2016- My Baby's 13!

Man, the second half of December really was jam-packed.

A couple days after we got back from Alabama, I turned 30!  While we were chomping down on pizza Atticus had his first encounter with a lemon:

 Poor little guy!

Then, on Christmas Eve, we celebrated Dane's Aunt Lori's birthday with a breakfast.  Atticus got in some quality Great-Grandma time:

That night we had such a sweet experience.  We ate our traditional New Mexican beans, chili, and homemade tortillas and then went through an inspiring Christmas program that Marti had put together.

Christmas morning was magical.  It was the whitest Christmas we've ever had here in Utah (since I've lived here, anyway!)  and we headed over to Grandma Marti and Grandpa Bob's house for breakfast.  Sitting under the tree was the most adorable little airplane.  

Atticus was ecstatic.  He still is!

We even saw Santa & Mrs. Clause on the road.  I guess they were visiting family here in Utah, now that Santa's big job was over.

Later that day, we spent some quality time with the Brough clan, and sang some carols with Grandpa Dan.  Couldn't ask for much more than that!

It was a very Merry, White Christmas!

On New Year's Day we were able to get together with the Maes family and Atticus got to meet the second Great-Grandchild, Everest Jackson.

In the midst of all of these get-togethers, the adventures continued...

Adventures in dressing... (this was not posed, people!)  :)

Adventures in speaking...

(This just might be Atticus's first word: "Baba" -his way of saying "Papa"?  Then again, he says this a lot, often in reference to his bottles and binkies...)

He's also saying "Woah!" and working with his Rs a lot.

 Adventures around the house...

Adventures in walking...

Whew!  What a workout...

And just growing up!  He is waving now- it is the cutest thing across a crowded room or when he beckons us to come and chase after him.

I swear he gets more ticklish every day (sometimes the palms of his hands are ticklish!  I didn't know that was a thing!)

Yep.  We love our little Hulkster.  And he loves us!- Most of the time, anyway...

And now he's 13 months!  As if he knew it was his 13 month birthday, Atticus, for the first time ever, slept 11.5 hours in his cribs.  No crying.  No feeding.  I could cry from happiness.

Now we have to sleep train Momma so she can learn how to sleep again, ha ha!  

The Party...er, Parties...

Well, Atticus kind of had two birthdays.  The first was on Thursday with his Grandma Marti (Grandpa Bob has been sick! :(  )

Here he is opening his first gifts:

A little later the little guy got to eat spaghetti.  Any. Way. He. Wanted.  I guess it could have been messier.  Right?  

  Maybe not...

Then, on Sunday, we got together with some of the Brough clan to eat some good food and watch him eat some cake.

Trouble was, he didn't eat any cake!-  Not a bite!  Only a teensy bit of the frosting.  

Strange boy... :)

But he sure had fun throwing it around and getting it on my mom's dog, Marley.

He got absolutely spoiled with presents!  

 Thank you, everyone!

Our dear's a year!

And, like that, a year has passed.

Well, first things first.  We got the grin!

It's actually been pretty easy catching our little guy's cheesy grins.  He flashes them at us all the time.  And these smiles aren't just for people!- All of his favorite inanimate objects get the smile, as well: the blinds, the computer, the vacuum, the stairs, wind, and just about any phone...

Early on this month he started trilling with his tongue.  I have yet to catch it on film, but you can rest assured that he'll be able to speak Spanish.  Well, he'll be able to roll his R's, anyway.

Holy smokes!  This boy sure keeps us on our toes.  This kid gets around!  He's constantly moving around the house, checking things out, and pulling things down.  No steps or standing, as of yet, but we're in no hurry.

Now that it's Christmas time, Atticus has a whole host of decor to dismantle.  The miniature reindeers' eyes were gone within the first hour!  Ha ha, we definitely have to be selective in what we display, but it's worth it to see how much enjoyment he gets.  

He, by far, gets the biggest kick out of pulling down our stockings along the stairway.  I love our epic, ongoing battle as he pulls them down and we put them back up.  The little imp gives us the most adorable smile whenever we catch him going for the stockings!

Let's see...  A first this month was snow!  He was thrilled to see the flakes fluttering down.

 This snowfall didn't last long, but it was only a couple weeks before we were able to genuinely play in the snow!

He even got a taste of sledding-

What with the colder weather, we're starting to get cabin fever over here (and winter's just beginning!  Oh my!)  Thank goodness we have Thanksgiving Point's Museum of Curiosity just down the road.
It's funny though.  Atticus was absolutely frozen the first few times we went- overwhelmed by the numbers of people.  This is what he mostly did...

