One Year Old

Well, get a load of this! I officially have a 1-year-old! WHAT!? But boy oh boy isn't he CUTE?!? We were so excited for his birthday today! Although today was pretty low-key since we're planning a fun birthday bash this weekend! Today we woke up to a little snowstorm, played at home, got a couple calls (and, therefore, birthday songs) from family, and (once the snow melted) went to the grocery store where one of the produce workers gave him a free banana to munch on while we shopped!

Here's the last picture of the monthly series... sort of bittersweet. Kind of like the end of an era.

And here is the final, finished comparison picture of his growth over the past 12 months.

Some stats about Charlie at 1 Year:

• Size 12 month and 12-18 month clothes. He's squeezing the final use out of his 6-12 month and 9 month items.
• Eats 3 meals a day, like a real human ;) Then has 3 bottles throughout the day, ususally an hour or two after his meals. The bottles are about 6-7 oz each.
• Size 4 diapers
• Down to 1 nap: Sleeps usually 2 hours and goes down around noon.
• Still just two bottom teeth, but I swear those top two won't be able to stay hidden much longer!
• Increasing his vocabulary. New words include "Guh", nanana, and much more experimental babbling. I'm also pretty sure he understands the meaning of "Mama" (me, of course!) and "Baba" (bottle) when he says them.
• Shakes his head "no" and waves his hands bye and hi when we do it first. So cute. He's also started shaking his head no when he's done eating and doesn't want any more bites.
• So close to walking on his own. He's excellent at walking (without shoes) while holding my hand or a push toy or anything. In fact, I've seen him walk up to 4 steps when he knows he has somewhere to "land" like a sofa or a person. I seriously think he could walk if he wanted to, but he just doesn't feel safe yet.
• Started logically thinking! This has been really exciting. We will play with toys and he will purposely put them in the right place (like a car down a ramp), especially after I show him. We're working on putting shapes in the right shape holes. I just can't believe how smart he is! It's so exciting :) Toys are no longer just for sucking and banging.
• Throws things: sippy cups, snacks, balls, cars, bottles... basically you name it, he throws it. It's just the only way he knows how to put something down, and it can be pretty funny. We're working on being gentle ;) It's extra cute, though, when he throws a toy on the tile floor and it makes a loud noise and he will just laugh and laugh and then go do it again. It's a cute little game he plays! We love to watch him entertain himself :)
• No longer spits up at all, thank heavens! And doesn't get the hiccups as much when he laughs. Although, if he does get the hiccups, it no longer causes spit-up! Whew!
• LOVES the bath. Whenever I turn the water on, he bee lines to the bathroom and starts yelling into the tub. I think he likes the way it echos and sounds really loud :) Then, once he's in the tub, he'll splash and play and lift the drain to let the water out. And then he will close it again. Such a funny kid.
• Starting to develop memory and object permanence. This is normally a bad thing, especially when trying to keep him away/out of things he shouldn't be into ;)
• Learned how to open cabinet doors and drawers. I've been putting those annoying hooks on so he can't get to the dangerous stuff... blah. Oh - and did I mention that there are drawers right outside our bathroom door, and if he opens them while I'm in the bathroom, I get locked IN because the door opens outward!! Eeek. Yes. This has happened once. And no, I didn't have my phone with me. And no, Charlie has NO idea what it means when I ask him to push the drawer back in. Fortunately, I got really lucky and he sat back against the drawer and accidentally closed it. Needless to say, I now either leave the door open or bring my phone with me to the bathroom when it's just me and him at home. Lol.
• Favorite toys are stuffed animals, books, and his push wagon.
• Tends to be rather impatient sometimes, especially when he runs out of food on his tray and wants more. He'll scream really loudly and high pitched until he gets more. How do you tell a 1 year old that we need to use our words instead of yell? Especially when he doesn't have words yet? Oh well. I just keep trying to teach him.
• Still loves to ride in the car or his stroller. Loves the grocery store because there's so much to look at.
• Even though he says "Mama"... his Daddy is definitely his favorite. He just LIGHTS UP and giggles and smiles every time he sees his Daddy. It melts both of our hearts into a puddle. D'awww!

