This is it. The last of Bronco's monthly posts. Cue the "how is my baby already a year old??!" tears! Seriously, though. How has it already been a year??! The days & weeks (especially the nights...) sometimes dragged on...but now that I look back, I feel like the past year flew by in the blink of an eye!
Oh how we love our Bronco! He filled a void that we didn't know existed--and he instantly became an integral part of our family; our family would never be complete without him. He brings us all together in a way I never thought possible. When Tucker & Calvin are fighting, when Curt and/or I are in a bad mood, when we're all upset and frustrated--Bronco is the ray of sunshine that can (& always does) turn everything around. I'm constantly amazed at how unified & happy we all are when we're trying to get him to laugh or teaching him to crawl or watching him learn some new thing. It is so fun and rewarding. I love our little family so much--and I am so glad Bronco is a part of it!!
Anyway, on to formalities.
Here is Bronco's 12 month bear picture:
(I'm so glad this was our last month doing pictures with the bear, because it was nearly impossible to get him to sit still long enough,
and leave the bear somewhat alone long enough, to take this!)
Compared to last month at 11 months:
And here is the past year of bear pictures all compiled together:
So fun to see the comparisons!!
It makes the hassle of taking a picture with the bear every month, totally worth it.
Here are his one-year stats:
Weight: 20 lbs 4.5 oz (33%)
Height: 31 inches (89%)
He is our first baby to be over the 20-pound mark by his first birthday & have the highest percentiles! (Calvin & Tucker were both 18 lbs and in the 3% and 1% for weight, respectively.) And check out Bronco's height! Maybe there's some hope that he got some of the Smith genes! ;)
Biggest developments/changes in the past month:
- He finally started crawling!! (and he gets into EVERYTHING!!)
- He officially dropped his middle-of-the-night/early morning feeding and is sleeping 12+ hrs through the night!
- He stopped taking his reflux medicine completely!
- I took away his middle-of-the-day nursing, and he's down to just the morning and night feedings
- First official word: cracker
EATING:
- He is very much attached to nursing right now, which surprises me. Around 7/8/9 months, he would have nursing strikes every few days, and I was about ready to throw in the towel and just wean him...but we hung in there, and now I'm having a hard time getting him to stop. I took away his middle-of-the-day nursing about a week after he turned 11 months, and he did okay, but it was pretty clear that he missed it. Now when he nurses in the morning (right when he wakes up) and night (right before bed), nothing will distract him--he won't pull off for anything. Tucker & Calvin could be talking and trying to get his attention, and he wouldn't care. In some ways, I'm loving these quiet moments when he'll stay still and snuggle with me (since he's so active & on the move now that he's crawling), but in other ways, I'm just ready to be done with nursing all together. In the last few days I've been having him eat only on one side, instead of both, and I plan on stopping all together sometime soon. But for whatever reason, it's just hard when I see how attached to it he is!
- Another reason I'm hesitating to stop nursing all together is because I can't get him to drink cow's milk for anything! Both Tucker & Calvin took to cow's milk with no problem, so I'm struggling with what to do about Bronco. I gave it to him a few days before his birthday, and he seemed to like it just fine, but then I thought it was giving him diarrhea (turns out it was just a little bug going around our family), so I stopped giving him milk & pushed water pretty hard instead. So then he took to water, and when I tried giving him milk again a few days later, he refused it altogether. I try to trick him by giving it to him in different kinds of cups & sippee cups, and even mixing it in with cereal or oatmeal or other foods--but after one taste, he refuses to even open his mouth again. Such a little stinker! So the good news is that he LOVES water, which neither Tucker or Calvin ever really liked, and my pediatrician says that water should be his #1 drink anyway, so I guess we'll just work with it. And I'll just keep trying to sneak milk in wherever I can, haha.
- He has started becoming very picky with what he eats, and it's getting pretty frustrating. He spits foods out that he doesn't like, and then he refuses to eat them again. My biggest battle with him is breakfast. The only consistent thing he'll eat is a whole banana (cut up into pieces, of course)--and then I struggle getting him to eat anything else, even though he's still hungry. He won't eat cereal or toast, and he'll only occasionally eat oatmeal or pancakes or waffles. He'll usually eat a sausage patty, but I don't want to give him that every single morning! Silly boy. Breakfast has always been the easiest meal for Tucker & Calvin--it's their favorite--so Bronco not liking breakfast foods has been weird for me.
- His favorite foods right now, by far, are fruits. He LOVES bananas and canned peaches & pears. Strawberries give him the runs, which is sad. Hopefully he'll grow out of that. His favorite veggies are canned green beans, carrots, and peas, and he's pretty good about eating them. He likes Ritz crackers and he LOVES mac & cheese, and he usually likes yogurt and string cheese. Everything else is hit or miss.
