First Day of School

Leland started back to school today. He is at the same Montessori school he started at back in January. I am excited to return to the more normal routine of the school year. As of right now there are just nine children in his class, only four of which come five days a week (the other five children just come Tues., Wed., Thurs.)

Here is my sweet boy on his way out the door this morning:

Hair ball...Poopie....and our first potty!!!

When I woke up this morning to go get Leland out of bed I noticed there was a small object under the window in our bedroom. It was dark so I couldn’t see what it was. No doubt it could be attributed to our cat, but I still wasn’t sure what it was.

As I climbed back in bed with Leland to nurse I asked Robert to see what it was. As soon as I asked Leland crawled across the bed - he had to see it too...

ME: Can you see what’s on the floor by the window?
ROBERT: It’s a hairball. I’ll get it.
LELAND: It’s poopies.
ME: No. It’s just a hairball.
LELAND. It’s poopies.

Ahh....boys! :)

And. While we’re talking about the subject. Leland has used the potty three times (just peed) in the past week at his request. He has been asking to sit on the potty for a while now and we usually let him, but he did not really seem to understand what he was supposed to be doing while on the potty. And then finally - last Saturday (July 27) - he did it!

We’re not in full fledged potty training mode, but I guess he is getting to where he is about ready. The real question though is, am I ready?

Twenty-two Months

This has been a great month. This time last year I was holding my breath as I counted down to Leland’s first birthday, unprepared to give up the newborn days. This year I am just so excited to be watching him learn and grow. I am also counting down to the magical moment when I can turn his car seat forward facing and can stop crunching him into a little ball prior to placing him into his car seat.

Leland is bigger for sure, but I don’t have an exact measurement. My best estimate (and this really is an estimate) is that he is about 27 pounds and about 35"-36". He is still in 18 month pants and a mix of 18 month, 24 month & 2T tops. His shoe size is 6.5.



Saturday morning after breakfast we heard the train and ran to see it!
So much fun - with Nana, Granddaddy & Daddy!

 Leland has been cutting 4 (maybe 5) teeth this month. Needless to say we have had a few rough nights. One night he woke 6-8 times compared to his usual one time a night. Another night he threw up in the middle of the night. For a brief moment I thought he was actually sick, but have concluded it has something to do with his teeth. His diapers have been particularly pungent, resulting in a minor but persistent rash. At times it is clear that he is in a lot of pain. I feel for the little fellow and am doing all I can with teethers, ice, teething tabs, and the occasional dose of Tylenol.

Breakfast in Bed

Leland had his second hair cut this month. His first hair cut was at 19 months and I only let her cut the back. This time, we cut all over. I we feeling guilty at how hot he looked when he played outside and got really sweaty. I know he has to be more comfortable with less hair up top. I cringed as she snipped the long hairs up top but have concluded that his little boy hairstyle is very handsome on him.


One cold day in May...

Leland’s biggest strides are again in his verbal skills. He is using pronouns and verbs regularly. He is putting together multi-word sentences and he is telling me about things that happened in the past such as earlier that day at school. Leland can count to ten (with a little assistance), can name several shapes, and can name several colors. He is also saying names of friends, teachers, etc. much more frequently- including occasionally saying his own name. And...best of all.....he is singing a lot!

There is nothing sweeter than Leland belting out "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" as we ride to school in the morning. Right now, his favorite songs are "Twinkle, Twinkle", the alphabet song, and "Frere Jacques" I also had the opportunity to sit in on one of his Spanish classes (they have Spanish three mornings a week for 30 minutes at his school) and got to hear him sing in Spanish as well. I love that he is singing songs in three languages!

Train!
(first black eye)

Leland’s favorite toys right now are balls, trucks and trains, his shape sorter, and books. He recently discovered "Red Fish Blue Fish" and "I’ll Love You Forever". With much practice I can now make it all the way through "I’ll Love You Forever" without tearing up. Other favorite books are the Very Hungry Caterpillar, a Seek & Find Thomas book, Curious George books, and Goodnight Baby.

Overall, a really wonderfully, blessed month! God is good!

Twenty One Months



Last week marked twenty-one months for Leland. I am constantly in awe of how quickly he is growing, changing and learning.



APRIL 2012

APRIL 2013



We have seen huge leaps in communication this month. He is using verbs now on a regular basis and in short sentences. He has also started to use some "feeling" words. On Easter we were eating with plastic silverware when a piece of the fork broke off in his mouth. He got very upset and I had to help him get it out of his mouth. After it was out of his month he proclaimed through his tears, "that was scary"!

