Grayson's 15 Month Update!

Hey everyone! Long time, no blog. Life has been crazy for the past few months and I haven't been able to blog as much. The Gale household has been very busy and in the next few weeks, I'll be able to share some of the goings on with you. For now, I wanted to do an update on Grayson. For those of you who don't care to read these type of updates, I'm sorry. In all honesty, half of the reason I write them is for myself. He has changed so much in the past few months and I feel like if I don't document it, then I'll quickly forgot all his little habits and quirks that I so dearly love and define the stage he is in. Yes, I'm that obsessed mother and I'm perfectly okay with it. Grayson has been an awesome toddler so far and we are loving this new phase of life with him. I'm excited to share with you all the new and exciting things happening in our lives starting with this toddler update! :)

Height & Weight: Grayson went to his 15 month check-up last week and was 30.5 inches tall and 23 lbs. 4.5 oz. Poor thing is pretty small in both categories (30th percentile), but Josh and I are both small people, so I guess there's no shock he won't be a linebacker! ;) I do think he might have been wiggling too much during his height check because all his pants are way shorter, so it definitely seems like he's grown more than a half an inch. He also gained almost 2 lbs. since his 12 month check-up. Either way, he's growing and healthy! :)

 

Feeding: Grayson's eating habits have changed a lot in the past few months. He is no longer spoon-fed purees, but is able to eat everything on his own. He does a great job picking up small pieces of food and feeding himself! (Something I stressed about him not doing often right at 12 months) For the most part, his eating habits have really improved. He started eating much more and a larger variety right after his first birthday. With that being said, he still has days where he doesn't eat much at all and when he is teething (he cut 5 teeth recently), he barely eats. Can't blame him there. Grayson eats breakfast around 9 am, lunch after his first nap (around 1-2), dinner around 6, and a few small snacks in between. He still LOVES whole milk...more than any kid I've ever seen. He goes through a gallon of milk on his own in about 5 days. Crazy! He has about 4 cups of milk each day and gulps them down in one sitting. He is also obsessed with his "milk cup" which is a Ninja Turtles cup and would prefer to drink everything out of it if I didn't have to wash it once in a while. Grayson's favorite foods right now are Lil' Crunchies, yogurt, yogurt bites, eggs, cheese, grapes, hot dogs, peanut butter, graham crackers, most meat and blueberries. He also loves eating whatever Josh and I are eating (we end up sharing most things), so he gets in a lot of "real" food that way. He seems to really love snack food, but is doing better eating more substantial food. He still loves his straw sippy cups and really likes water. And yes, he loves sweets. What child doesn't? ;)

 

Sleeping: Grayson has been sleeping like a CHAMP! I am so proud of him. He sleeps through the night consistently and has since his first birthday. I don't know exactly what happened, but right around when he turned 1, he just started sleeping so much better. I think some kids just take longer to get that point, but once they do, they are golden. :) He goes to bed without a fuss and stays in his crib, asleep, all night. It's amazing! Most nights he sleeps 11-12 hours straight. If he does wake up, I give him a cup of milk or water and he goes back to sleep immediately. Thankfully, that has become rare and not the norm. Grayson goes to bed between 830-9pm and wakes up between 8-9am. He's a great napper and is in the awkward 2 to 1 nap transition. Depending on the day, he takes 1-2 naps. On the days he has MMO, he only takes 1 nap. Other days, he takes 2. Most days he can survive on 1, but other days he really needs 2. We are still in that transition and it just depends on the day. In general, I feel like he sleeps much better because he is SO active. He doesn't sit down from the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to bed. He is running around every single second and he is exhausted by the end of each day. I definitely think that contributes to the major improvement in sleeping!

 

Clothes: Grayson is still in a size 5 diaper and size 18 month clothing. I just went through all his winter and spring clothing and put away his winter clothes (12 month clothes). We are now in 18 month clothes! Which is crazy to me...sounds so big!