 Our last time, however, he really started going to town.  He even tried the slide! (with some help, of course...)

 And then he found some screens that light up.  The boy was hooked.  Um, yes, thank you.  Screens do happen to be my son's all-time obsession...  Oh, boy are we in trouble as he gets older!

 We've had more quality time with both Grandma Toni (Look!  Their coats happen to match!  This was not planned, people...)

and Grandma Marti

Atticus actually had his first guys' day out with Grandpa Bob and his dad.  You'll neeever guess what kind of restaurant they went to or what food he ate (beans and tortillas- it's a Maes thing).

Yep.  Never a dull moment with this kid.

We love his baby jokes (he's been playing hide and seek and peek-a-boo for a while and now he's been trying to "feed" and "soothe" us with his food and binkie.  He thinks it's hilarious.)

And we're pleasantly surprised by that palate of his (the kid LOVES curry and has a penchant for pickles!)  While it can be frustrating to have him deny almost any baby food (or spoons, for that matter!) it is fun to see him eagerly try anything and everything that's on our plates.

 Unfortunately, we won't be able to celebrate his birthday today, but we'll party it up in a couple of days.  In the meantime, let's hear it for the boy!  (I may or may not have that song stuck in my head for the next week...)

Atticus in his old man hat, courtesy of his Aunt Laurel and the Laney Crew.

Eleven like Heaven

Hooray!  It's November.  Another month and this little boy will be a solid year.  Is that even possible?!

This month has been so much fun!  We got over the "getting back down" hurdle early on, so this little boy is constantly standing up and down against pretty much any surface he can find.  His favorite, of course, are the legs of any unsuspecting person he can get his little hands on.

Yay!  He also started crawling on his knees earlier this month.  Hooray!  He just keeps getting faster.  It is so fun to see his personality (and mood!) come out in the ways he crawls.  When he gets a look of determination on his face, I could swear he's goose stepping over to me ("Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you!")  He also has his playful crawl, usually accompanied by grins over his shoulder as he tries to run away.  There is, of course, his sad or fussy crawl accompanied by a generous dose of whimpering.  Then, another favorite, is his tired crawl where he slowly makes his way in random patterns, making screechy noises ("I'm having so much fun and oh, no, I'm not at all tired) and rests his head every so often.

Now that November has made its appearance, so has colder weather!  I guess we couldn't avoid it forever.  Atticus is loving the fallen leaves, but we have to be careful or else every leaf in sight goes in his mouth (Hence the binkie!) 

Boo!  An unfortunate milestone took place early this month when I was walking with a friend.  I had not buckled him in to the stroller (I know- terrible decision!- I gave in to "baby pressure"!)  Atticus arched his way out and went right onto the road.  His poor little chin was bleeding, and one of his teeth looked loose.  Oh, how I worried.  Thank goodness these little guys are so tough.  He had a couple other bruises, but, thank goodness, they healed very quickly.  Still, it was a good lesson for this new momma.  No more giving in to baby pressure!   

 We're still lovin' bath time with this sweet, handsome little man.  He has had a rash on his tummy, though, which has had us a little worried.  Probably just the changing season...

 We also celebrated Atticus's very first Halloween!  We had big plans to take him out and about, but ended up sticking around at Grandma Toni's, instead.

 Here's our lame attempt to dress up as Jurassic World.  Atticus is a Dinosaur Expedition Team member (compliments of Grandma Toni- the day he was born, I might add!), Dane dressed as Owen Grady and I'm a bangless Claire Dearing. :)  Ah, well.  We tried!

 Though we didn't go out on Halloween, we did ventured out with Atticus a few days before for some tame trick or treating at the Traverse Outlets.  He LOVED watching all of the kids passing him by.

 Before all of that excitement, however, we've spent plenty of time at Grandma Toni's,

 And we've spent plenty of time with Grandma Marti and Grandpa Bob.  Bob loves to have Atticus "play" the piano.  He's quite the prodigy!

They both have October birthdays, so Atticus had a great time helping them open presents.

We've also been able to make it over to Farm Country a few more times.  Thankfully, he's now starting to take more interest in the animals (especially the ducks.) Our first visit he seemed to only care about putting his mouth on the fences and bars.  Did I mention that these fences are pretty much all covered in savory farm animal substances?... Bleh!  

 .

But my favorite development of all has got to be his new smile.  Just on Sunday (Nov. 1) he started smiling with squinty eyes.  It is the most adorable thing.  Hopefully we'll catch him at it one of these days.