IS THIS? A ferret with a heart MOM tattoo, a stache, eye patch and a pirate hat. Dear Lord- I think I am in love. Do you think daddy is going to buy me a ferret, too?!?!?!

I love reading... and I love my chair! Mommy was out getting her brows done and when I woke up from my nap, daddy put me in this chair and gave me a new book!!! Nana loves when I cross my feet so this picture is for her.  However, I am not impressed with how I have to get out of this thing. Daddy kept laughing as he watched me try to get out... for 3 minutes! He did take a video of it but that is a really long video!

We played outside any chance we got on Saturday! Nana had sent me some packages for my birthday and mommy called her and asked if we could open this one early. It's a tunnel and I won't say I am scared to get in.... but I am just not "ready" to get in.

I am definitely interested in it.... and I like to look in and "sniff" around. My mommy and daddy have both been through it, but not me. I am waiting for Uncle Anthony to get in there and then MAYBE I will go through!

Uncle Anthony is the toughest guy I know!!! You should have heard about all the crazy things he did this past weekend.. Something about jumping in mud and getting shocked?!?! Yikes. I was hoping he would come back with a "Future Tough Mudder" shirt for me, but no. :( We took him out for a yummy breakfast Sunday morning as a way for him to refuel after such a rough Saturday! Mommy is working on getting some of his videos uploaded on here so that you all can see how tough he really is! :)

Zonked.

I spent the day with mommy yesterday since it is Spring Break.... and I am totally getting some teeth! I was clicking my teeth together, drooling everywhere, and just being downright fussy! Today I am at daycare. No, not because of yesterday. Mommy had an appointment for her car this morning, so I had to go! She didn't want me waiting in the waiting room with her for 2 hours. We are going to see daddy for lunch though when she picks me up!! :) :) 

Mommy says if it is raining one day she will update again while I am napping... otherwise she will be sitting outside reading a book and getting sun, so yall will have to wait! :)