linden | 18 months

Linden boy, you are 18 months already!

 

I can't imagine any other kid like you.  You are the perfect boy to make our family of four.  Your personality comes through more and more each month and it's so exciting to watch you develop your own likes and dislikes, and watching you get excited for things.

 

PLAY

Now that the weather has warmed up a bit, you have discovered how much fun it is to be outside.  All I have to do is say the word "outside" and you go running for your shoes and carrying them back yelling "SSSHOOOES". It never gets old.  You've also quickly developed a love for daddy's tractor. The second you hear that thing fired up you're running over there with your arms lifted up demanding that you get a ride.  And really, there's nothing cuter than watching you ride around wearing adult sized ear muffs on daddy's lap. 

 

You also love any toys with wheels (so much like your brother). It's not surprising to find you with a toy train in your hand scooting it around the floor saying "choo-choo".  You're still not quite sure what to do with all the bubbles when we run the bubble machine outside but one thing you do have figured out is your love for water.  It still isn't warm enough to go swimming at the beach but it doesn't stop you from going straight in while you have your clothes on and splashing around.  You have a huge love of water little boy!

 

TALK

There is definitely a list of words that you know and you know how to say them well! And the rest of it still sounds like a jumbled mess, but you look like you know exactly what you're saying when you have something to say.  Your vocab list includes words like "up", "hi", "bye" (you love telling anyone bye), "choo-choo", "food", "shoes", "uh-oh", "sit down", "get down", "go", "no" and "want this".  And even though I might be missing words and there are still a lot of words for you to learn, you seem to understand what we say very clearly.  You're great at following through with commands, that is unless you're being a little stinker who is intentionally ignoring me as part of a game.  You do that often these days.

 

SLEEP

You're not a huge fan of nap time, and I can't really blame you because who is? But you go back and forth between taking one nap a day and two naps a days.  Usually you'll protest for five minutes in your crib but then eventually quiet down and either play until you fall asleep or just lay down.

 

Nighttime, however, is a different story.  These days, you get so excited for going to bed at night. We've bumped your bedtime back to 8pm and you seem to do really well with that.  By the time I say "it's time for nigh-night" you start running over to your daddy or Conner to give them a hug good night.  Then you open your mouth wide so I can brush your teeth (and you have 12 teeth now by the way!) and eventually grab the brush and move it around in your mouth to finish off the task.  Then it's off to the crib when I hand you your favorite blanket and you give me a final wave and sweet little "bye" for the night.  My heart ends up in a puddle every night.

 

FOOD

Let's just say you've been quite the picky little eater.  I've always had trouble getting you to drink milk but I'm not concerned.  When you have an appetite, you eat an adult-sized meal.  It amazes me that you're only in the 20th percentile in weight for kids your age.  You love raspberries and this is quite possibly your favorite food ever.  Following close behind are strawberries, yogurt, peanut butter, pancakes, oatmeal bars, pizza and ranch. You love to dunk food whether it's salsa, ranch, guac, you name it.  If you see anyone dunking food into anything you start letting us know that you want whatever we have!

 

 

 



linden | one year

This entire year with Linden has been the best year ever!  Here's a look back over the past 12 months with this little boy :) 

 

 

 from bringing you home from the hospital 

& 

watching you smile for the first time at three weeks

&

your first little laughs

&

seeing you rollover from your front to back at six weeks old!

&

sitting up by yourself

&

your first bites of real food (bananas!)

&

crawling and climbing stairs

&

cruising the furniture

&

getting into e v e r y t h i n g

&

stealing our hearts every moment along the way

 

this is why this past year has been amazing.

 

LAST MONTH: 

 

THIS MONTH:

 

EAT

We've made the transition to whole milk! We had just enough frozen milk to make it to his first birthday and while he's no stranger to formula, I am pretty excited to move him to whole milk now. And when it comes to table foods.. we have good days and bad days.  There are days that he doesn't want to eat the food I give him and other days he'll eat whatever he can get his hands on.  We try and get him to eat whatever it is that we are eating for supper and most of the time he's on board with that, but we still have our days where life gets busy and his supper consists of chicken nuggets + yogurt drops + berries. Some nights we just need it to be simple.

