My little one year old

Although he is not truly very little, this is the littlest he will ever be. So sad to think that in a few short years he will start growing a beard and talking with a low voice. I wish I could just pause time because it moves too fast.

Height: 31.5 inches (96%)
Weight: 21pounds, 3oz - less than 50%
Shoes: squeezing into size 4
Diapers: 3 during the day, 4 at night
Teeth: 8, feeling some molars getting close
Clothing: mostly size 12-18 months

Titus loves: opening and closing things, filling and emptying things, playing peekaboo, his big sister, climbing on anything he can, playing with the cords on the blinds, eating spaghetti, most animals, being outside, eating dirt or rocks or chicken food, going for walks and exploring outdoors.

Looking so big!

Titus hates: bathtime, new people, new situations, sitting still, diaper changes, doctor appointments, riding in the car.

Yup.... hates bathtime. 

This month, we had a few rough sleeping nights. We've hit a sleep regression or something. Who knows - maybe some teeth coming in? Anyways, Titus has been waking up 2-3 times a night again. Yawn. He'll have a couple good nights thrown in there, just to get us excited. Stinker. Before the sleep regression, he was pretty much sleeping through the night or would do an 8-10 hour stretch, wake, eat, and sleep for another couple hours.

Another love: playing in his Uncle Matt's old cars (he likes Daddy's car, too)

He is napping great, and will either take two good naps or one long nap and go to bed early. He likes his sleep! I do nurse him before naps and bed, but he rarely falls asleep while nursing. When done nursing, he arches his back and wiggles away from me. I set him in his bed and he promptly rolls over, butt in the air and closes his eyes.

Rough when mommy wakes you up from your nap

Titus has hit an extreme whiny phase. Most of his life is spent pointing and grunting or whining or shrieking at stuff. I am trying to teach him sign language and simple words in order to make both our lives happier. So far, we're not getting anywhere. He knows "uh-oh", sometimes will say "dada" and that's still it. No mama from him yet!

Birthday!

Titus at 11 months

This month has been a hot, sticky one. We had a week of over 110 degrees, and our air conditioning broke on the first day. Thankfully we have grandparents who have a nice large house and live close-by, because it took 4 nights until our air was fixed. When the man came to fix the air conditioner, it was 95 degrees in our house. Titus this month has been expanding his skills. He loves to climb onto anything he can reach. He is also an excellent eater, and many meals he out-eats Georgia. Him and Georgia get along so well, and it brings joy to my soul to see them playing together.

Eating some beets

Weight: 21 pounds
Height: 31 inches
Shoe size: 4s!
Diapers: 3s during the day, 4s at night
Teeth: 8 still. I've noticed he has a severe lip tie, so am thinking about having it fixed.

Food: Titus is eating a lot. Seriously. So. Much. In the morning, I've discovered he likes oatmeal. I make him a 1/4 cup, and many times he eats all or most of it. He nurses an hour or two later, before his nap. At lunchtime, he eats whatever we have: leftovers, slice of bread, hunks of chicken, puffs, rice, applesauce, whatever. He likes to feed himself, and uses a spoon and a bowl for a while (before ditching the spoon and digging in with his hands). He is fairly messy, but I stick him on the tile floor for an easy-er clean up. Again, he nurses after lunch and then takes a nap. When often eats several times in the evening. He gets hungry around 4, so he will eat either what I'm making for dinner, or have a snack. Then when we eat dinner closer to 6, he will have another meal. He likes flavorful things - pico de gallo and brushetta were big hits with him.

Going shopping is difficult. He doesn't like to sit in the cart.... then there is lots of climbing and pulling things off the shelf when he gets down

Sleep: Our schedule is much more routine these days. He usually wakes up around 6:30. He naps around 8:30, then has another nap around 1pm. He likes to be in bed around 6:30 or 7, although there are several nights during the week where this isn't possible. At night, he usually wakes up once. Last night he gave me a 9-hour stretch. He normally wakes up to eat around 10pm, then will sleep until morning or close to morning (getting up at 5am, then going back to sleep for an hour). It is nice because his long stretch is when I am sleeping, so I mostly feel rested these days. A funny thing about his sleep is that he is very active. Georgia was never this way, but he moves from end to end of his crib (in his sleep). He faces one way, then the other, rolling around, changing directions, but almost always keeping his butt up in the air.