Mommy & Me Art Class

Leland has started singing on his own. He has always loved music - both singing and dancing - but now the song he is singing is recognizable. His favorite songs to sing are the Alphabet Song, the Clean Up Song, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He loves to play with his glow worm and always seems impressed that I know the words to the song she is playing.

My BIG Boy!

Leland’s sleep habits have made a shift this month. He is now going to bed about 7:30-8 pm (about 30 minutes later than before). The wonderful result of this natural shift is that he usually doesn’t wake up most mornings until after 5am to nurse - then he is usually back to bed until 6:30-7:30 am. Although it is not technically sleeping though the night, I’ll take it! He is still nursing 3-6 times per day depending on the day. And he has made excellent progress with self feeding now feeding himself foods like yogurt and applesauce.

Sleeping :)

As for growth...I don’t have a current height or weight (I really should measure him). The four molars he has been working on for the past month or so are all the way in. He is wearing a mix of 18 months - 2T sizes. I just pulled out his newest pair of shoes - a size 6 ½.

Trampoline Fun!

Leland’s favorite toys are books, puzzles, balls, and any toy he can push (lawnmower, shopping cart, etc.) He recently discovered bubbles and loves them. Nana taught him how to blow his own bubbles and he is hooked. He is loving the warmer weather and wants to be outside all the time.



Easter Egg Hunt

Twenty Months

Leland’s personality is really exploding. He is discovering his ability to express opinions and preferences. And, although I don’t have the actual measurements, he is growing like crazy!

New Table from the Consignment Sale

Leland continues to say new words every day. He has learned to say "side" and uses it to tell me he wants to switch sides while nursing. He says "wash" - meaning he want to wash his hands ... or play in the water in the sink! He is also overflowing with lots of "yes, please" (sounds like "es peeze") and "more, please" because he has cleverly discovered that I have a hard time resisting him when he is so polite and just so cute.

Watching TV with Granddaddy

Leland is wearing mostly 18 month pants and a mix of 18-24 month tops. He is working on lots of teeth right now. He has been getting four new molars for the past few weeks. One is finally in, two are mostly there, and one is just peaking trough. Then I noticed yesterday that he is getting one more tooth on the top in addition to the molars. I guess he is finally playing catch up in the teeth department.

Diaper Cutie...with the Ipad

One of the fun sides of the increased desire for independence is Leland’s love of helping. He takes thing to the trash for me (papers, etc.); he helps clean up his toys; and he loves to help feed our dog Daisy. Of course the reverse side of the independence streak is mini-meltdowns through out the day. But thankfully they are infrequent and short in duration.

Another new development this month is the addition of a teddy bear to his crib. Leland has always been very attached to his blanket; it's a great source of security for him. About two weeks ago my mom was laying him down for a nap and he asked for a teddy bear out of the bin of stuffed animals in his room. He pointed to a specific bear and snuggled it close. He has been sleeping with the bear ever since, an occasionally taking it out of the crib too. I have been calling him "Teddy" but just this week he corrected me an called him "Bear".

After his Bath

As every month passes I feel a small ache for just how much and how fast my baby boy has grown up. But mostly, I am really, really loving how much fun it is to explore the word with him and though his eyes. The more he grows and learns, the more we can do and see together.

19 Months & First Hair Cut

Sunday marked 19 months for Leland. He continues to delight and entertain us. He talks more every day. Just this morning he started saying "Yes please" and "More please". So cute! He loves to read and he love to eat. His favorite foods are fruit, cheese, and olives.

Helping with laundry

Leland is wearing mostly 18 month clothes, but has started wearing some 24 month clothes. He wears 5.5 shoes and size 4 diapers. We still nurse several times a day - usually 4-6 times per day (sometimes more on weekends).

Out for a ride

Leland's big milestones this month have been mastering the use of a real fork and working on four new molars. After no new teeth in almost 5 months I think we are ready. His top two molars are really cutting through, but the bottom ones are just causing the gums to be inflamed.

Lazy PJ Day

And the biggest change....Leland had his first haircut yesterday at 19 months, 2 days! I managed not to cry, but the night before I did stand over his crib for quite a while, running my fingers though his long, soft baby hair. We just trimmed up the back, at the ears and neck. We left the top long and untouched.