- He's starting to drop food off the side of his high chair that he doesn't like, or just when he wants some attention. Love this stage. (not)
- I haven't had much time to teach him/have the patience for him to learn using a spoon yet...but it's something I need to work on. I let him try to feed himself some yogurt with a spoon the other day, and it was a mess (and I don't think he got any in his mouth)! Definitely something we need to work on...
SLEEPING:
- He's doing great with sleeping through the night! (7:00/7:30 pm to 7:00/7:30 am) There was one week that he randomly woke up at 6:00 am every day & was up for the day, but then a few days later he went back to waking up at his usual 7:00/7:30, thank goodness.
- He still takes two naps--one at 9:00/9:15 and one at 1:30/1:45. Sometimes he plays in his crib for awhile before falling asleep, but then he sleeps anywhere from 1-2.5 hrs.
- We LOVE having him in a crib in his own room--it is so wonderful!
- Watching him on the video monitor is hilarious--he rolls around so much in his sleep.
MOBILITY:
- He is a crawling ninja and gets into EVERYTHING. He used to just crawl around, following us from room to room, but now he ventures out on his own and will explore any and every room all on his own--getting into and leaving a string of messes along the way. He loves to open drawers, cupboards, etc, and it's actually cute to watch his little curiosity bloom. As long as I/we try to keep up with cleaning the messes, it's not too bad.
- He does not pull up to his feet yet or have any desire to walk. (though he does pull up to his knees) I can force him to stand holding onto the couch or something, but he gets sick of it and sits down pretty quickly; he doesn't even try to move his feet to cruise along. I'm not too worried--this is exactly how Calvin was at this age--but my pediatrician is worried and wants to start him on some early-intervention stuff. She's giving me six weeks to work on it on our own, and then she's going to have someone come to the house and evaluate him. So we're trying to encourage him to stand and pull himself up to his feet as much as we can.!
- He does not pull up to his feet yet or have any desire to walk. (though he does pull up to his knees) I can force him to stand holding onto the couch or something, but he gets sick of it and sits down pretty quickly; he doesn't even try to move his feet to cruise along. I'm not too worried--this is exactly how Calvin was at this age--but my pediatrician is worried and wants to start him on some early-intervention stuff. She's giving me six weeks to work on it on our own, and then she's going to have someone come to the house and evaluate him. So we're trying to encourage him to stand and pull himself up to his feet as much as we can.!
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OTHER RANDOM THINGS:
- He's becoming much more vocal--he talks/babbles all the time, and he screams when he wants something/doesn't want something.
- His first official word is "cracker" (pronounced "ack ack"--and he uses it for pretty much any form of food, haha).
- He's starting to sign "more" when he wants something--usually in relation to wanting a drink of water.
- He still claps and folds his arms for prayers (not every time though)
- He laughs whenever we laugh--especially when the boys laugh. So cute!
- Loves to read stories before his naps, and he loves turning the pages by himself.
- He's starting to dance to music; love it!!
- He loves, loves to crawl around with some long object in his mouth--his favorites are a whistle or a sucker.
- He loves to crawl under & around things--so an obvious favorite would be the kitchen table with all the chair legs. (he often gets stuck and cries for help to get out, but then he goes right back in, haha)
- He loves to lay on his belly to try to reach things underneath something. It is so hilarious!
- Still has the 8 teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom), but I keep expecting more to pop through anytime now. I feel like he's been super fussy/teething the last few weeks, and his gums seem pretty swollen, so I sure hope he has something to show for it sometime soon!
- His version of kisses is what we refer to as "Bronco Bonks"--where he softly bonk heads with someone else. We can't get him to give us legit "kisses" for anything, but he gives out Bronco Bonks very lovingly and whenever we ask. :)
- Wears size 12-18 month clothes, size 4 diapers.
- He's becoming much more vocal--he talks/babbles all the time, and he screams when he wants something/doesn't want something.
- His first official word is "cracker" (pronounced "ack ack"--and he uses it for pretty much any form of food, haha).
- He's starting to sign "more" when he wants something--usually in relation to wanting a drink of water.
- He still claps and folds his arms for prayers (not every time though)
- He laughs whenever we laugh--especially when the boys laugh. So cute!
- Loves to read stories before his naps, and he loves turning the pages by himself.
- He's starting to dance to music; love it!!
- He loves, loves to crawl around with some long object in his mouth--his favorites are a whistle or a sucker.
- He loves to lay on his belly to try to reach things underneath something. It is so hilarious!
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- His version of kisses is what we refer to as "Bronco Bonks"--where he softly bonk heads with someone else. We can't get him to give us legit "kisses" for anything, but he gives out Bronco Bonks very lovingly and whenever we ask. :)
- Wears size 12-18 month clothes, size 4 diapers.
Oh how we love this little boy!! Still can't believe he's a year old!!