This was one of the first times that he fed himself. He has gotten a lot cleaner, thankfully! Also, he is signing "all done"

Activity: climbing, walking, getting dirty, carrying sticks and rocks around, wrestling with Georgia, playing hide and seek with her - she will run and hide somewhere and yell his name until he comes to "find" her. He loves playing outside (so great that it is starting to get cooler and now we can go outside) and will climb on our slide that we have. He walks around in circles, picking up sticks and rocks, and often eating them. He splashes in our water table, and tries to climb in and out of our cozy coupe car. If he can, he will climb on top of tables, chairs and anything else that is reachable. He loves the blankets that he sleeps with and will drag them around the house. When he gets tired he will curl up on top of the blanket.

Lots and lots of wrestling in this house

Another favorite game of his is putting items into a container and then emptying it. He does this with legos, toy cars, dominoes, etc. Basically anything small enough to hold!

The only picture I have (so far) of his lip tie. I'm going to need at least three hands to take a real picture of it

He is barely talking, although he has a few ways to communicate. He pulls on my legs and yells, "ah, ah, ah" when he wants me to pick him up. He does say da-da. He will mimic things such as "tank-oo" for thank you. He says "uh-oh" perfectly. He seems to understand much of what I ask him, and will answer by his facial expressions or his frantic "uh-uh". He is such a joy to have around. We all love him. Georgia will always beg (when she is doing something she doesn't want to do) to "go play with Titus" and I have to admit he gives the best cuddles. Dave loves coming home from work to see him - Titus will lumber over and hug his legs tight and want to be picked up. Usually hes so excited, his arms end up hitting Dave in the face.

Titus at 10 months

Well this month has seen the departure of my little baby and the arrival of my toddler. That's right. I have a toddler now in the house. The end of last month Titus learned how to walk, and he has just taken off! As of three or four days ago, he decided walking was better than crawling. And that was that. He now walks maybe 90% of the time. He does fall quite often, but its controlled (most of the time) and he picks himself back up and starts again.

Height: 29 inches
Weight: 20 pounds
Shoe size: 3
Diaper size: 3 (although I was thinking of putting 4s on at night for more absorbency)

Titus had a bit of a cold this last week that made life more miserable. Other than that, our days are very scheduled. He wakes up around 6:30. Naptime is usually from 8-9:30 or so. Sometimes a bit later depending on when he falls asleep. Then his second nap is usually around 12-2. I am trying to push it back because then he has a long awake stretch and bedtime is around 6:30.

He has a love/hate relationship with eating. He has a couple foods he really likes: watermelon, beans (refried or pinto) and puffs - the baby food variety. He also will sometimes eat coconut milk yogurt, meat (whatever we're eating), fruit - strawberries, banana, and peas. He will only sit still in his high chair for about three minutes (what can I say? I have active kids).

During the day, he is nursing quite a bit less than previously. He will nurse before his two naps and before he goes to bed. He wakes usually twice to nurse at night - once around 10pm, and then once sometime before morning. He falls asleep really easily for his naps and bedtime. He is so cute and sleeps on his tummy, with his but up in the air.

Like I said at the beginning, his activity level is extremely high! He is walking everywhere. He refuses to sit still in grocery carts - and can stand up (even with the belt fastened) in about 3 seconds. Grocery shopping with two kiddos is a challenge. He loves climbing and will practice going up and down stairs. He climbs onto chairs, and one of his favorites is climbing on the couch cushions. I'm sure one of these days he will figure out how to climb out of his crib (okay, I hope we have a couple months before this!).

Georgia is three and a half!

I haven't done an update on Georgia lately. She had a doctors appointment recently, and I was struck by how grown-up she has gotten over the last 4 or 5 months (since we had last been at the doctors together). She was a bit more obedient, able to sit still for longer periods of time. Her language skills have increased - she is able to explain herself and I am always shocked at her vocabulary and her ability for fast thinking and responding (sometimes in hilarious ways!)  She does have a few funny things she says - "buitar" instead of "guitar" and "butella" instead of nutella. Bessert is dessert.

We got this dress as a hand-me-down a few months ago. She is in love with is! 

Height: 44 inches - way above the 99% line  (the height of an average 5 1/2 year old girl). She has gone through a growth spurt this week and grown a full inch.  When we were in Colorado in the spring, we compared Georgia's height to my sister, Teresa. Teresa is tall - 5'10". Comparing a similar age of Georgia and Teresa (when they were both three), Georgia was a full inch taller than her.