Before

First Snip

Very Serious!

After

Weaning: Stage Three

WEANING: to accustom a young child to take food other than its mother’s milk (source: Dictionary.com)

Weaning is a natural process. As mothers we are not fully in control of the natural weaning process, but we can substantially direct the weaning process. Recently, Leland and I stopped our lunch time nursing dates. We still nurse in the morning, evening, bedtime, and night time. On weekends we freely nurse on demand.

I title this post "Stage Three" because when I thought about it, this change or milestone was really the third major milestone in the weaning process. The first stage / milestone was at six months, when we began introducing solid foods. The second stage / milestone was at fourteen months when I stopped pumping and we introduced cow’s milk.

Approaching this change I recognized what an emotional milestone this was, but failed to fully recognize the physical milestone. Emotionally, for me, the build up was harder than anything. Now that we are into our new routine, I am doing well. Leland has adjusted well too.

The first week or so was hard. He would cling to me the minute I would walk through the door in the evenings, insisting on nursing immediately. One night he got so mad at me for not sitting in the nearest chair available (in the kitchen), but rather walking into the living room with him before sitting down to nurse. Those first few nights he nursed every 20-30 minutes all evening and I obliged as I too had missed him.

One afternoon after my mom had picked him up at school, she took him to run an errand. They passed the bra section in the store and he about lost it. She said he just kept pointing and saying "mama, mama, milk". Thankfully she was quickly able to distract him.

Now, almost four weeks into our new arrangement, we are both doing well. There are still moments in the afternoon when I am overwhelmed with how much I miss him, but overall I am coping well. Leland still asks to nurse almost immediately after I come home, but usually it is after he shows me what he has been doing or playing with. He is also doing excellent with falling asleep for nap time at his new school.

When we approached this change, I failed to recognize the physical effect it would have on me. Generally, I only get my period if we medically induce it using hormones. But about a week after we stopped nursing at lunch, I got my period. Making the transition more abrupt was probably that fact that we had been together for about three weeks over Christmas nursing on demand, 24 hours a day. But still, I was shocked that my oh so defective reproductive system actually noticed the change. Then of course I began to entertain crazy ideas that somehow this meant that my reproductive system wasn’t as defective as I clearly know it is.....oh, how the psychosis of infertility is ever-present!

Bottom line, the transition is going well and we are still successfully - by the grace of God - continuing to breastfeed on demand when we are together.

17 & 18 Months

I have fallen very behind in blogging these past few months. Last week marked 18 months for my little man!

Here are his stats from his check-up: 23lbs, 13 oz ( 22 percentile) 32 7/8 inches (65 percentile) and a head circumference of 18.7 inches (41 percentile). He continues to stay around the 20^th percentile on weight, but keeps climbing in the height department. Recently, our donors told me that their children (also born premature) caught up to their height percentiles and other milestones around the 18 month mark.

Highlights from his 17^th month include a day trip for Thanksgiving at his Great-great-grandmother’s home and his first camping trip. We took him primitive camping (yep...in November) with the scout troop we volunteer with through our church. Robert took the boys caving. Leland did great and had a really fun time.

Football with the "big boys"

Short hike with Daddy

 

Highlights from his 18^th month include Nana & Granddaddy coming to live with us, celebrating Christmas in our new home, and our first family vacation / cruise. We all had an excellent time. (I want to do a whole post about the cruise when I find time). And...Leland said goodbye to his daycare, starting last week a the Montessori school. He seemed a bit overwhelmed with all the changes on his first day, but has made the transition amazingly well.

Beach Baby!

Cruise Ship...ready to set sail!

Checking out Nana's stocking on Christmas morning

(PJ's Read: BEST GIFT EVER)

The biggest change in the last two months has been his vocabulary. He speaks so well. Just after 17 months I attempted to make a list of all the words he said on his own (he would repeat additional words). This list reached about 50 words, and I was adding new words everyday. At his point I would say the list is well over 200. He also speaks in short 2-3 word sentences. I am really enjoying how talkative he is and how much more his personality shines though when he is able to express himself.

