I had no idea what was in store when I became a mother a year ago.

I still remember all the emotions leading up to the day-the shock, the excitement, the fear, the love. George has been an unpredictable surprise in our life since we found out about him. And his entrance into the world was anything but normal. It seems like it was just yesterday the doctor was telling me we were having this baby today, and here we are a year later with a little boy that you would never know was a month early and spent some time in the NICU.

I just can’t believe how fast it went.

But here we are, on his first birthday.

I feel so lucky to be his mom and to guide him as he grows. (As daunting as it may seem some days…) We have all changed so much in the last 12 months.

His sweet face just makes my heart explode every day.

Weight: He is somewhere around 24 lbs. (I will update his height and weight next week when he has his 1 year check up.)

Health:  His teeth fully broke through this month, so we have 6 teeth (four on top and two on bottom). He has had a runny nose for the last week and has been all over the place with sleep, so I wonder if another is coming. He had a weird rash one night too that we think was due to teething. Little man also got his first black eye this month thanks to trying to stand in the bath tub. It was awful. Honestly though, I am surprised that he doesn’t have more bruises with the amount of falling that is occurring. He wants to go every where and climb everything but still doesn’t have the stability to do so. So there have been some bumps and tears.

Diet: He still has a love affair with his food, so much so that he tries to rub it into his belly like it is lotion. He only has two 6oz formula bottles a day (morning and right before bed). At his one year check up, we will talk over how to do that transition away from formula because he still seems like he needs it. He has three traditional meals a day, and several snacks throughout. His favorite foods are blueberries, bananas, beans, pasta, and oatmeal. Anything covered in cheese or tomato sauce is a win. We do have to be strategic on the order of food we give him. If we give him carbs before fruits or veggies, he won’t eat anything else. Also if he sees us with carbs and he still only has fruit, he will just protest and refuse to eat. So he usually starts eating his fruits while we are cooking dinner to avoid it. I have started trying to teach him how to scoop and spear food, but he always tries to turn the spoon like a baton which makes the food fall off on the floor. He doesn’t spit up as much, but we still have some days where his whole bottle comes back up. Now that he has more teeth we have been giving him different textures and things that need more chewing to see how he does. Some things are still off limits because of the choking hazard, but for the most part he eats what we eat.

Clothes:  He is wearing 9 month clothes and some 9-12 month. We have gotten a lot of comments lately about him being huge, but he still can’t wear 12 month clothes consistently, so he must be average if not smaller.

Sleeping:  For the most part, he is sleeping from 7:30/8pm until 5am, give or take some minutes. We have had some glorious days where he has slept until 6:30. And we have also had some not so hot days where he thinks 4am is an appropriate time to get up. When George sleeps, he is a roamer. He never stays in the same place when he sleeps; he rolls over every inch of that crib. He does go down pretty easy. If he doesn’t fall asleep right when I put him down, usually he just talks himself to sleep within a few minutes. He still is taking two naps a day. Until we see a big affect on his night time sleep, we will keep this up!

Likes: Food is still the closest to his heart. He loves to be moving. He does not like to be sitting anymore. He will work himself into a standing position if he can. He loves to carry things around. He mostly carries books around, but there are some toys he likes to carry. He also loves carrying his food tray around the kitchen. He will pull it off his high chair and carry it around like it is a briefcase. He loves books. His favorites are the “That’s Not My” collection from Usborne. These are a great touch and feel book. I also like that they are board books, so really they are only destroyed when he tries to eat them. We are going to double his collection for his birthday. They are the greatest books for his age! And they fit perfectly in our diaper bag so we always have one. He is really fond of remotes and knows how to turn things on. I think it is more he knows which buttons light up, then knowing that it turns on the telly. If you saw my Instagram, you will notice that George loves the Macarena. I don’t know why I started doing this a few weeks ago; I think we were just playing one day and in my awkward baby talking moments it just came out of my head. It is one of his favorite things now, so we just roll with it. He laughs so ridiculously hard when we do it, and I laugh because a baby doing the Macarena is the best. He also loves drumming on the toilet seat. It is his thing before he gets in the bathtub to bang on the seat and try to flush the toilet. Whatever floats your boat bud. He also loves to try to sneak the dog food into his mouth. He has almost gotten away with it a couple times. I have had to dig out dog food out of his mouth. He is quick! He also love to try to eat the acorns off the deck. He is going to be really good at “I Spy.” He loves his cousin Ava. Watching her be silly is one of his favorite things.

Dislikes: (Apparently Dad’s finger puppet shows…) He is not liking hearing “no.” He still is not fond of the car. Hopefully our 5 hour drive to Iowa on Friday goes smoothly…He does not like it when we take things like remotes and tennis shoes from him. He HATES getting dressed and diaper changes. It is a wrestling match. It may take me awhile, but I always win.

Milestones: His walking is getting really good. You can tell he is trying to run too, because he does this weird hop step when he is trying to walk to fast. He has started pointing. I am not sure he is purposely pointing at a specific thing but he does point his finger. It is so cute! He went to the zoo and the lake for the first time. He seemed uninterested in the animals, so maybe next summer we will see more from him. He also was NOT a fan of the lake water, and was super happy to just stay on the boat. We are going to try a pool for the first time this weekend, so hopefully it is not all bodies of water that he hates.

Quirks: He is oh so sassy. He is Mr. Independent and loves to explore despite what may be safe. He is fitting “Curious George” to a T. He has this grunt that makes him sound like a gurgling goat. He pretty much needs to be holding something at all times, whether that is a toy or my glasses, whatever he can get those little chunky fingers around with his death grip.

We parents are:  doing well. We have been busy with house stuff. School started up this week, and Tom is officially on the road by himself so it has been busy work wise as well. Tom has been on days this month so it has been really nice to be on the same schedule for once. We are getting some great family time in. We also finally got our living room furniture so we can actually hang out comfortably which is life changing. Also we are constantly being tested because George is in this discovery stage and wants to push his limits. He also doesn’t really understand no, so our patience is being pushed.

The dogs are: doing great. They are loving their yard. We are also able to leave them in the basement while we are gone, which is such a godsend. They have windows and a sofa and lots of space to circle around, and I don’t have to worry about them getting into any of our nice stuff upstairs. They are also loving on George a lot. George feeds them regularly so they obviously love that. (He tries to find them when we are at restaurants, and will bend over in his chair trying to find Crosby’s head.) George loves to crawl over them too. I have caught him snuggling up on them when he is super tired too.

George, we just love you so much. You have changed our lives in ways we just couldn’t comprehend, and we just love you for it. You have a tremendously large personality that we can’t wait to see you develop even more in the upcoming year.

Happy birthday my stinker-man!

I have so many pictures to share to celebrate his first year that we have taken over the last couple weeks.

What are your bets on how George reacted to cake when we let him loose on it?