 

Mood: Grayson is such a blast! He is a very happy child for the most part. He can be moody and opinionated as well, but still laughs and giggles constantly. It's so easy to get a smile out of him. Grayson is very silly and goofy. He knows when things are funny or silly and cracks up! He understands jokes and playing around much more now and is constantly messing around and being silly. He loves to pretend to give Cedric a treat then at the last minute yank it away....trickster! Grayson also thinks it's absolutely hilarious to put a diaper on your head....or on Cedric's head! We have way too much fun in our house....anything to make your child laugh! ;) Grayson is very chatty and always talking...his vocabulary grows each week! He is very independent these days and wants to do most things himself. He knows what he wants and what he likes (and doesn't like) and will tell you! Especially because he can say "no!" now. :) That being said, he can also be shy and will cling to Josh and I's legs while meeting new people. He gets over it in about 2 seconds though and is back to his outgoing self. We found out that at school he is "quiet and observant" which surprised me a little bit. At home, he is a wild child, but I was happy to know he is well-behaved at school. I think some of it is that he's an only child and not used to being around other bigger kids all the time. He's so interested in them and everything they are doing! Grayson is cautious yet carefree which is an interesting dynamic. He loves to explore and is into everything not meant for babies. If it's dangerous in any way, he will find it. But he usually walks over and gives it to you...knowing he shouldn't have it! Grayson is still stubborn and persistent. He is super sweet these days and gives voluntary hugs and holds your hand. It melts my heart! Grayson constantly keeps me entertained and on my toes! He has a big personality and I love seeing it develop more and more!

Teeth: Grayson has 13 teeth! He cut 5 teeth in one week recently. It was a shock! It all happened around the time he had an ear infection, so I just contributed his fussiness and fever to that. He's never had a fever while teething before, but this time it hit 104. He felt terrible and now I know why! He doesn't let me in his mouth nowadays, so it's hard to tell when he's getting teeth. He got all 4 new molars and a front incisor tooth right around the same time. He feels SO much better now! Hopefully he is done getting new teeth for a while!

Milestones: Grayson does a million new things. Every day he learns something new! I love this age because you can really see them understand concepts and watch their little brains grow each day. Grayson can now follow directions and understands what you are talking about and telling him to do. He knows how to close doors when asked, throw his diaper in the trash, dance on command, and understands let's go outside or bye-bye and heads straight for the door. He climbs the stairway like a pro and has learned to climb up onto the couch by himself. He knows the words....uh-oh, bye-bye, ball, mama, dada, car, Cedric, puppy, and when I count to one, he then says "twoooo". He knows how to say the word, "I" and points to himself. When you ask him what sound a lion or a tiger makes, he goes, "Rawrrr!". He knows where his feet, head, nose, belly button, and knees are. He also makes weird noises all the time...such a boy! ;) Every mama says this about their child, but Grayson is becoming a little smarty pants and I'm so proud of him! It's so fun to watch him learn and grow! As far as mobility goes, he basically runs everywhere at this point! We are way beyond the cruising and taking steps phase, Grayson is on the move! It's crazy to think he's been walking for 6 months now! But when I see him running around, I'm reminded of how far he's come. He's no longer a baby, but a little boy....a very busy little boy!

Loves: Grayson's current favorite thing to do is go outside. Now that it's spring, we spend the majority of our time in our backyard playing and exploring. Grayson also loves the park, slides, and swings. Grayson still loves dogs and animals. Our dog, Cedric, and Grayson are best friends! He is always on the go, constantly moving and running around. He does love to read books which has been a fun change in the past few months. Grayson loves to climb and has even climbed out of his high chair recently! (I now understand why every baby product has straps on it!) He loves sitting in anyone's lap and will just plop down on you without warning. He also loves sitting up on the couch with you and jumping all over the couch like a monkey! Loves throwing the ball (correction: throwing everything) and drumming on everything! Grayson still loves music and dancing. He loves helping mommy and daddy with anything we are doing and wants to be a part of whatever that is....including partaking in anything we are eating. Still loves technology and power tools! He is obsessed with the vacuum cleaner and the lawn mower. Grayson also calls everyone "Mama". That's what he says when he wants something or needs something. It's almost like what he says when he's whining, but Josh particularly dislikes constantly being called "Mama"! I personally think it's funny ;) Although Grayson is definitely in a Daddy phase and is obsessed with his Daddy. Mommy is fine, but Daddy is where it's at! Grayson gets very upset when Josh leaves nowadays and basically can't control his excitement when Daddy comes home! Another funny thing that Grayson does right now is put everything on his head and walk around. It cracks me up! We have so many funny pictures of Grayson walking around with random objects on his head.
 