Trying on Grandpa's Boots

Playing with Trains

And finally, for my records...he is still wearing size 4 diapers, mostly 18 month clothing (some 12 month pants & some 24 month tops); his favorite foods are olives, cheese, fruit, yogurt, and "cookies" (Fig.New.ton fruit thins) from Nana’s pantry; favorite toys are his trains, blocks, Mr. Potato head, and books; he still wakes 1-2 times per night to nurse; we nurse on demand on the weekends; since starting the Montessori school we no longer nurse at lunch during the week; his new nap schedule is one nap per day at 1 p.m. (based on the school’s schedule).

First Day of School

Today was Leland's first day at his new Montessori school. Drop off went great. He was fascinated by the birds and fish tank in the classroom. My mom picked him up about 2:45 pm today so he would have a short day. She said he was very happy to see her, but got upset when they got home and I wasn't here. Thankfully a snack made things better.
Some of the victories of the day were that I managed to pack everything he needed and get out the door on time. Leland also did great taking his first nap at school and ate almost all of the lunch I packed him.  The only major hiccup of the day was that his teacher must not have realized that there was a cap on his juice (under the nipple) so he didn't get anything to drink with his lunch and came home rather thirsty.
On a final note...in case you need a good laugh. I realized about halfway through that day at work today that there was about an inch long split in the butt seam of my pants.  Real classy!
And now some photos of Leland ready for school and his first home packed lunch...

15 Months

Last Friday we went for Leland’s 15 month check-up. It was a bit delayed due to his being sick with the stomach virus and a bump on the head (minor concussion) – we kept putting off the appointment until he is now nearly 16 months old. Leland weighed in at 22 pounds 1 ounce (13^th percentile) and measured 30.5 inches tall (21^st percentile). Leland is still in size 4 diapers and wearing 12-18 month clothing. He has moved up to size 5 ½ shoes.

This month we had our first significant injuries. On September 22^nd he fell at the pool and got a deep scrape to the forehead. Then on October 4^th he fell twice at the daycare, resulting in a very bruised goose egg about the size of a golf ball. I have never seen such a large goose egg in my life and was pretty worried when I arrived at the daycare to see it. We rushed to the doctor, where Leland was diagnosed with a concussion and I was given instructions for monitoring him over the subsequent 24 hours. Leland is “all boy” with no fear, so I am sure this is only the beginning of many bumps and bruises to come.

Leland is continuing to develop his verbal skills. Just this week I heard him combine two words for the first time: “my nose” (while touching his own nose). He says new words almost every day. He now says “night night” every night to daddy after we all read a book together and daddy is heading out as we start to nurse. He makes lots of animal noises – my favorite is his elephant sound. He is also “talking” not in long jabbering conversations that go like this: “jabber jabber jabber DAISY (our dog) jabber jabber jabber DADDY jabber jabber jabber SNACK”. Basically a long string of jabber with recognizable works spaced throughout.

Leland is loving playing outside more and more. Leland’s Grandpa really loves this. I bought him a playhouse at our community yard sale earlier this month and he is thrilled with it. We also take frequent walks to the park or even just around the front yard. Leland also has a strong love of balls. I think balls may be his favorite toy. He identifies balls everywhere we go (an orange at the grocery store) and loves to play with his balls around the house.

Leland had four teeth (his front four) at the beginning of the month (at 15 months), but now has almost 6 teeth (4 on top & 2 on bottom). We just bought him his first toothbrush this past week. Even though he didn’t get any teeth until after a year we cleaned his mouth and gums with a washcloth every night since he was born. With just a few teeth in his mouth we had continued with the washcloth method, wiping his teeth clean. Now with six teeth “wiping” the teeth is a perilous feat that often results in Leland clamping down (biting) our finger. So I bought him a toothbrush and he loves it. He knew just what to do with it and is really very cooperative with getting his teeth brushed.

Breastfeeding is going well. We are nursing first thing in the morning, after lunch (before nap), afternoon when we get home, bedtime, and then 1-3 times per night. My supply is definitely much less then it was months ago, but we are still hanging on and enjoying the wonderful bonding.

Overall it has been a very fun month with lots of fall festivities. We have been thoroughly enjoying our new home and community. Watching Leland grow, learn, and explore is like seeing the world again new though his eyes!  

Fourteen Months

This past month has been so much fun. Leland and growing and changing so quickly. He is about 22 pounds and a little over 30 inches. He wears size 4 diapers mostly because he rear is a little wide, otherwise the size 3 would still fit fine. He is in a size 5 shoe and wears 12-18 month clothing. Though he has just now gotten tall enough for 12 month pants.

