Toddlering at 13 Months

Sander has been doing so many new things in the last two weeks so I hope I am remembering everything here. One of my favorite things he does is blow out of his cute lips as if he is cooling some food off when we do it for him. In fact, tonight, when I said he would have to wait because his food was too hot he blew on his own without me signaling. It is amazing how much babies take in at this age and understand - I constantly remind myself he understands more that I think. He signed for fan for the first time yesterday. We have a fan going in the bedroom for white noise and we have to talk about it every night when I put him to bed. He looks at it, makes his gargle sound, points at it and smiles.

Sander has been standing for several seconds at a time and he has taken one step here and there. We think walking is right around the corner. Lucy started walking at about 13.5 months and he seems to be following in her shoes. He enjoys pushing Lucy around in the doll stroller, it is hilarious!

Sander LOVES his dada. He waves his arms up and down when he sees dada, cries when he leaves for work or even when he leaves the room, and wants to be held by him every time he gets home from work, immediately, or intense shrieking occurs. Sander still says "deh" for dog and is now saying "teh" for cat. He will baby sign for any animal with the sing for dog by panting. So adorable. He makes a cute sound that is hard to spell out when he tries to say "quack quack quack", it is somewhat of a gurgle. Sometimes when I am attempting to put Sander down to sleep he abruptly sits up post-nursing, giggles and does raspberries somewhere on me. He loves being super silly. It runs in the family. Anyway, this is typically a cue that sleep is not going to happen any time soon. He will point to the door, bounce and make a cute sound that says he wants to go play. Usually he wins.

I wrote the above post last night before Sander turned 13 month old. Today he started walking right as we were getting ready to head out to Hermit Island, ME! It was quite an exciting and happy distraction.

Our Baby Boy Turns One!

Already! Our sweet Sander is one. He is such a sensitive little guy and so active. He can't decide if he wants to be held all the time or crawl and scale walls. He has been walking holding into things and getting around quite well. Sander has been doing yoga down dogs and looking between his legs while laughing hysterically. This is definitely my favorite trick of his.  It is even better when his sister joins in and we all hurt from laughing afterward. While there are no new exact words such as his "Da-Da" and "Ma-Ma" he has been saying "Deh" and pointing to the dogs when they are around. It is pretty cute. 

He weighs in at 15 pounds 6 ounces and is 29" tall. Long and lean!

Lucy had just gotten over the chicken pox just in time for Sander's 1st birthday bash. Nono and Pop-pop came up to celebrate. We had a good time.

Mama and the birthday boy.

Dada and the birthday boy with sun in his eyes. 

These two!

Nono and Pop-Pop

Lucy spent some time pulling Sander around in a sled in the yard. He giggled and love it. They even went downhill.

Always tapping on things these days.

A pull-bunny from mom and dad.

Proud Bob-Bob and Lyn-Lyn

Playing put-the-rock-in-the-hole together. This actually lasted about ten minutes!

The birthday bunch

A peach-blueberry crisp was enjoyed by all.

Ten Months Old and Cruisin'

Is someone teething?

Sander got a his first shiner just in time for his ten-month-old photo.

Sander crawls so fast and with such determination these days. If he is interrupted he is not too pleased. The funny thing is I don't even know which fall or bonk caused his black eye. The little guy is fearless. I believe part of it is that he wants to keep up with Lucy.

Lucy enjoys reading to Sander.

Sander tries to get at the pages, he gets excited by all the animals.

She really enjoys being able to do things for Sander.

We went to visit Uncle Chris in Boston for a few days while Dada stayed behind to get some work done. It was a lot of fun. The car ride actually went really well and I had a relaxing trip down there with happy kids in the back seat, amazing.

Waiting for Uncle Chris to get home!

At the Rox Diner

Sander's first time on a swing. He loved it!
Lucy is in the background way up in the air.

Swinging is so much fun.

Lucy drew a portrait of Sander on the fridge at home.

We had a much needed family day together a few days later and we all went swimming. Sander had SO much fun. This baby is definitely not afraid of the water!