Dislikes: Grayson really isn't the biggest fan of bath time or I should say he hates having his hair and body washed! It always ends in tears. Grayson also doesn't like having his hair cut. We end up having to hold him down by the end of the experience just so they can finish the haircut. He's going to have to get over that since his hair grows like a weed (3 haircuts already)! He still hates getting his diaper or clothes changed. He doesn't have time to interrupt his busy playing schedule!

 

Things I want to remember:

Grayson's 3rd Haircut: He hated it, but really enjoyed his first lollipop afterwards.

Easter: We had a busy day of church and an Easter lunch with family! Grayson also participated in his first Easter egg hunt this year. He was much more interested in wearing the bucket on his head than hunting eggs, but it was still an exciting first! I was so bummed we didn't get a picture with the Easter bunny. Unfortunately, we spent the Saturday morning we were supposed to do that rushing to the pediatrician's office to try to get Grayson some medicine. He felt awful that day! Life with a child....never goes as planned! I think I was more upset about not getting to meet the Easter bunny than he was! ;)

 

 

 

Grayson's 12 Month Update!

Grayson is officially a year old! What an amazing year it's been. I can't believe we are entering into toddlerhood! I can say that this month was completely different than previous months and I could really see Grayson changing and coming into a whole new phase of life. Every age is fun, but he is at an especially fun age right now! And I am getting my workout in chasing after him, as he is into everything. This is the last monthly update I plan on doing until he is 18 months old. Sad, but I'm so happy to have documented these last 12 months in such detail. I already love looking back on them! We survived the first year -- and our child is happy, healthy, and extremely loved -- we did it!

Height & Weight: Grayson went to the pediatrician recently, so we have some up-to-date measurements! Grayson is 30 inches tall (57th percentile) and 21 lbs. 11.7 oz. (33rd percentile). He has gained weight (2 lbs.) and grown (1 inch) since his last appointment, so that's always encouraging to see! Since Grayson can be a fussy eater, I sometimes I worry about this weight, but he is a healthy and growing child! :)

Breastfeeding: The biggest adjustment with feeding this month is that Grayson is no longer breastfed and is strictly a whole milk drinker. At the beginning of the month, we were going to try out whole milk and slowly transition him. Well, the boy loves whole milk. He took to it immediately and would literally chug it out of his straw sippy cup. We went from 3 breast milk feedings a day to 1 nighttime feeding very quickly. He really had no interest in me (as far as breastfeeding) during the day and was completely content with his whole milk. Luckily, he also really loves his straw sippy cups, so I believe that has helped a lot. The only breast milk feeding left was the 1 during the night. I felt like I had tried everything and we just couldn't cut it. At that point, I was only feeding him once every 24 hours though, so my supply had really dropped. We went out of town for Christmas and Grayson slept through the night (hallelujah!), so I decided that was the night to end it. He didn't breastfeed that night and I wasn't going to start up again after 48 hours without breast milk (assuming he would want to feed the next night). I will say the transition hasn't been nearly as rough as I thought it would be! There have been a few nights that were tough, but now he will take a sippy cup of milk or water during the night. He's also slept through the night more often recently, so that definitely helps! For more details on ending my breastfeeding journey, click on the link below!
http://brittanyhgale.blogspot.com/2015/12/i-make-milk-whats-your-superpower.html

