One Year!

Wow, does time fly! My little baby turned one year old yesterday, and I cannot believe it. One year ago today I was FINALLY holding my little one in my arms, after a long 39 week and 1 day wait. Phew.

To celebrate Tyler's first birthday, we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party with family and friends. It was a blast. Thanks to Pinterest, my Cricut, and my personal creativity, we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar cake, cake pops, decorations and more. I had so much fun making everything and definitely went all out. I have a lot to live up to for the next birthday! But it was definitely fun.

Instead of gifts, we had people bring baby-related donations for us to donate to the local food pantry. We collected 471 diapers, 420 wipes, 97 containers of baby food, 7 cans of formula, 9 bottles of infant juice, 16 boxes of pedisure toddler drink, 3 bottles, 2 boxes of baby cereal and a fresh food mesh feeder. I was just amazed at everyone's generosity, and was so excited that we could make such a large donation to such a needy cause. I have a huge spot in my heart for feeding and clothing those who don't have much, so I am hoping that this was just one step in teaching Tyler to have the same convictions (sure, he won't remember it much, but you have to start these kind of traditions young!).

Tyler seemed to have a great time at his party. He loved seeing all his family and honorary aunts, and all his baby cousins! He was apprehensive when it came to his cake though. He spent a good couple minutes just feeling the icing haha. I finally put a bit of icing on my finger and gave him a taste, then gave him some cake which he shoved in his mouth. Lots of frosting everywhere! And he played in the sandbox awhile, and with the pinwheels we put out in the yard as favors for the kids.

On his actual birthday (the day after his party), Tyler had a special breakfast (Daddy shared his biscuits and gravy with him), and then played and played with his cousins outside in the sandbox (his new favorite). He went swimming in the evening then slept a nice longggggg time (9pm to almost 8am straight!). Who says parents don't benefit from their children's birthdays? As for our gift for Tyler, his Daddy is building him a toy box! It didn't get completed quite in time for his birthday (we've been traveling like CRAZY and Jordon's been working a lot at Wintergreen), but it should be done soon. Then Jordon's talented aunt will be painting it a Noah's Ark theme! I think Mommy may be more excited than him about this gift!

We took Tyler in for his one year doctor's appointment today and everything looked great! He weighed an even 20 lbs and was an even 30 inches long (although Jordon claims Ty man is at least 30.5 inches), putting him at or just below average for everything. And his head circumference was right at 50%, which is amazing considering everything we worried about while I was pregnant with him. Praise God that he is a healthy boy! Tyler had a blood test for lead and a CBC to check his iron levels, all of which were normal (although the doctor commented his WBC were just slightly elevated and he may be getting a cold soon.... yikes!). Finally, Tyler got 3 shots, much to his discontent. We definitely had a grumpy boy on our hands!

This week we are back to Wintergreen and then next week we'll be camping at Philpot Lake for our family reunion. I'll be excited to finally get back into my house and settled once all of this is over! We have some new neighbors just two houses down from us... the new wrestling coach at the college and his wife and twin boys. I am SO excited to have another mom my age around. I baked some homemade apple streusel muffins with the apples from our apple tree for them, so I think we'll be good friends :-) AND I got a new job! I'll be an adjunct faculty member at the college, teaching Exercise Prescription, Kinesiology, and Athletic Training courses. I even get an office! I'm pretty excited to get out of the house a little more and finally put my degree to good use.

That's all for now! Thanks for sticking around and keeping updated with us this year!

Baby's 1st Fourth of July!

What an awesome week we've had! First of all, Tyler took his first steps on the 3rd! So proud of my little one. He still needs some practice, but he's going to be running around in no time. He's been busy eating like a big boy too, including whole milk! The pediatrician said we could cheat a bit and start it midway through the 11th month, so we decided to give it a go and he loved it.

Little boy is now also officially weaned. It is definitely bittersweet. I had planned to keep at least one feeding in the schedule until his first birthday, but a couple of weeks ago he came down with hand foot mouth disease (sounds a lot worse than it is, I promise). He got little blisters in his mouth (and a couple on his feet and hands, hence the name) and didn't want to nurse AT ALL. They healed after 4 days or so, but when I tried to nurse him after than, he still didn't want to nurse. Although I REALLY wanted to keep breastfeeding him, I knew it probably wasn't the best idea to try and try to get him to nurse, especially when I was planning on weaning him in less than a month anyway. So my once exclusively breastfed, bottle and paci-refusing baby, weaned with NO problems at all.

It is nice not having to worry about nursing/pumping at all now though. Especially because we've been so busy traveling and doing fun stuff for summer! On the fourth of July, we went to Smith Mountain Lake because Jordon's aunt, uncle, and cousins were vacationing there and graciously opened up their house, food, boat, and two jetskis to us :-) Thanks Kosers! Anyway, it was a BLAST. Seriously, I can't remember the last time I had so much fun. We took Ty man on the boat and he loved it! Even though we put him in a life jacket, he didn't complain once. Jordon and I got to tube behind the boat, which was awesome and hilarious at the same time, and Jordon got to wakeboard (I was a wimp and didn't try haha). Then later, Jordon's aunt watched baby so we could go out and ride the jetski. Awesome. The lake was beautiful and we just had a blast. Tyler loved meeting all his family and they loved having him. I definitely heard the phrase "cutest baby ever" at least 10 times that day. He is pretty cute, huh? We even came back the next afternoon to hang out some more (we only live about 40 minutes from the lake) and to see Jord's Pap and Grandma who came to visit the Kosers too. It is awesome to see family!

We're visiting with Jordon's parents, Luke and the kids this weekend, and are off to Wintergreen tomorrow for Jordon to work and for me and baby to play. And then it's off to Columbia to visit my side of the family. Phew... busy month! Next thing I know, it's going to be Tyler's FIRST birthday. My oh my, where does the time go?!