From 12 mo to 15mo

In the beginning we measured your age by hours, then days, then weeks, then months.  Now the  mommy world says the important increments are every 3 months - so my blogposts are going to follow that trend.  Mostly because now you are moving so fast I can hardly keep up and have much less time then I did before!!  So much has happened over the last three months and I cringe a little every time I have to tell someone how old you are.

You are definitely a physical kid and all your milestones up until now were all about physical development, but now we are really starting to see your communication skills grow.  You have about a dozen words in your vocabulary with the most common being daddy (or dada), no, bird, ball, quack, and since we just had Christmas, hoho was also a favorite.   You are quite the babbler and will sit in the backseat and just go on and on!  I love it!!

You can now wave, clap, blow kisses, high five, and occasionally will throw up touchdown arms.  You are very regimented in your routine and know all about things like bath time, getting dressed, diaper changes, riding in the car, walking to and from the house, and going to school.   Even though you love your routine (and we could literally set a clock by you), you really do well on the weekends and when we visit Summerville.  We try hard to stick to your schedule, but you are pretty forgiving when we goof it up.

We've done a lot of visiting and driving throughout November  and December.  With the holidays and the loss of your great-grandma Kitty, you've spent a lot of time in Summerville.  Thanksgiving was kind of a bust since as soon as we got to Summerville I came down with the flu.  Thankfully you had gotten a flu shot and didn't ever get sick. You still enjoyed some time with both grandparents and were quite the piggy with all the yummy food.

Christmas was much better and we spent a full week visiting.  You had a great time seeing all your cousins, aunts and uncles and of course grandparents.  You really weren't that into opening presents this year - you preferred talking about Santa and just running around outdoors.   One of the highlights of the holiday was going to the James Island County Park Christmas lights - you absolutely loved it and had a great time seeing the lights and riding the carousel.  

As of this past week your stats are 31in tall and 22lbs.  (I think the height may be a little off since you wouldn't hold still to be measured accurately)  You are mostly wearing 18mo size clothes and your shoe size is a 4.  You have really shot up in height here recently ... maybe you won't be such a shorty after all!  We are officially down to just one nap a day from 1-3pm.   You still get a little crabby in the morning around 10am, but a snack and some elmo can fix that!  

You haver had four front teeth and four bottom teeth for quite awhile and now there are two bottom molars that are fully in and two top molars peaking through!  This is helpful for all the food you munch.  You are not at all a picky eater and I normally just fix you some bites of whatever we are eating.  It's hard to say what your favorites even are because you gobble up pretty much everything I put in front of you.  As soon as the food starts being donated to Logan, we know you're done.  You still love to drink milk and otherwise mostly just drink water and the occasional juice.

You love books, animals, sesame street videos, singing songs, and shooting basketball in your toy room.   Logan isn't a huge fan (except for at mealtime), so you don't often get to hug him - but you will pet, hug, and kiss any other animal that will let you!

We've given up on going to get haircuts and now I just snip the long pieces at night when you're sleepy.  You are so curious that it is next to impossible - so you mostly wear it pretty long and shaggy. 

Here is a quick collection from some various video shots:

Here are some of my favorite pictures from 12mo - 15mo:   

These are some of the GEMS from our Christmas Card Photo Shoot ...

Christmas 2012

Fun at the Park

Nightly tradition of naked catch me if you can before bathtime

James Island County Park Lights

Everybody Dance Now!!

Briggs has started dancing whenever he hears music!!

Enjoy this little gem...

Halloween 2012

Briggs LOVED his first real Halloween!  And of course, he was a cute little MONSTER!!

First Haircut

Briggs got his first haircut this month!

CRAZY CURLS

 

LITTLE MAN HAIRCUT

12 month

Happy Birthday Briggs!!  It has been an amazing and exciting year getting to know you and watching you grow from such a little baby into a big smiling boy!!

All along the way, you have hit us with surprises at every turn.  You started off with your 3 week early entrance and have kept us on our toes every moment!

Now that you are 1 you are walking, talking, and making everyone smile!  You are much more progressed in your physical development than verbal.  Although you do babble and make some words, you are much more interested in getting into things and are constantly on the move!  As of now, we have heard you say "momma", "dada", "dog", "whoa", "uh oh", and "ball".   You also have learned to shake your head no which is funny because you tuck your chin in shake that head back and forth!!  You sure know how to make people smile and love to laugh.  Everyone who meets you says you are just the happiest baby.  You really are a very happy fella, although we have seen the tears and tantrums too!

At your 12month appointment, you measured in at 21lbs, 7oz and were 28 3/4 inches long.  You are pretty average size fella.  Mostly you wear 12month clothes, but you can still fit into 9mo pants because you are fairly short.

You are a great eater and pretty much will eat anything I put in front of you.  You are definitely a meat eater and will choose to eat meat over fruits and veggies!   Some of your favorite foods are spaghetti, cherrios, bananas, yogurt, and animal crackers.   You've got eight teeth to help with chewing up all that yummy food and you are pretty darn good at feeding yourself.  It is easy to tell when you are done eating, you either start spitting food out OR start dropping it off of the high chair for Logan.  Keep that up and he'll be your best buddy in no time!!

You are drinking whole milk now and only take a bottle when it's nap or bedtime.  Otherwise you drink from a sippy cup and will guzzle water and milk.  Daddy likes to break the rules from time to time and give you sips of Tea or Sprite.  You even got a taste of Gatorade the other day.