Feeding: As far as regular food goes, he cut back on eating as many solids this month. Not exactly sure why (I do think he's getting his molars), but he just hasn't been eating as much and has been a little more picky. Grayson has never been the best eater and while that can be frustrating, I always tell myself that he is growing and healthy, so that's all that matters. He still prefers to be spoon-fed purees and isn't the biggest fan of texture. He will typically just spit it out if there's much texture! This makes me laugh because for months Grayson wouldn't open his mouth for a spoon. He wanted to be independent and do it himself, but he was a little too young at the time. Now that he finally spoon- feeds well, he won't do anything else! Oh sweet child of mine ;) He does okay with finger foods and generally does like being spoon-fed table food. He usually wants and is really interested in what mom and dad are eating! As far as self-feeding and finger food goes, I don't think it's that he doesn't know how to pick things up and feed himself as much as he just doesn't want to. If you give him something sweet and put it on his plate, he will pick it up and feed himself with no problem. If you give him anything else, he plays with it and then throws it on the floor. We are still working on self-feeding and eating more regular food by himself, but I'm trying not to stress over it. He always gets around to doing everything eventually -- just in his own time and his own way! The few finger foods he enjoys are shredded cheese, puffs, eggs, yogurt melts, and crackers. He has begun feeding himself with a spoon on his own. This process is very messy and he doesn't always get a lot in his mouth, but he's doing really well with it. He always says "mmmm!" after every bite :) His current favorite foods are yogurt, peanut butter, bananas, cheese, chicken, pasta, hummus, avocado, and whole milk! Grayson eats 3 meals a day and maybe a small snack. He seems to do well when you offer him something small every few hours as opposed to 3 large meals...his tummy is still tiny!

Sleeping: Sleep has been a game changer this month! Grayson was still getting up once a night for the most part after I stopped breastfeeding (something that he has done consistently for months). We were offering him water or whole milk, rocking him, and then putting him back to sleep. Within a week or two, he started sleeping through the night!!! I've waited a whole year to be able to say that! He started off sleeping from like 830pm-630am without waking and recently has been sleeping from 9p-8a without waking, which is just about perfect. We've also had a few very busy weeks, so I know he's exhausted! He is also walking full-time now which I know wears him out. He is literally moving every second of the day that he is awake. I can barely pin him down for a diaper change or a meal. I'm sure this is contributing to him being exhausted at the end of each day and sleeping much harder. His nap schedule is all over the place which is one of the new changes I was referring to. Our schedule has been so out of whack because of the holidays, but he also just hasn't been napping as much. If it means that he sleeps better at night, I'm all for it! He rarely takes 2 naps a day and is down to 1 nap a day at this point. And this nap isn't terribly long. Maybe 2 hours max. Grayson recently learned how to stand up in his crib, so that's been somewhat of a challenge. We immediately lowered his mattress, but he can still stand and wants to play instead of sleep. He is so very distracted at this age, so nap time is a lot more challenging. He rarely even sleeps in the car which used to always put him out. Some days, I just put him down in his crib and he has "quiet time" for a while instead of napping. He loves his sippy cup and will just lay there drinking his water and relaxing for like 30 minutes. I'll think he's asleep and go in there and he's wide awake with his cup, but he is still getting some down time in. I'll be interested to see what his new schedule will look like, but I have a feeling we are in the process of transitioning to 1 afternoon nap a day! 

Clothes: Grayson is now in a size 5 diaper and size 12 month clothing. He is right on target with clothes and can even wear some 9 month pants -- the poor thing has short legs! I love dressing him up in little boy clothes though. The clothes are getting cuter and cuter as he gets older.

