And Baby Makes Four

Peter turned one on August 4! We celebrated his birthday a few days early while my parents were still in town. We kept things simple: sang “Happy Birthday,” let Benjamin blow out the candle, ate cake and ice cream, and opened a few gifts. Instead of making a cake, I bought a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing from Walmart, and it was delicious! Peter liked it, too, as you’ll see in the pictures below. His birthday gifts included several clothing items (he’ll be a well dressed baby this fall!), a fridge farm magnet set (the one that has been a hit at Mama C’s house with all the grandkids), a shape sorter, and a couple of books.

Here’s a glimpse of Peter at one year:

• Weight – 19 lbs. 12 oz. (10th%) – Peter is following in his brother’s footsteps by being a “light weight,” but he is still bigger than Benjamin was at one year (18 lbs.)
• Height – 32″ (96th%) – He’s certainly a tall boy! However, I’m suspicious that the measurement may have been a bit high, since Peter was quite squirmy when they did it. Benjamin was 29″ tall at one year.

Walking:

• The most exciting development is that Peter is now walking! I witnessed his first steps on the evening of Friday, July 29. I was talking to my mom in the kitchen (it was during my parents’ visit), when I suddenly noticed Peter taking steps toward the trash can. (We now have to keep the trash can out of his reach because he loves trying to get into it!)
• For the first several days he would only take three steps at a time before going into his “monkey” walk (on feet and hands with bottom in the air) or crawling. But over the past week he has taken off, so to speak. Walking is now his preferred mobility method, and he’s had practice on various surfaces (grass, sidewalks, carpet, tile, sand, etc.)

Talking:

• Not much to report on the talking front. I guess he says “mama,” “dada,” and “bye,” but he doesn’t really have other words yet. He does imitate us occasionally, and so I’ve heard him say “uh oh.” We are doing a tiny bit of signing with him, but so far the only one he uses is “all done” (waving his hands back and forth when he finishes eating).
• He understands a lot of what we say. When I ask him to hand me an object that he’s holding, he holds it up to me. When I ask where Chloe or Benjamin is, he looks around for them.

Eating:

• I’m still nursing Peter, but trying to cut out some of his “snack” feedings and replacing them with food snacks. Also, since his waking during the night has been such an issue (most likely because of teething), I’ve continued to nurse him back to sleep out of convenience (and because we are living in an apartment with neighbors who I don’t want to disturb with a baby who is “crying it out”). Hopefully we’ll be moving into a house next month and I can go cold turkey on the night time feedings. 
• As part of my effort to gradually wean him, I’ve started giving him food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, plus a morning and afternoon snack. He is still eating mostly baby food, but I found our food mill in the back of the pantry, so we will start offering him some milled table food as well, until he grows more accustomed to chewing. His newest food experience has been smoothies. Benjamin and I often share these for lunch, but now I mix some with rice cereal so I can spoon feed it to Peter. This is the best way I’ve found to get him to eat all sorts of healthy foods, including spinach, avocado, strawberries, bananas, Greek yogurt, etc.
• He has taken to cold milk very easily. I offer him a sippy cup at meal times, and he takes several big gulps of it. When we reached this phase with Benjamin, I had to actually heat the milk and give it to him in a bottle for him to even consider taking any of it.

Sleeping:

• I should be so sleep deprived right now, but somehow I have survived Peter’s chronic night time wakings. Several nights ago he was awake something like six times, which means I was waking up about once an hour through most of the night. Most nights it’s once or twice that he wakes up, and then he wakes up in the morning between 6 and 6:30. I know, most of you are thinking that it’s time for me to sleep train this child! You are right, but our living situation isn’t conducive to that right now, so I’m going to endure it for another month or so until we move into a house.
• Other than his night time wakings, Peter sleeps from about 8:30 or 9 p.m., until 6 or 6:30 a.m.
• He still takes a morning (8:30-1oish) and afternoon (1:30-3:30ish) nap, and his afternoon nap still coincides with Benjamin’s. I am so thankful to have two good nappers!

Playing:

• Peter continues to play well on his own. He wanders off to the toy basket in the hall, or to Benjamin’s room, and entertains himself for awhile. Favorite toys right now are any objects good for carrying around in his hand while he practices walking (a toy screwdriver, a small stuffed animal, a toothbrush…), or any groups of items he can take out of a drawer (bowls, sippy cups, lids…) and sometimes (if I’m lucky) put back in.
• Now that Peter is walking, Benjamin sees him as more of a playmate. This has been a fun, sweet development. They ride around the apartment on the little sit and ride cars, and Benjamin comes up with imaginative things for them to do (go camping [under the table], hide from a bandit [under the bunk bed], etc.). Peter probably doesn’t know what game he is playing, but he just seems thrilled that his big brother is paying attention to him and not hitting him or knocking him down (this still happens sometimes).
• He’s no longer content to sit in the stroller and watch when we go to the park. I take him out and let him explore, but always under my watchful eye, since he still tries to put anything and everything in his mouth.

That’s all I can think of right now. Here are some recent pictures of our little Peter bear. We love him so much and are having so much fun with him!