Weight/Length: After his 12 month appointment, where we found out he’s only about 35% percentile for weight, I’ve been trying to feed him more. But the hubs still thinks he’s a tiny baby that couldn’t possibly need to eat THAT much so it took a little nagging encouragement on my part to get him to realize that YES, he does need to eat more than a bottle of milk for breakfast. Even if he’s not crying that he’s hungry. So hopefully he’s at least 22 lbs now. His belly definitely looks bigger these days.

Sleep: We’re still (reluctantly) a co-sleeping family. He takes naps in his crib and usually goes to bed fairly easily in his crib, but around 1am, he’s screaming his fool head off to come to our bed. We’re trying to work on it but with my parents in town, we didn’t want to do the CIO method so we’ve continued the bad habit and I’m actually starting to get used to sleeping on a tiny sliver of mattress.
Feeding: The two things that stress me out most about this stage are food and sleep. I analyze every piece of food and wonder if it’s too big for him, too salty, too spicy, etc. Sometimes I’ll cut pieces of fruit too small and then he can’t pick them up. And for someone like me who is terrible at meal planning, meal time is a very stressful situation. I want to make sure he’s eating healthy, gaining weight (in a healthy way), and eating foods that won’t make him constipated or too gassy, while also trying to keep some variety going so he’s not eating the same 3 meals day in and day out. But little by little, we’re figuring it out and moving away from purees more and more, though he still probably eats one or two a day.
He’s officially drinking from a straw now. Since he doesn’t tip his sippy cups, I was tired of doing it for him so a fellow mom recommended the
honey bear straw training cup. It’s basically an empty plastic honey bear bottle with a piece of clear plastic tubing (sort of like breast pump tubes) that doesn’t close when he bites down on it. The idea is you squeeze the bear a little to get the liquid to come out of the top, and with very little sucking action, the baby learns to sip on the straw. It took all of maybe a minute for D to figure it out so even though I feel like I got a little ripped off by the bear cup ($13 are you kidding me?), it worked, so I guess I can’t complain. Now he can drink out of ANY straw cup. Even the kids cups from restaurants. This is awesome because it means we’re not SOL if we forget his bottle or sippy cup at home. And apparently drinking from a straw is better for oral hygiene so win/win. Although I wonder if I could’ve taught him the same thing with a juice box or Capri Sun for a fraction of the cost.
Now that he knows how to drink from a straw, we’re on the down slope of bottles. He has a morning bottle and a bedtime bottle but only uses sippies during the day. Hooray for less bottle washing!
Developments: No walking yet, but still pulling up and cruising everywhere. Part of me thinks that because our living room is so small, he has no reason to walk. He can’t even push his walker very far before running into a piece of furniture and getting stuck, so he doesn’t use it.
He’s FINALLY waving now. Right after his 1 year check up, in the doctor’s office, he started. I don’t think he quite understands the point in it, so he doesn’t do it often, but every now and then we can get him to do it on command. And speaking of doing things on command, he typically…doesn’t. He’ll blow raspberries or say “lalalala” if we do them first, but that’s about it.
Still has just 4 teeth (two top, two bottom) and the top ones are taking forever to drop all the way down. But it’s so cute seeing him grin with these 4 tiny teeth.
But perhaps the cutest development of all was when the hubs came home from visiting his family and brought back a big stuffed teddy bear with Cardinals gear on it. Apparently his grandma had saved it back in 2006 when we won the World Series and kept it in a sealed plastic bag. (She died in 2009.) He showed it to D and he immediately wrapped both arms around it, pulled it close, and smiled a huge smile. Heart. Melted.
Firsts This Month: First trip to Nashville (and to Tennessee in general). First time (of many) climbing up the stairs. First trip to Grant’s Farm. First time in his baby pool. First time drinking from a straw. 
Brunchin’ it in Nashville with all the hipsters

Hitchin’ a ride from Daddy at the Dukes of Hazzard Festival in Nashville
Likes: Still obsessed with dogs, and lately, balls. Particularly basketballs. He got a basket ball hoop for his birthday and while he’s still too little for it, he knew exactly what to do when we gave him a ball and lifted him above the hoop. Future all star. This kid just loves being outside too. He’s been spending a little time with his splash table on the deck but most of the time he just plays with his toys on the concrete or on an old exercise-step-turned-play-table that I keep outside for him. He also really loves climbing up the stairs, which has proven to be a bit of a headache lately since we can’t find any baby gates that will work with our stairs (banister plus unusually high baseboards = baby gate conundrum). So right now a giant cardboard box is doing the trick until we can find a better solution.
Favorite Songs: Still lights up when any of his bath time songs comes on. He also enjoys Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker, On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons, Cruise by Florida Georgia Line and Nelly, Seven Nation Army by White Stripes, and One Love by Bob Marley. He smiles within the first few seconds whenever any of these songs start playing.
Favorite Toys: Balls, blocks, books – still the same. His baby pool. And his musical monkey which he uses for a pillow sometimes during naps.
Dislikes: Sleeping in his crib at night. Being told no. Sitting in his high chair for any length of time if there isn’t food on his tray.
He also apparently doesn’t like grocery shopping. Maybe we just time our grocery runs when he’s tired and cranky but if we’re not in and out in 5 minutes, he throws an all out fit and screams at the top of his lungs, occasionally even head butting the cart handle, until one of us picks him up and distracts him with something. This means that shopping is a two-adult activity so that one person can grab the stuff and the other can baby wrangle. So much for my leisurely walks perusing the aisles at Target.
What I’m Thankful For: I used to worry that as each month passed, I would miss his infancy too much. That he couldn’t possibly get better than this moment RIGHT NOW. I especially felt like that when he turned a year old. No longer an infant, but not quite a toddler. Still a baby, but for how much longer? Time felt like it was moving at warped speed, and I worried that I wouldn’t love the next stage as much as I did the last one.
But that hasn’t happened yet and I’m thankful.
What I’m Looking Forward To: We’re heading to Chicago for BlogHer at the end of the month. (Holler at me, fellow BlogHer goers!) It’ll be his second trip to Chicago and I’ll be working (again) most of the time, but I’m still looking forward to doing a few touristy things with him while we’re there.
How Mommy’s Doing: I know I complain about my weight/diet/lack of exercise every month so even I’m getting annoyed by the broken record. So let’s just assume that unless I say “Hey look at me! I lost 40lbs and feel great!” that I probably still dislike how my body looks, but damn if that smores frozen hot chocolate from Dairy Queen didn’t taste good the other night. Whoever said nothing tastes as good as skinny feels has clearly never had one of those.
But body issues aside, things are pretty great. We had a crazy week at the end of the month with my MIL going into the hospital and my husband rushing off to be with her so I asked my mom to come in town to babysit while I went to work.
I don’t have much time for hobbies and have a difficult time keeping up on laundry, but I spend as much time as possible with D so I feel like things are well balanced, even if they’re not perfect. And as long as we’re all happy, what’s one day of wearing the same pants again?