Rhett-13 months, Jackson Update, Trip to Nashville

WooHoo Life is a whirlwind...Let me try my best to get this blog up to date!

As for Rhett, at 13 months:

-He is eating so many more things-Hallelujah! :) We have had some great breakthroughs with table foods. Just to name a few-carrots, homemade mashed potatoes, muffins, apple, cheese (finally!), macaroni. It is great to see such progress with his eating! I still give him a pouch of baby food or yogurt with each meal, which he is great at eating. He is now feeding himself with a spoon as well! Still not much progress with meat, though.

-His iron level was on the low side at his 1 year appt, so we started giving him some more iron in his vitamin. We had it rechecked a week ago and it is just a little shy of normal level, so his pediatrician prescribed a stronger iron supplement. We will get his level checked again in about a month. I really can't tell that his levels are a little low. He has a ton of energy and goes full speed ahead every day.

-His sleep improved significantly for about a week...He was waking only once a night. Then we took a trip to Nashville and he went back to 2-3 times per night. Now I think he is teething again, but I hope he will get back to the once per night waking soon!

-He is "talking" up a storm, although we are still waiting on a few more identifiable words. He says "dada" all the time as well as wawa (water). Today he said "car". He loves to say "Ah-choo" when he pretends to sneeze. Most of the time he points to things and says "ooh".

-Like Jackson did, his first song that he is signing is "Old MacDonald". He does the "eieio" part. It is adorable!

-He wants to walk everywhere! He is so happy walking in public places while holding our hands. Sometimes he fusses because he doesn't want to hold our hands, but we always win that battle. He loves to strut around and will start dancing if there is any kind of music playing around him. People are always stopping to talk to him and watch him because he always has a huge smile on his face if he is walking/dancing!

-He has started trying to bite me when he gets really mad, so I have to tell him no, which he doesn't like. He tried banging his head into me the other day, which just ended up hurting him. I remember Jackson going through this phase as well. I guess they get frustrated/mad and don't quite know how to express themselves. The one big difference is that Rhett gets to observe Jackson fussing and I can tell he is taking notes :)

-Rhett has the legendary scowl that runs in my family. Here is a classic picture of the scowl. I have been told my many that I have the same face,as does my dad, as did my grandfather. Since Rhett is my little clone, it is only natural that he has the same look! Here it is in all of it's glory:

-He continues to be so affectionate, and loves to give hugs and kisses. The BEST is when we don't ask for one and he just reaches over and gives me a big bear hug around my neck and a kiss. He blows Jackson and Justin kisses every night before bed. He has been giving his stuffed animals love will lay his head on them and make sweet little sound.

-He is so much fun! He is at a really fun phase where he learns something new every day.

 Feeding himself (left handed!)

 Photobomb by Jackson :)

 Photobomb by Daddy

 My happy boy!

Now for Jackson, he is such a wonderful little boy! He makes us laugh constantly. He is growing up before our very eyes. I can't believe how much he's grown in the last year. He is so tall (and lanky!). He is in a phase where he walks up and talks to everyone. He says the funniest things. Right now he is really into the L.ion King 2 and has determined that we are characters from the movie. He calls me Kiara, Justin is M.ufasa, he is Kovu, Rhett is S.imba, and Annabelle (our cat) is Xera. He walks up to random people and introduces himself as Kovu :) I have to explain to strangers that that's not his real name. He has such a great imagination!

I love watching him play independently with his toys and play make believe. He is such a sweet boy. I got the "mommy I 'm going to marry you one day" a few days ago. I thin my heart skipped a beat! He's such a good and well behaved boy. He has wonderful manners and I am so proud of the way he interacts with others and uses his manners with adults. He is currently also telling every woman he sees "Happy Mother's Day" even though it was over 2 weeks ago. He is extremely affectionate and I am cherishing this time with him. He is still way into cars and playing sports and rough housing with his daddy. He also loves T.homas the Train, the Cars movies, and playing sports. We are still working on being gentle with Rhett, but Rhett is starting to hold his own and push back when Jackson is pushing him. They love each other so much though, and I absolutely love those moments when they are hugging and kissing on each other.

They are two peas in a pod! Jackson is finishing up 3 year old preschool this week. I cant believe he will be 4 years old soon. It is going by waaay too fast.! I love this age with him. He is a great sleeper and sleeping through the night as well as taking 1.5 hour naps every day.
If theres one thing that he doesn't like, it is failing at something or not being able to do something that others can. He gets really upset and cries when he cant do something that someone else can. I see his competitive spirit starting very early. I wouldn't change a thing about either one of my boys, though. I tell them they are perfect just the way they are. I sound like I am gushing, but these boys just make me smile and are so amazing to me in every way!!