 

SLEEP

He's a rock star sleeper! He goes to bed around 7pm and wakes up around 6am.  I admit there are times on the weekend that I am just not ready to start the day, and Linden is totally cool with hanging out in his crib and talking to himself for a while.  (We never got that lucky with Conner, when he was awake, you had to be awake too)

He's still a two-naps-per-day kinda boy.  He gets a nice morning nap around 9:30am and again around 2pm.  It makes it a little challenging on the weekends when we're trying to run around with kids in tow, but he takes it all in stride if he misses one of his naps.



 



PLAY

He's discovering the joy of climbing on toys and rocking chairs and anything else that he can climb on and scoot around on.  We have a little four-wheeled bike that Conner got from a family friend when he turned one, and Linden loves it! He'll climb up and plop himself down and scoot backwards across the floor.  And when Conner sees him scooting around, he'll rush over and grab the handle on the back and push him around the house.

Linden also figured out the game of hide-and-seek and chase! Just last night Linden was chasing Conner (or Conner was chasing Linden...still not sure which) around our coffee table.  Honestly, those boys must have circled that table 62 times and in full blown laughter!

   

 PHOTO DUMP

 



linden | eleven months

Here we are in the home stretch of Linden's first year.  This little boy has fit right into our mix of crazy.  This past month he has developed quite the personality and has no issue with letting you know when he's mad.  We can tell he's starting to understand phrases and what they mean and will even react the same way Conner does.  It's most noticeable when he's getting into something that poses a risk and I tell him "No, No".  His look at me, shake his head no and then drop his little head down like he's so sad for disappointing me.  Sweetest thing ever.  I even catch him crawling toward something like a nightlight which he knows he is not allowed to touch, and will stop and shake his head no... and then continue on to said nightlight to try and play with it.  He totally anticipates my reaction!

Linden, you are the perfect addition to our family.

 

LAST MONTH: 

 

THIS MONTH:

 

EAT

I've noticed he's developing his own preference for foods.  The days of him being so accepting of all veggies are diminishing, so I have to get creative from time to time to make sure he's getting nutrients from plant foods.  I love the pouches that mix veggies and fruit and so does he so that is sometimes our go-to to get veggies checked off the list.  Other times, if he sees me eating it, he will want it too, and will gladly accept it.  I've yet to find a fruit he doesn't care for.  Eat can eat strawberries like it's nobody's business and if he sees me eating peanut butter banana toast he will do everything he can to get it from me.

 

This past month we weaned from nursing and have switched to bottles only.  I had enough milk in our freezer to allow him to continue drinking breastmilk at daycare and a bottle of breastmilk when he wakes up.  At nighttime though we do anywhere from 2-4 oz of formula.  (We use Earth's Best Organic Sensitive Formula).  With his first birthday just weeks away and our supply of frozen milk diminishing, I started offering him regular dairy milk at meals to get him used to the flavor.

 





SLEEP

I feel like it took us forever to get this little boy sleep trained, but he has become one of the best sleepers I have known.  The nighttime routine is so easy for us: bottle, read, prayers, and in the crib he goes.  He puts himself to sleep quickly and will rarely cry these days.  Even if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he puts himself back to sleep without any tears.

As far as naps go, he still takes his two naps per day.  He'll go down at 9:30 for his nap and around 2:30 for his second nap.  The first nap is usually the shorter nap and we usually end up missing it on Sunday because of church.  At this point he doesn't do well skipping either of his naps, so I anticipate he'll keep this schedule of 2 a day for a while.





PLAY

This little boy is playful.  He loves being around Conner and the boys will play with all of their trucks and trains - playing side-by-side but separately because every parent knows that sharing is not an inherent trait.  He loves being chased and is starting to catch on to hide and seek.  At night while Joe is out hunting we always migrate up to Conner's room and play with all the trucks up there.
 

 

Baby Misc:

Cruising around everywhere, but still crawling.  Thought for sure he'd be walking by now.
His vocab is growing! Mama, Dada, Dog, Uh-oh, Bye, want that
He waves and says bye to people
He loves anything with buttons and a screen
Loves bath time!
If he can reach a light switch, he will turn it on/off a hundred times
He's grown a close attachment to his blanket that Nana made him
He loves to pretend like he's talking on the phone
   

 PHOTO DUMP