Weight: 44 pounds - 95%

The last rainstorm we had in February

Clothing: wearing anything between 4T and a 6. She has a few odd pieces of clothing larger that fit - for example a size 7/8 dress that is just a tad big, but wearable. Most of the 4T stuff is too short, the 5s and 6s fit her well. I am starting to fill her closet with size 6s and 7s for this next year.

Shoes: 11 (almost in a size 12)

When Titus was a month or two old.... Georgia is a great big sister! 

Some sayings: 

This morning, Georgia woke up and said, "I prayed by myself last night!" She went on to say "I prayed for kids who have no families and no food and no purple beds" In case you don't know, she has a purple bed that she is very proud about. Obviously she feels bad for everyone else who does not have a purple bed.

While we were on our vacation, we asked if she wanted to wear shoes or go barefoot. She replied, "Barefoot. Like a bear!"

We don't get to go very often, but Georgia loves the beach

Georgia is fairly independent and can entertain herself and play by herself for a while. Of course, being the extrovert that she is, she really enjoys playing with other kids and being around other people. She enjoys going to the park, but only if there are other kids playing there. She cried this week when some girls told her they didn't want to play with her. She runs up to every kid she meets and asks, "do you want to play with me?" She gets really hurt when they say "no". I'm trying to teach her that she can just play, without having to ask every kid.

Her favorite color is purple. She loves eating macaroni and cheese (with hot-dogs, or course). She is not adventurous when it comes to choosing ice cream flavors. She will almost always eat vanilla, and sometimes will eat birthday cake flavor or mint and chip. She loves playing pretend and almost always pretends princess. She wants to be Rapunzel, Elsa or Auna, or Cinderella. She loves the movie Frozen (along with every other preschooler). She has most of the songs memorized and will sing them over and over, knowing almost every word. She has been watching Doc McStuffins, a TV show about a little girl who pretends she is a doctor and "fixes" all her stuffed animals. Georgia loves playing pretend and fixes up all her animals and toys with bandaids.

Titus is 9 months

So we have a 9 month old in our house. This month proved a bit difficult for us since we had a vacation to Wisconsin, almost 2 weeks of an ear infection and some teething. Poor Titus was pretty miserable for a while.

After eating refried beans

Height: 28 inches
Weight: 18.5 pounds
Shoe size: 3
Diaper size: 3
Teeth: still at 6, still can see two additional teeth still under the skin

Sleeping: This has been our biggest challenge this month. Due to his ear infection (poor guy), he refused to sleep laying down. Well, he refused to fall asleep while laying down. Once he was out, I was able to set him in his crib and he would sleep relatively well. But, for two-three weeks, I had to put him into the ergo and carry him around while he fell asleep. As cute as it was, it was getting a bit tedious and painful, especially for his older sibling who may have felt a bit neglected. The last couple days we have had a more painful time trying to re-teach Titus to fall asleep on his own in his crib. Hopefully it is a short-lived period in our life and will bring in a new era of easy baby.

The scratch down his face is an accidental meeting with a chicken claw. It was gone after a couple days. 

Nursing: still going great! I love this time with my babies. He nurses about 4 times throughout the day and then 2 times at night.

He is practicing walking! Getting so very close

Activity: Well, because of his ear infection during the first half of the month, his balance was quite off. He was falling a lot, and kept hitting his head - even while crawling, poor thing. Anyways, he had two weeks of inactivity because of this. He is just about ready to walk. I thought for sure he would be walking by 9 months. (Georgia was taking her first steps a week before her ninth month). We'll see if he takes any steps in the next couple of days. He is starting to babble and started saying "da-da-da-da" our last day in Wisconsin. Now he makes a few consonant sounds.

Fun in the airport while traveling

Favorites: He loves eating paper. Toilet paper, newspaper, junk mail, napkins, whatever he can find to eat. He loves playing piano. He will play Georgia's little toy pianos multiple times each day. I am shocked at how long he will play it - often a couple minutes at a time - a great amount of concentration for such a young boy. He does love classical music. When he is trying to sleep (especially during his ear infection days), I would play classical music for him. He instantly calms down. He likes books, balls and cars. He will run cars along the floor, pushing them while he crawls. He likes our push toys that we have, and will walk along while pushing something (often with one hand!).

Meeting Great-Grandpa Brinsko

update 8/8 - while waiting for myself to finish editing pictures (I am so behind right now!) to add into the blog, Titus had a dr. appointment today. He was almost 19 pounds (with clothes on) and 29 inches. The doctor remarked about how advanced he was, and how he is very very active for his age. Titus was crawling, walking, talking and climbing all over the room. We love him so much and are so thankful for his addition to our family!