Mood: Grayson is just so silly these days...I absolutely love it! Josh and I were talking about how fun it is that he is starting to understand when things are funny or silly. We can joke around with him and play with him more which I love! He is so sweet -- gives lots of kisses and hugs, has started to willingly cuddle with you, loves to constantly babble and talk, enjoys exploring and is always into something -- curious about everything and anything (washing machine, vacuum cleaner, toilets, trash cans, dog food and water bowls, and plungers included), super smart, and very determined and stubborn. He still belly laughs like crazy and is full of so much personality and life! I think this has been one of my favorite parts of this year -- I love seeing his personality develop! I see certain parts of Josh and me, but he's also his own little person! Overall, he's a wonderful little boy and we are so thankful for all that he adds to our lives!

Teeth: Grayson still has 8 teeth, but he's been drooling a lot lately which is very unlike him, so I think he's working on those one year molars!

Milestones: Grayson is now pulling up and walking like a pro! He is extremely quick and is across a room in seconds. He is walking full-time now and rarely "crawls". As of a month ago, he could walk and army crawl, but he couldn't really pull up and transition well. Backwards order, I know. Now, he pulls up on everything quickly, goes from laying down to standing, and laying down to sitting. Once he discovered that using his knees was helpful, he began pulling up really well. He doesn't sit still anymore and I have to watch him like a hawk. Mobility has taken on a whole new meaning! I have literally lost him in our house. He walks away and I can't figure out what room he is in. We are entering a whole new world (one that may include baby gates very soon)! But it's also very fun to see him reach this milestone and it also gives my arms a break! He walks in public a lot now instead of being carried.

Loves: giving high 5's, dancing, anything musical, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Patty cake songs, animals, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, playing catch with a ball, being outside, playing the drums, anything do to with technology -- phones, remotes, and keys. Grayson isn't very interested in toys at this point and is much more interested in things he shouldn't be playing with. It's like he just knows what's dangerous -- the joys of having a little boy! He's rough, tough, likes to get dirty, and doesn't understand the concept of "gentle". He's not one to sit still and focus on something. He's always on the go! Grayson has recently being more interested in books which is really exciting! He has so many books, but never had enough patience to read them with me until recently. Grayson continues to love other kids! He especially gravitates toward older children and has a blast with our youth group. If he sees a child in public, he squeals with excitement! 

Things I want to remember:

-Meeting Santa -- Grayson absolutely hated meeting Santa which I completely expected! I felt terrible putting him into this random man's arms when he was clutching on to me for dear life, but it sure made for a funny photo! He was very interested in Santa from afar, but once we got close, he wanted no part of it! We also went to a really great Christmas lights display (which was where the Santa was) and he really liked that. Grayson loved all the lights, children, and activities. It was a really fun evening minus the scarring Santa experience! ;) 

-First Christmas -- Grayson's first Christmas was a lot of fun! Although he was almost a year old, he still had no idea what was going on, but it was exciting to start new traditions as a family of 3 this year. His favorite gift was probably his Ninja Turtle sippy cup with a straw -- it's also the "milk cup" and he's obsessed with it. We enjoyed days of celebrating with family, cousins, and church family during the Christmas Eve services. 

-First birthday -- Grayson's first birthday went really well! Of course, it was an emotional day for me, but he had a blast at his party! We had a Winter Onederland themed day for him and I felt accomplished after all the planning and preparation that went into it. I wanted his day to be perfect! We had close friends and family come to celebrate our little 1 year old and it was tons of fun! Although he didn't want anything to do with the cake smash which surprised to me! The ball pit was probably the highlight for most of the kids. Grayson is slowly becoming just one of the kids, as opposed to, the baby being held by mama in the corner. At one point, I looked over and all the kids were having this big battle with all the plastic balls and Grayson was right in there with everyone! He was running around and throwing balls and just grinning from ear to ear! I'm probably going to do a more detailed post on his birthday festivities sometime this month! 

Our lives have changed so much this year! We went from having a tiny, helpless baby to now having an independent toddler with his own personality and a completely different set of needs and wants. I love Grayson more than I could ever put into words and his first year of life has been amazing! Thank you for coming on this journey with me as I've navigated being a first-time mom! I've learned and grown so much this year and I have enjoyed sharing my journey and Grayson's first year with everyone!