Nuk BABY

After 7+ months of not wanting anything to do with a pacifier Monk whined until I opened up a new package of nuks. He took it out, put it in his mouth and sucked on it for the whole night until he went to bed. I am not sure if this is something that is going to be an everyday thing or if he just needed some extra soothing last night. It did make the night a lot less whiny so I guess that I am ok if my one year old all of a sudden wants a pacifier.

A walkin' fool

Monk is walking more and more these days. He looks a little dorky in this picture, but this is the typical face that he makes when he is walking. He gets so excited and can barely contain his laughter. He thinks that he is the coolest kid out there. I can tell that his male ego is already growing twice the size that it should. Every time that he walks it brings tears to my eyes. My new favorite sight is new walkers. They are just too darn cute.
P.S. As you can see I am pushing spring over at our house. I couldn't wait to put this octopus shirt and his crocs on him. They are just to cute!

OUCH!

Babies are quick! This past weekend Monk pulled a cup of coffee all over himself. He was intrigued by the cup on the table, put his fingers in it, and pulled it down all over the front of him. It was a fresh poured cup so it was full and HOT! He was lucky to get away with this tiny little burn on his chest. I made the mistake of asking him what that was on his tummy and then telling him that it was an ouwie. He then proceeded to touch it and pop the blister. It doesn't seem to bother him much. We are just so thankful that nothing greater happened. Burns are the worst!
In other news Monk had his one year well baby check up last week. He was 21.9 lbs and 29 and a half inches long. He is still only in the 25th percentile for his weight, but he is healthy. I think that it just surprises the doctor that he is low in weight now when he was born in the 90th percentile or something like that. He is starting to drink milk and give up his formula and is finally getting the hang of drinking out of a straw cup. He won't do a normal sippy so we resorted to using a honey bear container with some surgical tubing. He is sucking milk up the straw like a champ now. Thank goodness for our healthy baby boy.

To another year of loving you more!

Happy birthday baby boy, monk, pumpkin seed, bean, love. I have been thinking for a long time about what I was going to tell you on your first birthday and I still have not found the words to express this amazing thing that has happened to me. From the moment that I knew I had life inside of me, I loved you with everything that I had. I didn’t know who you were or if you were going to be a girl or a boy, but I knew that my heart changed that summer morning when I found out you were going to be a part of me. I think back to when you were in my tummy and how your movements put a smile on my face and made my heart skip a beat. Many times at night I found myself with my hands resting gently on my stomach waiting for you to move. You were so real to me even though I had not seen you. I was amazed at how I could love a being inside of me whom I had never met. I didn’t think that my love for you could grow any stronger until they placed you on my stomach for the first time. Your scream was the sweetest sound I had ever heard. Your dark hair and chubby cheeks melted my heart instantly. My heart grew ten times its normal size that day and has expanded with more love ever day prior. Since that day so many things have changed. You have morphed from this sack of potatoes into a mobile monster. There have been some hard times during this year, but those moments when you smile or make me laugh make all the hard times fade away. I began to cherish those times when it was just me and you up in the middle of the night. I loved lying on the couch with you in the crease of my arm and falling to sleep hearing you breathe. When you started to smile and laugh happiness had a new meaning. When you smiled or laughed at me, nothing else in this world mattered. When you started to crawl it was like I had a different baby. You loved the independence. Seeing you succeed and hit different mile stones gave my life purpose. Seeing you take steps on your own brought tears to my eyes because not only are you the cutest baby boy that I have ever met, but you actually work, your legs and your hands and everything else in between. There are going to be great days and there are going to be horrible days, but we are in this together kid. I may not always make the right choices when it comes to raising you, but know that I will be here for you no matter what and that I will love you until the day I die. I hope that through all my hugs and my kisses you can feel that I will never leave you. I love you with everything! To another great year of change and more love.
Love you Forever!
Mama

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY...

...from your hunk of burnin' love!

First Birthday Extravaganza

After having first having a bottle Monk opened his first birthday gift of the day from his parents. It was a great thing for him to play with while I got everything ready for his party at night. If you can't tell from the picture it is some plastic food for his new kitchen that we got for him as well.





For something fun to do during the day, I took Monk to the Aquatic Center. He was a bit scared at first, but then he became more comfortable and had a blast. He didn't fuss the whole time that we were there. When his lips started turning blue, I knew that it was time to go.

At night we had a little birthday party for him with our family. I made him a special little cake and he got all the fun stuff to go along with it like balloons and birthday hats.

This was the best part of the night. THE CAKE! Monk did not quite know what to do with this treat. It took him at least 5 minutes to even start putting it in his mouth. He started playing with it with one hand...

Now he is daring enough to try two

Finally in the mouth it went

Oh yeah that's the good stuff.

Blizzard of 2007

We had to stay inside most of the weekend because of the nasty blizzard that we had. Monk is used to going out with me all the time so he was starting to get a little sick of being inside all day long and started to get a little cranky so we had to improvise a little. He had his first dinner of pizza and LOVED it and then he went swimming in the bath tub with his new babing suit.

He doesn't usually take a bath in the big tub so this was a real treat. He had lots of fun splashing and playing with his toys.

Sunday night the night was broken up a bit with a special visit from a little friend. Monk's friend came over to play. They taught each other some dance moves and played nice together. Monk was sad to see her go. All in all it was a good weekend despite the cold snowy blizzard outside.

Welcome back my bright baby blues

These pictures were taken today. FINALLY Monk is feeling better. I haven't written a blog about it yet, but while Monk was in the hospital he came down with a cold. It turned out to be bronchitis so once he was feeling better from the flu we were still not out of the woods. He was put on anti-biotic and is feeling soooooooooooooo much better. It has been the longest couple of weeks of my life. I almost forgot what it was like to have a happy baby. Today was finally the break through day. We had so much fun together again. We laughed and played all day long. I can't tell you how good it was. To go along with the exciting news that Monk is feeling better, HE TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS TODAY! I had to put it in caps because we are so excited about it. I am sure that it will be awhile before he is running around, but he has to start somewhere. It was one of the most heart warming experiences that I have ever had. He was smiling and laughing. I was so proud of him and I could tell that he was thrilled with himself. Seeing Monk succeed in life has been one of the most meaningful things in to me. We are so blessed to have a healthy baby!
I could tell that he was back when I found him in the lazy susan taking all of the bow tie pasta noodles out of the box and dumping them on the floor.