Myles Monthly: 12

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is 20 months old! So I am focusing on getting caught up with monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date with current times. 

 July 15th- August 14th, 2013

This update is going to be pretty short and sweet because I have separate posts planned for his birthday and party.

Statistics

Born: 7 lbs 6 oz and 19.5 inches
Twelve Months: 20 lbs 3 oz and 30 1/4 inches

  Health

Again, thankfully nothing major this month in the health department. Like I mentioned in the last update, Myles' weight had slowed way down over the last couple months. He had an offical weigh-in at his 12 month well-check and my observation was confirmed. He only gained 6 ounces since his last check up at 9 months. I was just so used to him gaining pounds between each visit that I was beginning to worry a lot about it. I know that the weight gain slows down as they get older, especially when they start being mobile, but this seemed a little extreme to me. I asked his doctor what she thought and she wasn't concerned at this point. At least he wasn't losing weight and was still in the 20s, percentile wise. He didn't show any other symptoms of being malnourished and he had TONS of energy, so I just made a point that he was never dehydrated and always offered him food for all meals and snacks.

Eating
Well I officially made it to a year breastfeeding! I never thought I would make it that far. I remembering thinking I would just try for 3 month increments. I was hoping to make it to three months, and then at three months, my next goal was to go to six months, and so on. Honestly, before I knew it, he was 12 months and we were still going strong. It went by pretty fast in the sense that when we made it to 12 months, it didn't feel like it was that long or hard to get there. However, I'm pretty sure at this point my mommy goggles were on and working in full effect! We went through so many phases and changes throughout the last 12 months, but that's a post for another day. If you haven't already, check out the breastfeeding posts I have already wrote. Breastfeeding a now toddler came with a totally new set of challenges, benefits, and quirks. Our typical day in the life of breastfeeding a toddler looked something like this. All day, everyday people!

If you have been keeping up with Myles' Monthly updates lately, then you know we had been struggling a bit to get Myles to eat any actual food. Well I am very happy to report that we finally had a breakthrough this month! He wasn't eating all three meals or big portions yet, but progress, not perfection! He started eating a lot more fruits like whole apples, peaches, and nectarines, along with his normal berries. He also began eating dinner with us! This was a huge milestone for us because I felt like it was never going to happen. Pasta, most meats, and beans were at the top of his favorites list. He really loved to gnaw on corn-on-the-cob still too. It was such a relief to see him start eating actual meals!

Sleeping

This month had big changes for sleep. I guess his body got the memo that he was now a toddler and his sleep had to change accordingly. One random night he decided to sleep 10 1/2 hours straight through. He went to bed at 9:30 like usual, but instead of getting up at 6:00am and nursing to sleep for another couple hours like usual, he slept all the way through until 7:30-8:00am and then was up for the day. The first time it happened, I remember waking up at 7:30am and freaking out; I felt like it was super late and I just knew something had to be wrong if he was still sleeping! I looked at the monitor and he appeared to be fine and still sleeping. Of course, I had to go in there and physically check on him because this was totally out of character for him. Thankfully, he was fine and was peacefully sleeping away. I guess his body decided that he didn't need that little bit of momma milk to sleep all the way through the night anymore. I waited 12 LONG months to get 10 hours of sleep out of Myles and I will say that it was as glorious as I had always imagined it was! After that one night, 10-10 1/2 hours straight became his new norm. I was reluctant to celebrate this milestone, as I feared it wouldn't last, but he has stuck pretty true to that schedule for almost a year now (minus vacations and sick days). To be able to go to bed and know that I could sleep for a significant amount of time was something I longed for during the first 8 months so much that now that it was finally here, I definitely did not take it for granted! 

With his nighttime sleep transition also came a nap transition. He very seamlessly went from two naps a day to one. I honestly didn't have to do anything in regards to his schedule, he just transitioned all on his own. He went from taking 2 shorter naps (30-45 minutes) to one longer nap (1 1/2-2 hours). As soon as he started sleeping that 10 hours through the night, he was up for a longer period of time until his nap. Then when he did go down, he slept longer, so when he woke up he had enough energy to last until bedtime without another nap. I was lucky with how easy this transition was and very grateful that Myles just went with the flow and let it all work out on its own. I am definitely a fan of the one longer nap too!  

Outings

• Since moving to a new town 1,000s of miles away from anyone I knew, I decided to look into some mommy and me programs in our area. I was lucky enough to discover that we had a Little Gym pretty close to us. I was happy to find something that Myles and I could do together and was hopeful to meet some other moms and babies. We were able to take a trial class before signing up, but it was an easy decision. I was really impressed with their classes. They allows the kids to explore on their own, but also learn to participate in group activities, all while learning fine and gross motor skills. I loved it because it was a great, safe environment to let Myles be free and get into whatever he wanted!