Leland continue to talk more and more. Some favorite words this month are “bird” and “boat”. There are both birds and boats in some of my paintings around the house and he likes to look at them and talk about them. He has started identifying birds in pictures elsewhere as well.

Leland took his first steps on August 4^th and has just taken off since then. He tentative toddle has turned to a full on run. He wants to walk everywhere now, rather than be carried. He also loves his shoes. He brings them to us and asks us to put them on him. I think he hopes that if we put his shoes on that we can go outside. He loves to play outside so much lately. I am hoping to find an outdoor play set at the upcoming consignment sale.

I stopped pumping this month. Leland still nurses 3-5 times per day, usually on the higher end of that. He nurses (most nights) sometime between 2-4 AM, first thing in the morning, after lunch, (sometimes) an afternoon snack between 4-5 PM, and again before bed. When we are together on the weekends he will sometimes just ask to nurse at random times. When he does this it is usually just a “sip” and he is back to playing. I find it very sweet that he now asks to nurse when he wants.

Leland now has 3 teeth. His top two front teeth came in this month. We had a few days of awful teething but once they really broke though he has been much better. He still has just one tooth on the bottom, but he recently lost the “tooth cap” that was next to the real tooth so the other one may be on its way in soon.  When we saw the “tooth cap” appear last November (when Leland was just 4 months old) we thought that he was getting his first tooth. His first pediatrician even told us he would have a tooth any day. When he still had the “tooth cap” and no tooth at about a year, his new pediatrician explained that it was just a “tooth cap” and would fall out before the tooth actually come through.

Adventures this month include another plane trip to Florida and a new cousin. At the end of August, we flew to Florida again to visit my parents. Leland was teething while we were there, but otherwise we had a nice visit with Nana and Granddaddy. Then, on September 3^rd, we welcomed Leland’s first younger cousin and his first cousin on daddy’s side. Leland did great visiting with his little cousin in the hospital. He loved watching him get a bath in the nursery and showed no signs of any jealousy when we were holding our new nephew.

(Blogger is having issues with photos - I will try to add them later!)

Conversations with Leland

Leland is talking more and more. It’s still only one word at a time, but he is very verbal. New words just this week include book, bird, and Mimi. Over the weekend, we had two very cute and funny conversations.

Saturday morning Mimi and Grandpa were here for a visit. I had got Leland out of bed, changed his diaper, and nursed him. We were then walking down the hall and Robert was coming from the other direction. The conversation whet like this:

Robert: I’m going to feed Daisy (our dog). Do you want to come?

Leland: Yes

(Leland climbs from my arms to Robert’s arms)

Me: Leland, Mimi is here. Do you want to go see Mimi?

Leland: Squeals (and JUMPS from Robert’s arm back to mine)

I guess Mimi is popular!

Sunday morning I was nursing Leland. He had just finished on my right side and was about to switch to nursing on my left. He sat up from the right side and the conversation went like this:

Me: You ready to switch to the other side.

Leland: Book (pointing to the stack of his books on the nearby end table)

Me: Do you want more milk?

Leland: Book

Me: We still have the other side. Do you want to nurse some more?

Leland: Book

Me: Do you want milk or book?

Leland: (thinks for a second) Book

So, feeling a little rejected, I picked up the four books on the table and let Leland pick. He picked “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” and we read it. Thankfully, (at least for my ego) about ten minutes later Leland was playing in his room with Robert; I walked in and Leland ran up to me, grabbed my legs and asked for milk.

I am really enjoying Leland beginning to show his personality and expressing his preferences verbally. He keeps me smiling.

First Steps

Leland took his first steps on Saturday. His walking is still wobbly and he only manages 3 or 4 steps before he sits down, but he is officially walking. And today…he started in the toddler room at daycare.

Thirteen Months

With my very late one year post in mind I have been committed to being prompt with Leland’s thirteen month post. Today marks thirteen months exactly for my little man. July has been a very busy month, full of blessings.

I don’t have any updates on Leland’s height or weight since his one year check-up, but I can assure you he is growing. He eats, a lot! Sometimes he even eats as much as I do. He has a few new favorite foods: spaghetti with meat sauce; and steamed carrots. He is still nursing 3-5 times per day, although our nursing sessions generally only last between 5-20 minutes at a time. I nurse him first thing in the morning, after lunch, sometimes before dinner, before bedtime, and sometimes during the night.

