15 months

So... it's been a while since I've blogged, so I thought I would share some updates. It's been 3 whole months since I've sat down and done this. I think that officially makes this my longest dry spell with blogging. Life has been busy since August. L has gone from a baby to an emerging toddler. I feel like there should be a name for this in-between stage. I have, for a long time, felt like the 1-2 year transition is a little awkward - not quite baby, not quite toddler, aspects of both. Ah well. L has gotten significantly longer. I don't know his actual stats because we haven't done our 15 month check quite yet, but he's definitely losing the baby rolls. What's so funny about this is that clothes that were too small for him last spring (ie pants that didn't fit over his chunky thighs) now fit perfectly! I had this impression that he would continue to fly through the sizes but he has been in 12-18 months since last March. The pants are just now getting a little short in that size. L continues to be a crawling and cruising machine. His cruising game has recently been showing some pretty advanced moves like letting go for a few seconds and transferring really well around and between pieces of furniture. I still think walking may be a little ways off, but possibly by Christmas? I do think he'll be walking before 18 months (which is really the cutoff for physical therapy to ramp back up). But, he'll only do it when he's ready. He said his first word last month - "Dog!" It should be noted we don't actually have a dog, but we do have a lot of stuffed dogs. I was excited to hear him talk. We have also been teaching him signing and he can sign - "eat", "all done", "thank you", "baby", "bye bye", and "more". Since I figured he would be a slightly late talker, the signs have been really helpful for being able to communicate with him. I highly recommend. He continues to point to show things that are interesting. He gained a few more teeth, bringing our count up to 13. He has one eye tooth, but I expect the other ones will come in soon. He takes either 1 or 2 naps a day. He usually only sleeps once at daycare, but usually gets tired mid morning at home, so we give him 2 naps at home. So he typically gets 4 days of 1 nap and 3 days of 2. I was kind of stressing about this, but it usually goes better if I just follow his cues for when he's sleepy during the day. I think daycare is just too exciting to sleep more than once. Oh - speaking of which! We found a daycare and L has been attending since September. It's an in home place with one provider and 1-2 helpers. We like it and L has definitely adjusted well to it. I think I would like a more structured setting when he gets a little older, but it is good for now. L's immunity is working hard. I think he's been sick with one thing or another since September and pretty much always has a runny nose and a cough. I have brought him to the pediatrician who mostly shrugged and said, "yea, he's in daycare." Oh well.

In other news, we bought a car in early September. It's J's new car, and he really likes it. It's a Jeep, so we have a lot more space than my sedan, which is nice for trips. Last month, I started a new job, myself. It has been good so far, but still the early days. I am still working part time, but work 4 days instead of 3. It's been an adjustment, but I think going pretty well. I do love my new commute and my office is right on a pond, which is way prettier than my last workplace. :) I have been quilting and recently taught myself to crochet. It's been fun to learn and make some new things.

I think that's most of the main updates.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words... here are some pictures from the last 3 months...

September wedding

We went to Cox farms. I had a great time. Luke... not so sure.

Look at those long legs!

J and I spent our anniversary in Charlottesville

Current quilting project. All the small squares take forever.

Crochet project - Christmas hat.

Crochet project - Dog hat

Fall pictures I did with L:

Happy Thanksgiving!

1 year!

Guess who's 1?? That's right -- we have officially survived the first year of parenting! I'll admit L's birthday this year was significantly less painful than last years!

L's current stats:
Weight: 24 lbs 11 ounces
Height: 32.5 inches
Teeth: 10 (halfway there on the baby teeth)