• One thing I was really looking forward to being in a new place was exploring the city and what it had to offer for Myles and I. The first thing on my list was to check out any/every playground in our area. I was very serious about this job and even printed out a map and list from the parks and recreation website. I'm not going to lie, we visited some pretty sketchy places, but we had to weed out the bad to find the good. I was able to make a pretty decent list of parks that we absolutely love and are all within 15-20 minutes from our house. 

• We also went to meet Mark's aunt and her family for the first time. They live about 30 minutes from us, so we took a little trip to their house to meet them. They have a pool and a dog, so Myles loved it and I really enjoyed getting to know all of them. We have visited a lot since moving here; it is nice to be able to extend our family circle to include them!

• I had my 28th birthday this month. Since we had just moved and also spent our first week here 'vacationing' with our friends Angela and Ryan, I decided to just have a very low key birthday. I honestly can't even remember what we did besides have dinner together. I picked out a sushi place that I noticed driving by a couple of times. It wasn't the best I've had, but it was good and I got to eat it with these two handsome gents :)

Milestones

• We finally got a third word out of Myles and if you're a veteran around here, you shouldn't be surprised by what is was: ball! It wasn't a surprise to us either. Everything he did or played with had something to do with a ball. It was the most frequently used word around our house, so it was only natural that after 'mama' and 'dada' came 'ball'!

• If his mind workings were any indication as to what we would be in store for in the future... I am scared! At this point, he had no fears, no boundaries, and no limitations to his explorations. You want to get to the cat that is on the counter, but you can't reach the top of the counter... well then duh.. go get a dining room chair and push it across the whole kitchen over to the counter. Then you can climb on the chair to get to the counter, and then the cat is all YOURS!!! Oh my lands... help my future self! 

• Laugh: getting him to full on laugh was pretty easy now. He started to become ticklish and loved peek-a-boo, especially when you got really up close to his face. These videos of him laughing are the greatest!

• One foot: since starting the Little gym this month, I learned all sorts of new activities and skills to try with Myles. One day when we were sitting in the living room relaxing, I told Mark about a way I learned how to help Myles with his balance. I totally did not expect Myles to actually do it. I was so surprised, I got out my phone to see if he would do it again when I was recording. I was even more surprised to see that he actually did it a second time and for the camera!  

 

Funnies

Now that he is developing his personality, I think I will be keeping this new category around for a bit. 

• This was before we put child locks on the cabinets. I was sitting in the living room and I heard him making noise. I look over and see him trying to get in the cabinet. So I went to get my camera and stood back to watch what he would do. He is a very determined little boy and doesn't stop until he gets what he wants, that is for sure!

• I took off the push bar on his tricycle and he decided this was the place to be! At this age, it was so fun to sit back and let him do his thing, just to see what kind of ideas he would come up with. I was surprised daily by the workings of his mind!

Likes

• Balls... it was still all about balls with this one! The ball fetish had only gotten worse at this point. I learned to keep an assortment of balls in the car at all times. That way he would always have one to hold on to in the car and/or if we decided to take a stop at the park. If he went anywhere without a ball and he saw another kid with a ball, it was game over until he got it. I quickly learned it was much easier to keep a ton of balls with us at all times just to be safe!

• Now that we had a second story, Myles became a people watcher. He loved looking out the window every morning and after nap times. This particular day was garbage day, which is the best day for a toddler boy to people watch because there are huge, loud trucks involved!

• Favorite book: I talked in last months' favorites list about a his favorite book at the time: Ten Little Ladybugs. This month he re-discovered Peek-A Who? I so love this book! It is one of my all time favorites in Myles' book collection. His reaction when you read it to him was priceless! He loved giving himself a big ole kiss in the mirror at the end... every single time! Still wouldn't give me a kiss, but boy did he love that cute little boy he saw in the mirror!

• Outside: The biggest reason we decided to move to California! And it did not disappoint! Myles and I pretty much lived outside this month and we could not have been happier! I found some outdoor toys for super cheap on Criagslist and resale shops. I even picked up a Cozy Coupe with the perfect accessory; a California license plate that says "BOYS RULE"! I've been wanted to do a makeover on it for months now, but I just can't decide what theme I want to go with... so maybe I'll be posting about that soon. And of course, I had to pick up a water table. It is nothing fancy, but for $5 it has been worth every penny! It was getting pretty hot here most days, so some splashing and even a little dip in the water kept Myles cool as a cucumber.   

Dislikes

• Needing to having patience: totally a maternal trait there. I seriously have the worse patience in the world and Myles did not fall far from the tree on that one. I know it has to do with his age, so hopefully it gets better with time. I really hope! The biggest thing he didn't like waiting for was food; whether it was dinner or his momma milk, if he didn't get what he wanted in an instant, it was full on tantrum! *Remember this post I linked to earlier ;) *

 

Come back to check out my favorites from months eleven & twelve!