Leland is sleeping though the night some now. He wakes up about 2 out of every 3 nights, usually between 2:30 AM and 5:30 AM. Lately, it has been closer to 5:30 AM, which is almost all the way through the night. He still naps in the car on the way to and from the daycare. We are trying to achieve an after lunch nap between noon and 2 PM at daycare, but this is slow going with limited success. Many days we can get him to nap, but often the nap only lasts 20 minutes. This week he graduated from the crib at daycare to a floor mat. This only complicates the napping situation.

Leland has his first tooth in the bottom front of his mouth. It started coming in around the beginning of July and is now nearly all the way in. He shows no signs of any new teeth coming in any time soon. He is so, so close to walking. He stands without support and sometimes tries to take a step. He literally runs around the room holding onto a push toy. I am nearly certain he will start walking this month.

We had a few little firsts this month. We bought him his first pair of real shoes. They are brown suede Stride Rite shoes. He mostly wears them to play outside at the daycare. Good baby shoes are expensive! I’ve made a note to check the fall consignment sales for some shoes in the next few sizes up. We had our first power outage last night. We encountered an awful storm on our way home last night and arrived to find the power was out. Leland had yogurt, fruit, puffs, and cheese for dinner. The power was thankfully restored about 10 PM last night. My biggest worry was that my small freezer stash of milk (about 30 oz) would defrost.

Leland’s vocabulary continues to improve. He calls Archer (our cat) and Daisy (our dog) by name. He says “cat” when referring to both Archer and Penny (our other cat). Frequently used words (as is words we hear almost daily) include: more, done, Daisy, cat, dada, mama, up, bye-bye, and Amen. My heart just melts when he says “Amen.” When we say a prayer at dinner he will usually repeat Amen after Robert and I say it. Sometimes he will say Amen over and over during the whole prayer. It is so, so sweet and I just love it!

Monday starts the new school year here and marks the start of a new curriculum year at Leland’s daycare. There has been some transitions in place this week, but next week he will officially be in the Toddler class, with new teachers, two new children added to the group, and a new daily schedule.

Leland with his Mema (great-grandmother)

Playing his Xylophone

Proud of his new IKEA stool - looking out his bedroom window...

With mommy in the kiddie pool

Ready for a bath

"Helping" in the Kitchen

Sleeping

 

One Year

Wow. One year old. They tell you the time will fly but you cannot imagine until you experience it. If only TTC would have flown by so fast. July 3^rd was Leland’s first birthday. I am so, so late with this post but it’s written with the milestones and updates current as of his first birthday rather than the date of the post (as I have a 13 month post coming oh so soon!)

At his one year well baby check we got a great report. He is as healthy as can be. He weighed in at 20 lbs 6.5 oz (15^th percentile) and 30 inches (50^th percentile). He is really c catching up in height and is now solidly on the chart for weight. At the visit he got is MMR. We will go back in 6-7 weeks for his Hep. A and Chicken Pox Vaccines. The MMR was pretty rough. He did great with the injection, but had a runny nose and a fever on and off for almost a week.

Leland is doing great with eating solids. He is completely off the purees. On the day of his party we offered him a puree because his lunch time fell about an hour before the party started. We were busy getting things ready and thought a puree would be an easy option to hold him over until the lunch we were serving at the party. He seemed to think we were crazy for trying to feed him mush. He almost entirely feeds himself, with his hands. Right now his favorite foods are: green beans, cheese, grapes, blueberries, bread and steak.

He still wears mostly 12 month clothing, but has started to outgrow them in length (he has a long abdomen and short legs). Pants can be difficult to fit. We have moved into some 18 month pajamas and rompers.

Leland is traveling and walking while holding two hands. My parent’s placed bets on when he would start walking, both certain he would walk by the middle of July. Leland is continuing to talk more and more, adding new words to his vocabulary on almost a daily basis. He is really developing a love for books. He sits on his own with books now, flipping through the pages. He also expresses preferences for books and will pick out which one he wants us to read.

Leland is also doing great with following one task instructions, such as to go to a particular place, to pick up a specific toy, or to put an object down at a specific spot. I am sure that as his mom I am biased…but sometimes he really amazes me with how smart he is!

Finally, we had Leland’s one year photos done with our amazing photographer. I will post a selection soon.