When he was born, he was 7 lbs 9 ounces and 20.75 inches long. That means he has more than tripled his birth weight and gotten a lot taller! He has met his milestones, which led our pediatrician to recommend stopping physical therapy. L now not only crawls a lot, but stands and cruises as well. He will likely still be a later walker due to his late crawling, but that's okay. No words yet, but that's not all that surprising. Lots of babbling, though! We have officially baby-proofed all the things, yet somehow L still finds ways to hurt himself (losing his balance, pulling stuff on top of himself, etc). I feel like some of this is good (as long as it isn't actually dangerous). The growth in defiance and doing things he knows he isn't supposed to do has grown in the past month. I'm realizing more and more that he is transitioning from baby to toddler (excuse me while I go cry). Our doctor said we could stop the formula and switch to cow's milk! (Do you even know how much cheaper cow's milk is than formula?? I'll give you a hint -- a lot!). We are working on the transition. We started a week ago, so I am offering milk and water in sippy cups throughout the day. He didn't drink a lot the first few days, but he seems to be getting the hang of it. He also seems to be understanding how to drink out of a straw cup, so that's pretty cool as well. I'm still doing one bottle before bed as he gets the hang of it, but I'll probably be dropping that in the next month. He is such a good eater, but is starting to become a little more picky (noooo!!).

Our biggest change is coming up. We found out a few weeks ago that our nanny is not coming back from maternity leave (so sad). So... we had a frantic couple of weeks figuring out a new child care situation. Unless you have been through it, it's hard to realize just how difficult finding good child care can be. I went to 6 in home daycares (the center daycares were all full) and interviewed several nannies. In the end, I really felt like L was at the age where I want him to start socializing with other kiddos and I think he would benefit from a daycare setting. I went to several in home places where I was literally backing out as I was saying hello. (yikes!) Others were okay, but I didn't feel all that comfortable. We are going to try out one close to our house that I felt pretty comfortable with. Truthfully, I am really, really nervous about it. I don't know how he's going to do, but I'm just going to go with it and trust that God will protect him. I feel like it's the decision we were pushed into making, so I just pray it's the right one. He starts tomorrow! He's also sort of transitioning to 1 nap a day instead of 2, so I think the daycare setting will help him with that transition since all the other kiddos will be napping at the same time. (We shall see).

In the past month, we have gone to Atlanta for a wedding and hosted a birthday bash for L. Lots of good times were had by all. I also made a busy board for L's first birthday.

Trip to the zoo. L was pretty hot and miserable the whole time.

Wearing the new Georgia Tech shirt we got him from Atlanta

We got a bunch of balls for his birthday so I put them in an inflatable pool for indoor fun. 

Food for L's birthday. It was storybook themed. :) 

One picture for each month

Cake smash

The busy board I made him. I already had the board from a previous project, so I just bought the other items on the board from Home Depot and screwed them in! Pretty easy project for a toddler. :) I think he likes the switch at the door stop the best. 

Second quilt

As promised, I wanted to post a few pictures of my second quilt. My inspiration came from here. I really, really enjoyed making the quilt. It took many hours of L napping to get it finished. This quilt is for friends of ours who are having a baby girl. The quilt should fit a crib (it's about 37" x 50"). I'm actually really loving quilting. It's a great hobby for naptime and it feels good to do something with my hands that isn't too loud.

Here are some of my original strips. They are each 2.5 inches x WOF (width of fabric). 

Pieced top. It was a little tricky lining up the angles, but I got the hang of it (after messing up several times).

I added a purple border. It's a little unconventional since there is no purple in the pieced section, but I sort of loved the purple and pink for a little girl.

For quilting, I did every other column and followed the chevron (stitch in the ditch). 

The binding ties in the back fabric (a pink mermaid fabric) with the pieced colors. It's the same design as the back, but in white.

Back

Since our friends live in the northeast, I used a super warm batting. I personally love how soft it turned out. I actually have enough of the chevron pieces to make another one. 

I'm a little stumped about what I want my next project to be. I plan on updating L's crib skirt next, but that's a pretty quick project. 