Titus at 8 months

Well, we have reached the 8 month mark. I remember loving this age and stage, and I love it again. Titus is learning new things every day, he is much easier now and falls into his schedule and routine. He is interactive and has a personality but can't talk back or disobey (too much yet!).

Height: 28 inches
Weight: around 18.5 pounds
Diapers: size 3 (we use cloth diapers maybe 80% of the time)
Teeth: 5 currently in, working on #6 and 7
Shoes: don't wear them ;)

Brown-eyed boy

Titus has come to have a schedule of sorts now. He wakes up every morning at 6:20 pretty much on the dot. There are a few exceptions to that rule, and they come very infrequently. First nap is between 7:30 and 8, and he sleeps until 9 or 9:30. He is then awake until lunchtime, and he will sleep again from 11:30 or so until 2:30. Most of the time he doesn't take a third nap. He will go to bed then around 7. Some nights we have activities and we are out later, or some days his naps are shorter. When that happens, we will try to squeeze a third nap into our day.

fun in the mirror

Most nights he still wakes up twice to eat. When he is teething, he wakes up 8-10 times a night. Ugh! Georgia never had so many problems with teeth, but they really seem to bother Titus. We had one week where Titus was sleeping great - only waking up once each night. His best night of sleep, he slept 11 hours straight, woke up for a feed, then slept another two hours. Hopefully that is a sign of what's to come after all the teeth come in.

Now into everything

Physically, Titus is ahead of where Georgia was at this age. He is sitting, can pull up to standing, can stand by himself for a second or two (I think he could do more, but he hasn't tried). He is very steady and can "walk" around holding onto hands or objects in the room. The thing is - he barely holds on and needs any steadying! I think sometime in the next week or two we will see him try to take steps on his own. At Grandma's house, he was able to crawl up two stairs all by himself.

He does not enjoy the beach

He is already getting into trouble! He is quick with crawling and will disappear into rooms of the house that we're not in. I've found him sticking his hands in the toilet. He loves to pull on the power cord in his room that is attached to the fan - he loves it because it makes the fan tip over. He loves to eat paper. We've already found a little toy of Georgia's in his diaper (he ate it!). He loves clicking his tongue and closing doors. He hates bathes. With a passion. He is so snuggly! This is probably my favorite thing about him. He gives great hugs (and some kisses, although now that he has teeth its a little painful). His favorite place to sleep is in my arms. I will miss this.

My early-morning riser

His favorite person is still Georgia. Although he knows his whole family, and will gladly go to all of us. He follows Georgia around throughout the day, playing next to her and trying to take her toys. He will reach his arms out for Dave and Grandma and Aunt Ky (but not Grandpa, Matt or Kate - yet!). He is scared of new people and places. He cries in the nursery (when we leave him)

Looking for his sister

Titus at 7 months

Well, once again I can say that this month has moved at break-necked pace. It snuck up on me, and now we no longer have a six month old. This month has increased in challenges and enjoyment. Titus is moving and interacting more than ever. He is also moody and can be difficult to get to sleep. He is waking up a lot at night, and I am tired. But, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Almost crawling!

Weight: 17.5pounds (between 10-25th percentile)
Height: 28 inches (around 70th percentile)
Teeth: two bottom ones! They came in two weeks apart.

The first thing that you'll notice about Titus is how active he is. He is on the cusp of crawling. I know I've said that for a week or two, but he will get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth. I oftentimes will give him a little help, and he now knows how to move his arms forward. He cannot do it quite by himself yet. He is sitting all by himself and as of Saturday, he is able to get from laying down into a sitting position all by himself. He rolls around the floor, but not as much as Georgia ever did. If he is being held, he does enjoy standing on your lap or on the floor. He will not pull himself up or hold onto anything yet, but I imagine that is right around the corner.When you leave him on the floor for a minute or two, he will be 10 feet away from where you set him down.

He is a boy through and through. He loves playing with boxes of toys. He will hit them so that they make the loudest noise possible. As soon as he can move, I imagine he will be a force of destruction around the house. He does tend to be shy and more reserved (especially compared to his sister!). New situations and places make him uncomfortable, although I am thankful he loves being held by both his mommy and his daddy! At church on Sunday, he reached out for Dave to hold him, and snuggled up against his chest. It was a very cute moment.

