He was happily playing in the ball pit...

So I stepped away for just a moment to quickly use the restroom.

And I found this.

This kid works fast!

Hello, my name is Ethan...

and I am a pacifier addict.

 I watched (and laughed) as Ethan crammed two pacifiers in his mouth at once.























And as he started to learn that more is NOT better, he started to fuss.

He was so upset that he couldn't get suction on his pacifiers. He rolled around on the floor trying to keep me from plucking the extra pacifier from his mouth. I was laughing and he was crying but once I got it he instantly stopped crying and was happy again...sucking on his pacifier. Oh boy...weaning is going to be fun!

12 months

Ethan, at 12 months you:

- Weigh 22 lbs 5 oz. (40th percentile). Pretty sure you have weighed 22 lbs for two months now. You are an active little guy.
- Are 30.5  inches tall. (80th percentile)
- Have a head circumference of 47.8 cm. (85th percentile)

You wear size 18 month clothes and PJ's although you can still fit into some of your 12 month things. You wear size 3 shoe although not for much longer and size 6-12 socks.

At 11.5 months you finally got sick for the first time. Poor baby! While you didn't run a fever you did throw up a few times and went through many many pairs of pajamas due to diaper blow outs. 'Nuff said. Ghost Bear took a hit in the line of duty and was out commission until he could have a bath but luckily you did okay without him. You wanted lots of cuddle time with Mommy instead. When Ghost Bear came out of the wash you looked so excited! It was really pretty cute. You played and loved on him like he was a long lost friend of yours. You didn't seem to mind his clean smell.

As for your sleeping stats, I'm not sure I really want to go there. ;-) You still wake up an average of twice a night and while your naps used to be regular they vary a lot now. You don't like to miss out on things so you tend to stay up really late and then sleep half the morning away. You usually wake up around 2 or 4 am and then 6 am and then at 8 am you get up for the day. Sometimes. Other times you sleep until 9 or 10.When you wake up at 6 am you won't stay in your bed even though you are still so tired! If I hold you though, you will sleep and cuddle with Mommy for a few more hours. This makes you a much happier baby.

You have become a little bit of a picky eater! You will eat finger foods like peas, cheese, puffs, and teething biscuits however I don't know what you will eat on what day. You still prefer most of your foods pureed. You have started to assert your independence though and often won't eat your favorite foods. At mealtimes I usually have to try a few foods before I find one that you will eat. You take your milk in your sippy cup most of the time but occasionally you want it in a bottle or you want formula instead. We are still working on weaning you from your bottle.

You are very talkative and expressive in your baby babble but while it sounds like you are holding a detailed conversation we have no clue what you are saying. The only real word that you can say and use correctly (other than Mama or Dada which you seem to have lost interest in saying) is "Cat". You used to say "K..k..k" when you saw the cats but now you can distinctly say the word. Also, we have heard reports that you can also say "Kitteh".

You are walking now although you fall a lot in the process. When you aren't trying to go too fast you are pretty good at it. While you are starting to use walking as your first mode of transportation and you have taken as many as 8 steps you fall a lot after the first step or two and then choose crawling since it is so much faster. And if you want to get somewhere really fast you choose crawling every time.

You are going through a phase that we call the "Licky Lizard". You like to stick your tongue out a lot and lick your fingers, or chin. Especially your chin. When you play we often see your tongue darting in and out of your mouth. Silly boy.

You are working hard on your problem solving skills. You like to put all sorts of toys in your ball popper toy to see if they will work as well. One of your favorite toys right now is a plastic easter egg which you like to take apart and put back together. You like to try it out on all your toys to see if it will work in the ball popper, shape sorter, ramp, etc.You have also gotten very good at getting around barriers that we have set up and getting into things that we have tried to baby proof. If we put our hand over something that you want you will try to pry our fingers off of it.

Thanks for the stacking rings, Aunt KK! Ethan loves them.

You also like to play patty cake, peek-a-boo, and "tag" where you hide and crawl away from us then you decide to "hunt" us. This makes you smile and laugh. You have also learned how to open the trashcan and put things inside. We have to watch this closely since I looked away one moment to speak with your Daddy and my cell phone almost went in the trash. Also, you know how to unlock a cell phone and call 911. Yeah....luckily the operator was very nice when we explained this one. Luckily we didn't end up with anyone at our door!