11 months

(Title misleading.. he's 11 months tomorrow). I've been behind on posting. It's been hard. The past 2 months have been so, so busy. Summers always are. And I had been getting pretty frustrated with Luke's rather slow progress with physical therapy. I wanted to wait until I had something. I finally do! L has accomplished a variety of milestones in the past 2 months. I am really proud of him. And it's been cool to see the things we have been doing with PT finally pay off. The waiting was hard though. I saw the envy and pride in my own heart through it all. And it was ugly and totally selfish. He actually started making a lot more progress when I started to let go. Funny enough, our nanny has been saying for months that L would start crawling when she left for maternity leave. She started her maternity leave last Friday... the day L started crawling. So, for the cool new things L can do: CRAWL!, get from laying down to sitting and vice versa (controlled), get from sitting to kneeling, sort of pull up (he did it a few times in June and then hasn't since. I actually don't really count it since he cannot do it consistently), stack rings on the ring stacker, sort some shapes in the shape sorter, point to objects, flip light switches (thankfully he can't reach them without us holding him), wave (? he was waving consistently for a few weeks and then just dropped it since he has been learning to crawl. I miss his waves), and lots more babbling (but no words). I feel like he has gained a lot more control and intention in his movements in the past 2 months. He is also much more steady while standing (although not very close to walking quite yet). For other mamas who want to encourage baby's gross motor skills, I highly recommend mamaot.com. I have used this site quite a bit for supplemental ideas for working with L to gain strength.

With his favorite toy, the Mozart cube.

 Was not a huge fan of the pool

 At a winery

 At Nats stadium

 Pulled to standing

 Working on PT

New skill: grabbing his own pacifiers. This is so amazing!

We have been to 2 very fun weddings in the past 2 months. L stayed with my folks for one and J's for the other. We had a lot of fun dancing and seeing friends. We also took L to his first baseball game at Nats stadium and took him to our pool to swim. I also turned 30, and J celebrated his first Father's Day. We recently went up to J's family's lake house for the weekend. It was a little cold for L to swim, but we enjoyed the beach and watching the boats.

I have been keeping busy with a new hobby -- quilting! I'm in a mom's group and everyone seems to quilt in it, so I thought I would pick it up. After reading/watching tutorials online, I pieced together my first quilt! This one is for our nanny who is having her baby this month. I've actually completed another quilt since then, but since the recipients haven't received it yet, I'll hold off on posting.

 Top piece

 Squares sewn together

Pattern

I've also really gotten into the show, Pretty Little Liars and watched the entire show on Netflix. So addicting. I also fan-girled out really hard when I found out the author of the books is from my hometown and went to my high school. I kept seeing references to the area I grew up in the show, so I looked it up and got really excited. There are also references to my college alma matter. So cool, right? J is not amused.

9 months

9 months in, 9 months out. Our LO is 40 weeks this week, which means he has hit his inside-out day (spent longer out than in). I technically gave birth 3 days before my due date, but whatever. Close enough. I actually meant to do this post last week, but it didn't happen. I had to read my last update to remember what has happened in the past month (maybe I should write these things down).

9 month stats:
Weight: 22.75 lbs
Height: 30 inches
Percentile: 97th for height, 92nd for weight
Diaper size: 4
Clothes: 6-12 month or 12-18 month. We use both right now. The long sleeve 6-12 month are getting really snug, but the short sleeve still fit perfectly.
Milestones/Physical therapy: Claps hands, much more babbling in the past month (lots of "dada", "baba", "yaya", and some "mama"), little guy wants to be mobile so badly - he actively gets from sitting to his belly by starting to crawl, but doesn't have enough strength to sustain the position so he ends up on his belly wiggling around. He has started pushing up from his belly, which means he essentially goes backwards, which is very frustrating for him. He has gained more trunk control and is reaching all over the place/lunging for things he wants. We started PT yesterday and the occupational therapist gave me a lot of good suggestions for showing him how to sit up from laying down, stand from sitting and teaching him to crawl. I'm excited about working on those things with him, since I can tell he really wants to do them (he tries really hard). The goal is that he is crawling by August.
Feeding: We do a combination of finger foods and purees still. He is pretty good at grabbing the spoon and bringing it to his mouth. He is also good at making a mess. He still gets 3 7 oz bottles a day, but doesn't always finish them. Considering how much he weighs, I don't force him to eat. His growth has been fine. As it gets hotter, I'm just trying to offer water, so he doesn't get dehydrated.

We also got family photos done this month. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

I guess that's all that's new right now.