Titus is still not "saying" anything. He is mostly quiet, although when upset (or hungry) he makes lots of "aaahhs" and "uhs". He will hold his arms out to be held. I am starting some baby sign language so that he will be able to communicate with us. I am confident that he can hear, so I am not too worried about his speaking skills.

Starting to love bath time now

Sleeping has been quite difficult this month. He is a good napper, thankfully! He currently takes three good naps a day. One is about an hour (or two) after he wakes up in the morning, the second nap is from 11-1 or so, and the third nap is around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Nightime is hit or miss, and he wakes up at least three times a night. The first is right around the time we go to bed - 10 or 11. Then, it really is unknown how he will sleep. Lately he has been waking up an hour or two after he eats - and he is not hungry. I'm hoping this is a quick phase, and I don't really enjoy waking up 4 times a night. He also has become more difficult to put to sleep. On a good day, he'll fall asleep on his own, but as most days are not like that, he needs some rocking and patting in order to fall alseep. It does seem that his sleep is somehow related to his food, so I am trying to keep a journal of sorts.

Mr. Grumpy face

Feeding is a whole new topic. It seems that he has more food allergies than just the milk/soy/eggs. He has now had three episodes of vomiting within a couple hours after eating solid foods. I realized that we were probably introducing foods too quickly to him, so we have slowed down and are writing everything down. It is unfortunate because he seems to really enjoy the act of eating. He vomited after avocados and after pork. We have since tried quinoa (so far no vomiting!) and zucchini. He loved the zucchini, but the three days that he was eating it, he slept really poorly. I'm hoping that it is a fluke, since he loved eating it. This is one of the reasons that I am not in a hurry to night-wean him. I know he is probably hungry since he isn't eating solid foods yet, so I understand he needs to eat at night in order to get his calories.

6 months

Well, our sweet little guy is half a year old. We've been on the road, traveling up to Oregon and back, so that is the reason this blog post is late. I will try to do a blog post on that another time.

Weight: 17lbs, 1oz
Height: 27 inches
Teeth: His two lower teeth haven't popped through, but have been bothering him on and off.
Clothing: mostly 9 month (or 6-9 month). A few 12 month things, although he's not quite long enough for them yet.

Titus is starting to move quite a bit. There's no slowing him down now! He rolls both ways, can rest himself on his knees (if you set him up like that). He sits very nicely (and for a long time, without falling), and then will go onto his back or belly and kinda scoot around. He does 180 spins in his crib.

Sleeping has been all over the place this month. Now being back from our trip, Titus is taking three naps a day. Most of the naps are longish - somewhere between 1-2 hours. He seems to be ready for bed around 7pm. He wakes up twice - once around 10 or 11, and then once again around 4 or 5am. He then sleeps until 7-7:30. He loves sleeping on his side or on his front. It is very cute to see, since Georgia was only ever a back sleeper. Titus will snuggle up with his lovey (again, Georgia wasn't attached to hers at all), and also loves to hold onto a toy. I've noticed that if I distract him with a toy, he'll often just hold onto it, falling asleep rather easily.

Titus is eating just a little bit. He is still very interested in food, especially what other people are eating. I try to find things that he can eat: bell pepper, zucchini, banana, sweet potato, french fries (while on our road trip), chicken, carne asada, applesauce and refried beans. He never seems very excited once he actually tries the food that I hand him. The only exception to that is meat. Most meats I give him, he sucks and chews on quite a bit. All other foods get a funny face and reluctance to eat much more. I don't think he is actually swallowing much of what he is eating. Most of it gets spit right back out after he chews it for a while.

Titus is still very snuggly (again, unlike his sister), and I am completely eating it up. He is the biggest mama's boy  - well, unless Georgia is around and then I am chopped liver ;)  He loves to be held and sit on my lap. He gives huge smiles which can light up a room. He is friendly but reserved. He often looks at me while in crowds of people, as if to ask if everything is ok. He loves watching other kids run around and play. He is still unsure when other people are holding him. He will be okay for 1-2 minutes and then start looking around for me.

This week was the first bath he's taken that he's enjoyed. It is the first time I've bathed him where he can sit up himself, and he enjoyed being able to splash in the tub, rather than just lay there and get cleaned. He is not babbling at all, which I think is okay. Georgia always had a huge vocabulary, but I don't expect that out of Titus. He seems a bit quieter, and he's also a boy.