Pirates and Princess' bday party for a friend

 My Mother's Day gift....this is the face he greets me with every morning :)

 New jammies-hes getting so big!

 I love this photo because he looks like my little baby Jackson in it

 Daddy's shoes

I had training in Nashville recently and since I am still nursing Rhett and I couldn't bear to be away from both of my babies for a week, we made the decision to go together as a family. It was an adventure, but Justin was amazing at taking care of the boys all day long (and some evenings as well!). Training was great but it was a looong week.

Some of the highlights: Taking the boys to eat breakfast often at the P.ancake Pantry, seeing downtown Nashville, playing at the playground, eating at M.artin's BBQ, and visiting with family on the way up there and back. We stopped in NC to see Justin's mom and then we stopped in Chattanooga on the way home to see my older brother's family and my great aunt. Justin was SUPER DADDY and kept both boys busy with trips to downtown Nashville, Hard Rock Cafe, playgrounds, a trip to the Corvette museum in Kentucky, picnics at the park, and dinners out. He even braved taking both boys on a guided tour of the Grand Ole Op.ry by himself. Needless to say he was exhausted when the trip was over!

 The not so fun highlight is that Jackson had his first trip to the ER at Vanderbilt Hospital. Long story short, Jackson had very mild diarrhea with no other symptoms for a few days. One night we woke up at 2 am and had several bouts that contained a decent amount of blood. He had no other symptoms, so I wasn't super worried, but we had never seen that so Justin took him to the ER to be evaluated. They determined that it was colitis due to mild diarrhea from a virus, not bacteria or parasite like we feared. So in hindsight he probably didn't need to go to the ER, but we erred on the side of caution. The staff was great and attentive and Jackson did just great. The next day, he was good to go and that was the end of that! Like I said, it was an adventure, but we did it and thank goodness it is over :) It was so nice to be able to see my babies (and of course Justin) in the morning, during lunch for little bit, and in the evenings, even if I was stuck in training all day long.  Love these boys so much!!

Rest area in TN:

 Corvette Museum

Hard Rock Cafe

 He's ruined!

 Cousins!

 Baby Eli is in there somewhere

Rhett is ONE year old!

Here are his official 12 month stats:

Weight:21 lbs 3 oz-47th percentile
Height: 31 1/2 in-96th percentile
Head circumference 18 in-38th percentile
BMI-15

Wow, it has been a whole year since we first met our baby boy. It seems like forever ago, but then no time at all. I will never forget being in labor with him on April 4th, 2012 and the pain that I felt pushing him out for 2.5 hours without a working epidural. He entered the world with a good cry and I finally got to lay eyes on my sweet little guy. And he was perfect, even with his little cone head from being in the birth canal for so long. Early on, we could tell he was going to be a feisty one. The nurses at the hospital even told us that we had a wild one on our hands. One year later, I can say that is true. He is feisty, loving, silly, happy, determined, and in constant motion. I so love watching his personality come out more and more every day. He is so cute and I love watching he and Jackson together. They are two of a kind! At ONE YEAR old:

-Rhett is just not the greatest sleeper and wants to nurse/be held throughout the night. He is doing a bit better, though and waking only 1-2 times per night. This is great because he just went through a phase where he was waking constantly due to getting several teeth. I don't know what I will do one day when I get a full nights sleep. I think my body will go into shock!

-Tooth number 7 (left lateral incisor) has just popped through.His smile is so cute with all of his little teeth showing now!

-All he wants to do is dance! He has recently gotten some new moves and he will dance every single time he hears music. It is just so funny. He loves an audience and can really boogie. I predict that he is going to do something with music one day. He has a great sense of rhythm already.

We have finally begun making some small strides with new foods. He mostly sucks/chews on things and spits them out, but sometimes he will actually eat. I just keep hoping that soon he will get more interested in it. Lately he has tried mashed potatoes, biscuits, gravy (first taste of gravy was at Virginia.s on King) cornbread, french fries, chicken,scrambled eggs, chocolate icing, grilled cheese, and meatloaf...yes meatloaf! I was at c.racker barrel with my mother in law and Rhett reached over, grabbed a big handful of meatloaf and shoved it in his mouth! I couldn't believe it. I thought he was going to spit it out, but he ate some more. Then he was fussing for my cup of water, so I gave it to him and he actually sucked water out of a straw!! We were shocked. He has sense been drinking water at restaurants out of a straw. I am surprised he figured that out so early!