We will be having an awesomely fun birthday party for him on Saturday. I'll make sure to take lots of pics and post a nice, big blog post of the festivities! Until then, please enjoy these adorable, wonderful pictures I took for Charlie's 1 year photo shoot:

Life as My Phone Sees It 10/6/12 - 10/22/12

10/9 - Tuesday - Had a chance to meet up with Heidi and her two sweet girls at Wines Park in Lehi. Here are Charlie and Emma, nearly 1-year-olds, playing (or, in Charlie's case, eating wood chips) at the park. The second pic is my sweet boy on the swings: his FAVORITE part of the park:

10/11 - Thursday - Charlie and I went to surprise T at work with some dinner. We'd never been to his office in the 8+ months he's worked there (not because we didn't try, but because he always said not to worry about it). Well, this time we surprised him, so he didn't have a chance to decline the invite! :) I think he was happy about it, especially the fact that he got to see Charlie and eat a yummy dinner during a very long work day (5am to 10pm!!). While we were waiting for T to get off the phone, Charlie decided he had some very important "work" to do too! :P

10/12 - Friday - We found this NASTY black widow right outside our door. After taking a moment to "ooohh" and "ahhhh" and freak out a lot and take a picture, we promptly killed it. And then I called my management company (again) about our apartment's spider problem. I called at 4:50pm on Friday, so of course no one answered. And I still haven't heard back. Grrr!

10/13 - Saturday - We took a rare whole-family trip to the grocery store. It was a lot of fun, and T managed to capture this ADORABLE picture of our little man, wearing his Daddy's hat!

10/14 - Sunday - Charlie's nap schedule was off (ugh!) and so he ended up falling asleep on me in church. The caption for this picture is: "Church is very exciting today..." :D

10/16 - Tuesday - The second picture (above) was taken during our family outing to Yogurtland that afternoon. It was so much fun because it was totally spontaneous, and if you know anything about our family, you'll know that we normally don't do spontaneous things. So this was a delightful treat for us, in more than one way! ;) Charlie LOVED the frozen yogurt. I'm pretty sure he'd live off of it and nothing else if we let him.

10/18 - Thursday - I finally got around to making the pumpkin cinnamon roll with caramel frosting recipe I found on Pinterest weeks ago. I had been putting it off since it seemed like a rather daunting task. I've never made anything with yeast before, even though I've always wanted to. This recipe involved letting dough rise, kneading it, and rolling it. Honestly... it was SO much work. And the rolls were SO good. But, based on the time-to-reward ratio, I think I'll stick to my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. ;)

10/19 - I had a "me" morning getting my hair done at Hailee's salon, MJays, in Santaquin, UT. I always enjoy the time away and the girl talk. It's amazingly therapeutic. <3 You can see Hailee in the background tending to business while I "process":

10/19 - Friday - I found a temporary new use for Charlie's push wagon! It makes a nice book reading and TV watching chair. He sat in it happily for nearly 15 minutes before wanting to come out!

10/19 - Friday - Took a few minutes before T's company work party at a park to take Charlie's 1 year old pictures. Sure, I took them 6 days before his birthday, but as far as I can tell, he's not going to change too drastically in those 6 days ;). Anyway, here's a sneak peak of what I captured. I'll post the rest later, when his birthday actually arrives!

10/22 - Monday - Tonight was a crafting and watching the debate night while T was at work. And now I'm blogging. It's nice just to do things that have been on my list!

Hope you enjoyed! While posting this entry, I decided that I should be in more of my pictures. And it's not because I'm vain and like seeing myself, but I really think it's important to document what I look like right now so my kids and look back one day and say "Oohhhhh Mom! You looked so young!". :D

Pumpkin Pickin'

Today, after General Conference, our little family drove down the road to the pumpkin patch so we could pick out our pumpkins for Halloween. Charlie had a lot of fun exploring the pumpkins, crawling in the dirt, and discovering hay!

Sweet smile... we're all feeling a bit under the weather (again, ugh!) over at our house right now.

Walking along with Daddy's help:

My little pumpkin.

Love these shoes and socks:

Despite not feeling well, I finally got a hearty smile out of him:

Do all little boys kneel like this? So cute!

