The Highlander Family: These are the Days!

It’s so hard to believe that my sweet baby boy is one year old! On Sunday, December 6, 2009 he entered this world and changed our lives forever. If ever a saying were true it’s this: Before you were conceived, I wanted you. Before you were born, I loved you. Before you were here an hour, I would die for you.

It really has been the most amazing experience to have a child and to watch him grow and learn and start to become his own little person. The first few weeks and months are just difficult as you settle in to new routines and try and figure out how everything should go. I remember feeling so insecure in my parenting abilities. I read tons and tons of books and articles online and still I felt lost and constantly worried about if what we were doing was right. Whether it was nursing, starting solids, sleep, schedules, it all was just so overwhelming for me. Josh was definitely the biggest help during that time. Many, many times he reminded me to put down the book and turn off the computer and just do what felt right. It’s scary to trust your gut, especially when it’s your first baby, but ultimately it always produced the best possible outcome.

At one Colton is running and playing and pretty much unstoppable around the house. I knew he would be an early walker because even at a few weeks old he loved to stand and put weight on his itty bitty baby legs. He has always liked pushing and standing up and at 9 months he was cruising around on furniture. At 10 months he took his first steps alone and at 11 months he was walking. Now at a year he’s pretty much unstoppable. He still stumbles and falls quite a bit but he’s learned how to do it in a way that he doesn’t get hurt (most of the time) so I’m a little less panicked and I don’t chase him around the house quite as closely as I used to.

He takes one two-three hour nap a day from 11:15 – 1:30ish and he sleeps on the floor on his mat or mattress. He drinks from a sippy or regular cup if we offer it and he loves his whole milk!! We have been so fortunate that he transitioned well from his soy formula to the whole milk. So far we haven't had any major allergy issues. He stopped using a paci around 5 months on his own and he only takes a bottle at bedtime. I think that will be the hardest for me to break because that’s such a special time. We go through his bedtime routine and then after jammies and a book we sit in the rocking chair and talk about our day, say our goodnight prayers and he holds on to our fingers or arm as we drift off to sleep. He typically goes down into his crib with his sleepy eyes open and then rolls over onto his belly, sticks his tush in the air and falls asleep. He pretty consistently gives us 12 hours from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

We’re learning lots of words and signs. He signs: more, all done, please, food and milk. The funniest thing is that he is definitely picking up the Spanish that he hears from his two Spanish speaking teachers in class. He responds to aqui (here) and says the Spanish word for baby (nene). He doesn’t speak very many words yet other than the typical dada and sometimes mama. He’ll say done on occasion and he tries to say Darby but all he gets out is da. Despite his lack of vocabulary this boy LOVES to talk. He has whole conversations with Josh where they speak lots of different sounds to each other.

As for his stats – 24.4 lbs and he was 31 inches at his first birthday appointment but he has definitely since grown. His pants that he was rolling up at the time now fit perfectly. He was 85^th percentile for height and somewhere in the 65^th for weight. He has really thinned out compared to his early days.

I would say our biggest struggle is probably food but it’s not something I really worry about. He is really hit or miss with eating. He will go a few days in a row of not really being interested and only picking here and there (although he will ALWAYS eat cheese). Then other days he’ll eat everything in sight. We stick to healthy foods – mostly organic and mostly vegetarian. Like any little toddler, he manages to know what foods we don’t want him to love (french fries!!) and eat them up. One day I offered him a chick pea and small mashed french fry, without tasting or touching either he immediately went for the fry. How do they know??? Ultimately we’ll make the best choices we can by providing healthy foods at home and at school, healthy snacks during the day, avoiding sugary juices and sweets and do organic when we can. Let’s be realistic though, life happens and a few french fries won’t kill him. I’m still here!!

Alright, this is quite a long post! I don’t expect every body to be interested in every little detail of my one year old’s life but one of the main reasons I write this blog is to document his life so he can look back one day and know just what life was like for our little family. If I had to describe it for him with one word, it would be blessed. It’s not perfect, it’s not without troubles and worries, but it’s so much more than I ever imagined it would be thanks to one sweet, amazing little boy! These are the days I hope to soak up and remember forever.

Love,

Jenny and Josh

Seriously, how can you not love that face! "Cheesy grin" makes another appearance.