He is drinking exclusively out of a sippy cup and he has only had water and breast milk. As with Jackson, I made it to my goal of never having to give him a single drop of formula. I am thinking that I am going to wean him a little earlier than Jackson, though. The goal is to wean him by 18 months, but we will see how it goes. The reason for this is that I have to be done breastfeeding for 6 months to get my breast imaging that is past due (mammogram, etc) and it has almost been 2 years since I had all of those biopsies, so I don't want too much more time before I get imaging.

He loves to point at things, wave, and clap. He also loves to blow kisses, and also gives big wet sloppy kisses with his mouth wide open. What I especially love is that he puts both hands around your neck and pulls you in to give you kisses.  He is also a good little snuggler. But at the same time, he will let you know if he is not in the mood and doesn't want you in his face.

He never really had bad stranger anxiety. Rhett is pretty social, in that he is always involved in everybody's conversation around us and staring at other people. He really gets excited when he sees other babies and also animals. What we have noticed about him is that there are certain people he will smile and interact with naturally. Others, he really makes you work for it, which I kinda love about him. He won't fake it or act entertained. He will just give them a blank look until they work for his reaction. Justin says he gets that from me. :)

We had to increase his iron, as his hematocrit was a little low at his 1 year visit. This is really common for breastfed babies. We have to go back soon to get his blood tested again to make sure it is within normal range.

Aside from dancing, Rhett also LOVES to pick out a book, bring it to you, and then sit on your lap while you read it for a few seconds. Then he gets up and finds another book and repeats this cycle over and over. He has a ball doing this!

He is really into cars and imitates Jackson zooming them around. He also loves carrying big toys around and throwing things and rocking on his rocking horse. He is great at rolling a ball back and forth.


He loves playing outside and being pushed around his his little t.ikes car. He gets really mad and cries when we have to go inside. He also really enjoys watching Jackson run around and kick the ball. Rhett tries to run after Jackson, which is really cute but he falls down alot when he does that because he gets to going too fast!

He is still saying "mama", "yaya", "googoo", etc, but his favorite word that he says all of the time is still "dada".

We had a small but fun 1st bday party for Rhett at our house the Saturday after his birthday. We did a M.ickey Mouse theme and it turned out really cute! He did well and seemed to enjoy himself.  He wasn't too keen on the cake, but he did get into the cupcake we gave him on his actual birthday. Rhett really loved playing with the balloons. Jackson enjoyed helping to get set up for the party. Here are a bunch of photos of Rhett at one year old.

Every day I think about just how blessed we are to have Rhett as part of our family. His smile lights up a room and he adds so much LOVE and JOY to all of our lives. Happy 1st  Birthday to our beautiful baby boy!!

As a reminder, here is our sweet newborn Rhett:

Here are (lots) of photos of Rhett at one year old:

Changes

I haven't had much time to update the blog lately. The reason is because I accepted a new job! Over the last several weeks, I was working around the clock to work on getting things closed out and resolved with my job at ACS so that I could feel good about leaving it in a good spot. I was not looking for a new job, but this opportunity sort of fell in my lap and I decided to pursue it. I figured that I didnt have anything to lose, but I didnt really expect anything to come of it. It was a lengthy interview process and a little intimidating, as I interviewed with some pretty high level people, but I got the offer and decided it was too good of a gig to refuse. So, It was hard, but I left the job that I loved at ACS after being there for over 5 years and took a job for which I get to use my Master's Degree a lot more. I am working for two local hospitals as a Director of Business Development and after being one week into it, I can say that I am really liking it so far. I think it is just the right career move for me and I am happy and thankful for the opportunity!

In other news, we got a new car! The Green Camry (otherwise known as the green machine, slimer, snot rod, etc) is gone and Justin found a car that I am loving so far!  It is a Lexus 250h Hybrid and it is a nice ride. We plan to have this car for at least a couple of years, and I am happy about that :)

I am slowly working on Rhett's 1 year post and hope to have it up soon. We are so amazed at some of the things that he has been doing lately and it seems he learns something new every day! We have had major steps forward in the eating departement. I hope to be able to get his one year post up this week!

Jackson is doing great and I will work on a post about him soon, but I did want to write this down so I dont forget. Tonight while I was walking out of his room after tucking him in, he called me back in for a minute. He said "Mommy I think you are so beautiful and pretty and I love you so much". Then he grabbed me and hugged me really tight and gave me a big kiss. I love and cherish these moments so much. I love that sweet boy so much!