And lastly, my favorite. Gotta LOVE those baby blues! You can tell, though, that he's not feeling well with his flaky nose, extra drool, and chapped chin :( Poor thing. He hasn't caught much of a break since mid August :(

It was somewhat chilly outside today and is really beginning to feel like fall! :)

Life As My Phone Sees It 9/19/12 - 10/5/12

I have some fun photos to show from the last couple of weeks! :) Enjoy!

9/20 - Thursday - Charlie and I went to the park down the street in Orem to visit the duck pond and swing on the swings. He sat and observed the ducks for at least 15 minutes before he got bored! He loved watching them swim and eat bread and quack. I love that he cares about stuff like this now!

9/25 - Tuesday - When I went in to get Charlie after his nap, he was being a ham and making funny faces. And then I discovered what he had been up to -- teething on his crib rails. NOOOOO! My beautiful crib, ruined!!!! Well, I have since purchased and installed some padded crib rail protectors so he can't damage it even further.

9/27 - Thursday - Today we went to North Park in Provo with our neighbors Tara and her son Gibson. I snapped this pic of my little man sitting on the slide. I'd hold his hands with my hands and help him go down the slide "all by himself"!

10/1 - Monday - It was a Charlie (and Mom) photo shoot kind of day ;)

10/1 - Another one of Charlie's favorite TV shows is Wheel of Fortune (along with Jeopardy and Curious George). TV is about the only thing that will hold his attention for any extended period of time. Sigh.

10/2 - Tuesday - Charlie and I ventured over to Cherry Hill Park in our neighborhood for a little afternoon swinging and sliding. As usual, he LOVES the swings! Sorry for the blurry picture... ;)

10/2 Tuesday - These two were also taken last Tuesday. I found this gourd during our walk back home from the park. I named him "Mr. Happy Gourd"... and how cool that it grew THROUGH the fence? It was sticking out over the sidewalk. And I guess someone came along one time and gave it eyes and a mouth! So funny. I just had to take a picture. The second pic was taken that night on my way to yoga. It's a shot of the eastern mountains right at sunset, with the sun reflecting off of them. I never tire of how beautiful it is here!

10/3 - Wednesday: Sleepy boy had his first nap in his brand new Britax Marathon 70-G3 carseat. Looks pretty comfy back there! :)

10/5 - Friday - We built his first ever fort in the living room. It was fun to play "in a cave" :D

Also today, 10/5 - Friday - Charlie officially took his first unassisted steps! I am one very excited mama! He's also getting better at walking while holding one of our hands, as pictured here:

We are just loving life with this little one! Hope you enjoyed the updates!

Autumn Leaves, Rainbows, and Mud

Last Saturday, September 29th, our little family of three went on our annual drive up the canyon to see the fall leaves! It was little Charlie's very first time to join us in this 5-year-running tradition! This year we went by Sundance again. It was a lovely drive, but we decided that we should have gone the week before to see optimal color (the canyon was AMAZING the week before when we drove through it on our way to do the Dirty Dash. Regardless, I got some pretty awesome pictures. Enjoy!

Bridal Veil Falls:

Here's my handsome hubby, trying to block me from taking a picture. Well, too bad hubby. I got you! And you're quite handsome! :)

This rainbow appeared on the late afternoon of September 24th during a birthday party for one of Charlie's neighbor friends, Gibson. It was soo beautiful and if you look really hard... it's nearly a DOUBLE rainbow! :P

Also, as mentioned previously, T and I ran the Dirty Dash on September 22nd! I had so much fun the first time that I wanted to do it again and dragged my hubby along with me! It was definitely more chilly this time, but we warmed up quick once we got running... although you'd get a wake up call when you jumped into a freezing cold muddy pit! ;) We ended up doing the full length of the course - it was a 10K! I was so proud that I accomplished it, but I was glad to be done when we were because my IT band / knee issue started hurting at the very end. Blah. Overall, it was a gorgeous, fun day. Thank you to my neighbor Tara for watching Charlie for us so we could go! And thank you to the photographers who took pictures of us in all our glory and didn't manage to lose them this time! ;) Here we are with Shawn and Jana:

We are very intimidating, no? ;)

Fall has just begun and so far it's been a lot of fun! Can't wait for what's to come... I foresee picking pumpkins, falling leaves, Charlie's birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, cardigans, caramel apples, and lots of football games! :) Stay tuned...