Family swim day.

He's kicking so much and bouncing and splashing.

Our Sweet 9 Month Old

This sweet Sander is one busy guy. He works so hard crawling around and voicing his opinion about it. It's hard to believe we've already hit the 9-month mark, time has flown by.

Sander's two newest tricks are clapping (he started about two weeks ago) and saying "dada" which comes out like deh-deh. It is pretty cute. Still a squealer and getting louder each day my mind whirls wondering what Sander will be like at 2 and 3. What fun! He also loves to crawl to Canute or Oliver and rest his head (almost in a head-butting but sweet way) on their fur to snuggle. It is adorable. Oliver doesn't stick around long but Canute just hangs out. Sander really loves animals and other babies. He will squeal with laughter when he see pictures of them in books or in real life.

Sander is 8 Months Old!

This is when I want things to slow down! Only a few more months and Sander will already be one year old!!! He is such a sweet and sensitive little baby and we all love him to pieces. Those big blue eyes charm us each day, especially when accompanied by his hilarious giggle. His latest consistent sound he enjoys making is of the letter G. We think he is trying to say dog because he makes it most often around dogs. Sander still combat crawls VERY quickly all over the place. The little guy rarely stops moving and he is strong!

The Seven Month Old Charmer

All bundled up for play time in the snow.

This little guy weighs in at a whopping 13 pounds 4 ounces! He's such a little peanut.

Full of smiles, grunts, drools and cuteness, Sander melts our hearts. 

Speaking of hearts, he tugs on mine every time he says "mama" which is his latest new skill.

At seven months Sander is combat crawling and rolling everywhere...and he gets into everything. Everything then goes into his mouth.

Mama and Sander take a break while watching Lucy play in the snow.

Lucy and Sander's first time sledding together.

weeeeeeee!

At the bottom of the hill. Canute was very excited.

Sander likes to inspect food, suck on it, smear it around, and sometimes eat it. In a desperate attempt to enjoy and relax while eating my own steak dinner with both arms free, I handed Sander a big strip of porterhouse steak. He was al over it! Needless to say this kept our little guy busy and happy during dinner and beyond.

Checking out the steak.

Check out the two finger technique!

Here are a couple of videos taken the morning of Sander's seventh month. It is hard to get solo videos so he can show his stuff but I have to say, it is so precious to watch videos of both Lucy and Sander together.

6 Months Old!

It's hard to believe that Sander is already 6 months old! I want to push the stop button and enjoy this babyhood for longer. It is such a fun age. Plus, I know this is the calm before the storm. While Sander cannot crawl yet, this baby likes to move. He moves nonstop. I can only imagine what our world will be like when Sander is on the move!

Canute loves these kids so much.

Sibling love.

So Sander now weighs 13 pounds, he is 27.5 inches long and his head is 18 inches. 

He is in the 7th percentile for weight, 70th percentile for length and 85th percentile for head. He has just recently started trying bits of frozen or fresh food in a mesh bag. His latest was blueberries and they were a hit.

Trying some frozen blueberries from Knoll Farm. Sander thought they were delightful.

As you can see Sander was moving too fast to get a clear shot. He flaps his arms around and laughs quite a bit, it's great.

Sander pretty much moves nonstop if he is awake. He also loves to laugh. I think one of Sander's favorite activities is getting put on the changing table (he instantly starts laughing and squealing), getting his clothes and diapers changed, and getting pampered and cleaned up in general. The laughing and squealing is hilarious. We all laugh with him because it is so very contagious. What a fun little guy. He gets frustrated when he is playing and drops something. He loves stuffed animals and has taken to a couple of Lucy's - she actually is really good about letting him play with them.

Inside a round tumbling mat at the gymnastics academy. Lucy asked to have their photo taken.

Yesterday we took a walk down the road, as we do most days, and Lucy came up with a new song. Sander thought it was the best thing he heard all day (as did I) and you can see his reaction below. Having two kids is constant entertainment.