You love to play with your toys and to read books.  You like to play outside and especially like playing with toys that you can ride on.  You are proficient at giving high-fives, waving bye-bye, and clapping.  Although you rarely will do it on demand, it has to be on your time!

We watch lots of videos on the iPad.  It is a great way to get you to hold still for diaper changes and also a great way to distract you.  Pretty much all of the videos we watch are Sesame Street and most of them are song parodies.  For now they seem to work and we are just trying our best not to wear out the trick!

For your first birthday, we traveled down to Summerville and celebrated with family.  Your first birthday party was at Granny Brenda & Grandaddy Doyle's house and was just a great time!  We had lots of food, played with friends, and got TONS of new toys!!  You had a great time ... well ... except for that cake!  You loved everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to you and loved to look at the cake, but you were NOT interested in eating it and were pretty mad that we tried to make you!

"♪♫Happy Birthday to Briggs!♫♪"

I don't WANT to eat cake!!

Birthday Bath!

You got some awesome things for your birthday, but the big presents were:

• A big red car from mommy & daddy
• A wagon and a four-wheeler from Grammy & Grandpa 
• A playhouse from Granny & Grandaddy

Walking

Briggs is getting better at walking by the day!!  Here a little video montage from Tuesday, September 4th ...

Today when I picked him up from daycare he walked about 5 feet to greet me!!  Watch out world!!!

11 Months

Just one more month and we get to celebrate a whole year of Briggs Monster!!  WOW!!  This has been another great month full of surprises and milestones, let's recap ...

You kicked off the start of 10 months old by learning how to wave bye-bye.  The teachers at daycare (especially Ms Susan) worked really hard with you on this one and FINALLY you've got it down pat!!  Now that you have that figured out, you love to show off your skills!!  You are a pointer too.  Pointing at everything and nothing all at once!!  When you first wake up in the morning and come down the hallway you always look super crabby and shy away from the lights, but you immediately start pointing at mommy, daddy, Logan, or whatever catches your eye!

This month has been all about cruising!  Now that you have figured out how to move around the house, you are EVERYWHERE!  As long as you have a hand on something, you will walk all over.  This cart has been perfect for cruising up and down the hallway.  Just this past weekend, you were actually taking a few steps between mommy and daddy completely unassisted.  You were so excited!!  Your balance is getting better and I'm pretty sure you'll be walking soon!!

You and daddy LOVE to play rough!  You prefer to be dangled upside down, tossed around, held up high and giggle when we pretend to drop you!!  You and daddy have several games you play and this video shows exactly how well you know how to manipulate your daddy!!

We made two trips to Summerville this month.  First to visit with Grandma Kitty when she went into the hospital and then again for our much-too-short summer vacation.  On our first trip home you spent some time hanging out with Aunt Krista.  I love this picture of you pretending to be Uncle Rick!

Of course we made some visits to see Nana and Pop so they could show you off at their assisted living home.  You were very pleased to show everyone the proper way to use a walker!

Between our two visits, Granny Brenda & Grandaddy Doyle came up for a weekend to stay with you so that we could attend Henderson & Ellison's wedding.  I'm not sure who had more fun that weekend, you or Granny Brenda!

 

We had a great time visiting friends and family while we were in Summerville, but of course there is never enough time.  Here are some pics from our fun ...

August 21st was the first day of school for all of the kids in the Clemson area.  With kids moving out,  this is also move up day at the CEC Daycare too.  Moving from the infant to creeper room is based on developmental indicators, not the calendar, but it just so happened that you were ready to move up this week too.  Leaving the Infant room was a little sad because we will miss many of the friends we made there (especially Ms. Amanda and Ms. Susan), but the new Creeper room is very exciting!  So many big boy toys and so many friends who are ready to play!!  You have just loved the change and were more than ready for it!!   Your new teacher is Ms. Farhana and I am really impressed with the schedule she keeps and how well you have adjusted.  We eat breakfast before we leave the house, then you get a snack around 9am, lunch is at 11am, then everyone takes a nap from 1 - 3pm.  Another snack and then it's time to go home.  Of course all the time in between is full of fun, reading and playing!!  You love the playground and all your new friends.

It is impossible to hold you down to get a real good look, but there are lots of new teeth coming in!  You have had two top and two bottom teeth for awhile now.  I know for sure there are two teeth poking through and I'm pretty sure two more are right behind those.   Speaking of impossible to hold down ... diaper and clothes changes have become a nightmare.  You hate to hold still.  We have a trick that tends to work pretty well ... Elmo videos on the iPad.  We have a few favorites that will help to buy us a minute or two.  You just love Elmo and singing Elmo is just mesmerizing!!

You have completely figured out the routine around here at night.  When I'm just about done making dinner you'll start complaining and climbing your highchair.  When you are done eating, you'll start dropping your sippy cup off the high chair onto the floor.  Then, as soon as daddy starts running the bath water, you take off full speed down the hallway.  You really like to get in the tub while it is filling up so you can put your hands under the facet.

Then there are the bath toys.  We have about 10 different squeeze toys for the bath.  Most nights it is daddy's job to give you a bath and I just love the stories he makes up about the toys.  The regular theme is that Sheriff Duck is going to arrest someone, usually Purple Duck.

Nightly baths are an ABSOLUTE MUST.  During dinner your hands are always all over the place and you prefer to feed yourself.  Your hands go behind your head, in your hair, fingers in your ears and of course in your nose.  This means that whatever we are eating (lasagna, bananas, sweet potatoes) all wind up where they probably shouldn't!!