And last but not least, you are going through stranger anxiety and are very attached to your Mama. :-)
You have grown so much in the last month Ethan. It is so hard to believe that you are 1 year old!

1 year of growing

Or another way of looking at it...






















His current PJ's (size 18 months) with his newborn PJ's. Hard to believe that those newborn PJ's used to be big on him.

Ethan by Week

Today Ethan turned 1 year old! Do you want to see my baby grow up before your very eyes? I swear that's how quickly this child has grown. I can't believe that we have already had 52 weeks fly by.

Please click on the maximize button on the bottom right part of the sideshow controls (looks like four arrows each pointing out towards the corners of a box). Or you can click on this link.The photographs look much better when they are full screen.

 

SNOW!

I think Mama and Dada were more excited about the snow than Ethan was.

Ethan and Little Bear Explore the Leaves

I took these photos at a playdate towards the end of November when Ethan was 10.5  months old. To be honest back in November I started processing them and got about halfway through before I putt hem aside to work on other photo shoots and for some reason I never got around to finishing them. I took the half that I had already processed and narrowed it down to my favorite 30 and then feeling overwhelmed I decided to just pick a few for posting. I may look back in a month and wonder why these are the ones I picked but honestly Ethan's naps don't last long enough for me to think too hard about why I'm picking each photo. :-)

He was playing pretty hard with little bear. They explored together and Ethan talked to him and snuggled with him as they played. Pretty cute. There is something about a baby hugging on a teddy bear that melts your heart.

New Years Fun

On New Years Day my family was in town staying with us and we decided to have some post new years eve fun. The idea was to take photo booth style photos using my new white backdrop, drink apple cider and play dominoes.

Well, we got the photo part done but apple cider and dominoes were not meant to be.

We were having so much fun being silly and taking photos. This was of course before the throwing up started. We hadn't even finished putting the backdrop away before I was hit with the stomach bug and about 30 minutes later Garrett was down with the bug as well. My parents got up with Ethan that night and tried to keep him separate from us but it was already too late for the little boy. In hindsight we think that he actually gave us the bug. I'm so grateful to my parents for taking care of Ethan and washing his poopy laundry that night/next day! I had hoped they would be able to avoid the bug but they got it as well. Thanks for being such troopers!

Christmas 2010

Ethan's first Christmas Ornament. Santa on a Sailboat

First stocking 

Ethan's special ornament.
























Looks like Ethan was a good boy this year!

Out of all these toys, the toy that Ethan went to first was the blue ball! And then he noticed that the barrier that I had kept in front of the tree all month was GONE!

I loved seeing the realization on his face and then the smile...

And then of course he made a beeline for the tree!

Thanks for the hand-me-down "kid resistant" ornaments! (We got the few that survived through Adam, Morgan, and Astrid's toddler hood)

Ethan had so much fun cruising/crawling around the living room and checking everything out.

Beau-cat made sure that he stayed safely out of reach

That ball was a favorite companion of his on Christmas morning. Santa sure knew what he was doing!

Ethan enjoyed opening his stocking and dumping everything out.

 Later after stockings we made a special brunch of orange rolls and bacon and then everyone could open presents! (I like to drag it out)

Ethan, baby, the presents are under the tree, not on it.

















Ethan did a pretty good job of opening his own presents. He played with his piano through the wrapping paper for a while until I helped him open it the rest of the way.

He wasn't in too much of a rush to open things. He preferred to crawl and sit on the packages first before he tried opening them. :-)
 

Thanks Adam, Hailey, Astrid and Morgan for the awesome play tent and tunnel! Ethan loves it!

The cats thought it was pretty neat too!

Ethan really enjoyed his first Christmas and had so much fun playing with his new toys.

In fact, he had so much fun playing that we had trouble getting him down that evening! We also had trouble keeping him down that night. He woke up and wanted to play with his new toys from 3 AM till 6 AM.

And here are a few other pictures from Christmas morning. Ethan may be in a lot (okay most) of my photos but we can't forget my #1 guy!