July 2012 Updates

July has been a busy month. I was so good about blogging last month and lately I find time to read blogs (usually while nursing) but not to post. I still need to post a 1 YEAR update post for Leland. And every time I think about posting something, I think “not until I get that 1 YEAR post done.” It’s still a work in progress, but I thought I would update you in bullet points.

·         We celebrated Leland’s first birthday on June 30^th. I did manage to get a post – with pictures – done about this. Yea!

·         My parents visited from Florida for the party and the first few days of the month. We had a really nice, relaxing time.

·         The day after my parent’s left, Robert’s parents arrived for a four day stay. Leland had a great time with the new kiddie pool they brought.

·         We are moving forward with our home purchase. We had the home inspection this past Tuesday. There are no major problems, but we have asked for a few repairs and are waiting for a response from the bank. We got our appraisal back on Wednesday and it was AWFUL. The appraisal is full of incorrect information. He picked comparable houses from 5+ miles away with 1.5 acres of land when our house only has 0.25 acres and there are very recent sales of similar homes on the same street as ours. I spoke with the appraiser and he basically told me that he did anything he could to inflate the value. We have passed out concerns to underwriting with our lender and hopefully they will fight the issue on our behalf.

·         Robert has a job!!! It’s in a finance office at a “local” university. He got the call this past Tuesday and started work on Wednesday. He already loves it. Praise God - we are so thankful! It’s “local” to our new house, but about 1 hour and 45 minutes away from our current house, so we really need to move.

·         We have renters!!! Again, Praise God!!! We planned on renting our house when we moved, but hadn’t done anything to make it happen. About three weeks ago we casually mentioned to our photographer that we would rent our house when we moved. A few hours later someone asked her if she knew anyone renting their home. She passed them our information. That person was looking for something smaller and forwarded our information to someone else. They came to see the house a week ago and plan to come by this weekend to sign a lease. God is so good.

·         If everything keeps moving along – and the appraisal issue gets resolved – we should close on the house sometime during the first week of September and will move within days after we close.

·         I marked the first item off my 30 Before 30 list...more on this later!

·         We started one-on-one communication with our donors this month. Up until now all communication has gone through our wonderful social worker, but with the passage of a year we have moved on to direct communication. It's going well. 

·         Leland is moving up from the “crawlers” baby room at daycare to the “toddler” room one week from Monday (Aug. 6th). I am so proud of him, but it is very bitter sweet. This move will signal the end of our lunch dates for nursing. When I think about it I want to burst into tears. I know it will be better once we move and I am not wasting two hours of my day on the road to and from work, but in the meantime I feel like I am barely going to see him during the week. 

·         I've lost 0.2 pounds in the last month. But, we reduced my thyroid medication just over a month ago and am thrilled to have just maintained. Especially since I have added the occasional ice cream treat back into my diet!

·         Work has been crazy busy this month. I got my first Court of Appeals decision this week. I’ve filed an appeal before but withdrew it when the Juvenile Court judge reconsidered the case. This is the first time I have filed an appeal, submitted a brief, and waited for a decision. The Court of Appeals entered their decision on Wednesday and I WON! Then on Thursday, I got a call from a reporter asking for my thoughts on the court’s decision.  I have to say I felt pretty accomplished as a lawyer at that moment!

So those are the major things that have kept me busy these past few weeks. I do promise a post on Leland soon and  some posts expanding or following up on these updates. Thanks for checking in!

1st Birthday Party

We celebrated Leland’s first birthday a few weeks ago with a small group of family and very close friends. We kept the guest list small, but still had over thirty people come celebrate our little one. I planned to have people both inside and outside the house, but we had a heat wave, recording the highest temperature in history on that day. The high temperature (in the shade) was 104 degrees – in the sun it was about 120 degrees!

We had a Curious George themed party. I used red and yellow to decorate. Leland had a cute personalized monkey t-shirt. We gave Curious George books as party favors to the kids. And we had a really great Curious George cake. We grilled brats and hotdogs and had a picnic themed menu. A special thanks to Robert’s Mema for making salads and to his Aunt Carol for her yummy peas and corn – and for taking these great photos.

Leland did amazing at the party. I had braced myself for him being clingy and overwhelmed, but he wasn’t AT ALL. Rather, he was the life of the party. He was passed from person to person, and when he wasn’t being held and loved on he was crawling around the house, playing with the bigger kids, and just hamming it up for everyone. I was so proud of him. Honestly, I couldn’t keep up with him most of the party – he was too busy socializing.

And now for a photo overload: