Evan 12 months, Caroline 12 months, Lincoln 12 months

I started this on August 29th. I thought I finished it, but I went to look for my photos this week and realized even though I took them, I never edited them or posted them. Oops?

The good/bad news is, even if I didn’t document it in a timely manner, Finnegan still turned one. He insists on growing even when I don’t remember it’s happening or write about it on the internet. Although I can’t let that happen without at least a quick post, so luckily this was still hanging out in my drafts.

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This is my last monthday update. The very last one ever. My last baby is now counted in years instead of months, because today he turns one. One year ago I was giving birth for the last time, on the maternity floor where all four of my babies were born.

Finnegan continues to be a doll baby. He’s so cute and funny and snuggly. He makes a great shopping buddy. He likes his stroller and falls asleep both in it and on my back. He likes to go places and do things, see new stuff, loud noises and all foods. He often forgets that he needs me until I walk into a room and then he desperately needs to be picked up. He doesn’t mind being left with friends for a little while, but still needs lots and lots of nursies so I wouldn’t leave him overnight.

Speaking of overnight, he sleeps from 9 pm to 7 am about 2/3rds of the time. The other 1/3rd, he wakes up once or twice or four times or won’t go to bed until midnight or gets up at 4 am. It’s unpredictable, is what I’m saying. But since MOST nights I am getting 8 hours of sleep without too much work I am a happy mama.

Finnegan is wearing 24 month or 2T clothes, although I am buying him nothing because there are at least 6 bins of hand-me-downs from his brothers I need to sort. I finally started making him wear soft-soled baby shoes but they aren’t slowing him down at all. He is in size 5 diapers (the same as his 3-year-old brother) and his thighs are still fantastic.

Likes include yogurt, squeeze pouches of baby food, cereal, apples, grapes, juice, water, snuggles, nursies, rocking, his blankie, his siblings, his dog, his cat, climbing things, trying to stand on his head, rolling around on the floor, playgrounds, being worn, water, baths, tickles, and smiling.

Dislikes include being tired, being hungry, diaper changes, having his face cleaned, and smacking his face on things (although he does it so much maybe he actually does like it).

12 Month Milestones (originally from BabyCenter)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Imitates others’ activities – He thinks he’s a big kid, so he tries to do big kid stuff, like reading books and climbing.
Indicates wants with gestures – His two moves are grabbing and throwing.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Takes a few steps – Hahahahaha
Says one word besides “mama” or “daddy” – No. And doesn’t say mama either. I think it’s likely we’ll be doing speech with him too, if only to get super on top of it.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Walks alone – I feel like if there’s one thing that applies to all children I give birth to, it’s their advanced walking skills. (I didn’t even change this from Lincoln’s post)
Scribbles with a crayon – Yes! Mostly on non-writing surfaces.
Says two words besides “mama” or “dada” – Nope.

This week Lincoln turned 1 and I started freaking out because summer feels almost over.

Sunday:

Target is easier when you can tie one kid to your back and bribe the other two with Icees.

All the kids love the Boppy

Lake Baby

Monday:

Sunflowers for Wishes is beauitful

Caroline dressed up for our wagon ride

I made the mistake of asking them to take a nice picture.

Tuesday:

Party planning

We have a LOT of clicky things from Wendy’s kids’ meals now.

This might have been the last time he napped nicely.

Wednesday:

If you look closely you can see my baby playing with his new 7 year old BFF.

Baby’s first deli cheese

It turns out clean and shopping is pretty good exercise

Thursday:

OK, I’M ONE NOW, I’M GOING SWIMMING

Birthday’s are exhausting

Bumpa will read you alllllll the books

Friday:

The bones of The Australia at Mystic Seaport

Figureheads

Using my camera to check and see if Linc is asleep yet. NOPE.

Saturday:

I’m proud that all my party guests noticed my sling matched the decor

He had a really good day

He has sad eyes because he tried to eat the lit candle, but eating an entire mini-cake cheered him up.

Linc’s first birthday party is over and it was SUCH a success. We were completely done and ready for our guests before they arrived (this never happens) and I got to relax and drink champagne while the kids screamed their heads off on the bounce house. My parents and E’s parents were both here which meant we had TWO grown ups per child – not to mention all the dads that Linc conned into picking him up and carrying him around. He’s really good with dads.

We’ve got some vacation coming up and I cannot waaaaaait. But first I have to get all those party photos sorted and posted, or they’ll end up in the file with the rest of this month’s fun activities and no one will ever see them. What good is a cool party theme without a blog post?!

{Evan’s 12 month post} {Caroline’s 12 month post}

So it’s kind of funny. When Evan turned 12 months, I definitely still thought of him as a baby on the brink of toddlerhood. When Caroline turned 12 months, I thought of her as a toddler who was basically a real person.

Today Lincoln turns 12 months and he might as well still be 4 months old.

Don’t tell HIM that – he thinks he’s a human who can jump on the couch and climb stairs and swim in the lake and eat ham at the grocery store and feed his own self and use my phone and set a schedule. He can actually do about half of that stuff, although I try my best to discourage it.

But I still think of him as a tiny baby. He still gets up most nights to nurse and it hasn’t occurred to me to discourage that. I only started putting him in his crib a week or two ago and most of the time he ends up in my bed before morning. I never remember to bring shoes for him, because why would a baby need to put their feet on the ground? I have five bazillion baby wearing devices and use all of them regularly. Every time I say something to him and he appears to actually understand what I’m saying I am SHOCKED. The fact that he doesn’t talk yet doesn’t worry me because babies can’t talk.

I’m not sure how long I’ll be convinced of his babyhood. Maybe I’ll feel that way forever – or at least until there’s a new baby, if there ever is a new baby. The future is unclear. But the right now is full of an adorable, slightly ginger baby who is a joy and a light in our crazy family. We all love him to pieces.

At 12 months, Linc wears 12 or 18 month sizes in clothes and a 5.5 shoe, He has at least 8 teeth. There are some molars back there too and his canines are coming through, but NO WAY do I want to stick my finger in his mouth. He likes both real food and nursing. He never crawls anymore.

Likes include water, sand, eating sand, baby food pouches, cheese, meatballs, nursing, cuddles, giving kisses, dogs, cats, anything with fur, his yellow blankie, naps, blowing raspberries, phones, cords, taking trash out of the trash can, climbing, pooping and smiling at everyone.

Dislikes are being hungry, being told not to kill himself, being rescued from danger and milk from a cup.

Add “being still long enough to have his picture taken” to the list of haaaaaaaates.

‘ ‘

3rd baby, 3rd blankie, 3rd favorite lovie

LASHES

Bye! Leaving!

Are you coming??

Ok, well, you sit there. I have places to go.

JUST KIDDING I LOVE YOU!

Come with me if you want to live…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET BOY! Everyone who knows you loves you so, so much.

12 Month Milestones (originally from BabyCenter)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Imitates others’ activities – Pretends to talk on the phone, can throw things away, likes to steal people’s chairs. It’s like he thinks he’s a real person.
Indicates wants with gestures – I feel like he doesn’t really have control over his arms most of the time. He screeches rather than points or signs.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Takes a few steps – Runs. And just learned how to climb onto the couch.
Says one word besides “mama” or “daddy” – He still doesn’t really talk. I don’t have much trouble understanding him, but he doesn’t really say mama or daddy yet.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Walks alone – I feel like if there’s one thing that applies to all children I give birth to, it’s their advanced walking skills.
Scribbles with a crayon – Likes to chew on markers?
Says two words besides “mama” or “dada” – No. I figure in a couple months he’ll just start talking in complete sentences.

I’m not upset about my teeny tiny baby girl turning one. I understand it had to happen eventually. And really, she is still so TEENY TINY I can pretend she’s a baby when we rock in the glider or when I creep into her room to take pictures of her while she sleeps. (Creeeeeeeeepy!)  But mostly I’m ok with her being one because she is super duper awesome and cool. She is way cooler at 12 months old than I have ever been in my life. I mean, she can TOTALLY wear knit leggings.

Caroline still loves food – all food, any food, all day – but especially chicken nuggets and cheese. She learned how to use a sippy cup (today!) but is having some trouble with not letting all the milk/water fall out of her face. I’m going to have to find something REALLY delicious to convince her it’s worth swallowing. Maybe she’d like some hot cocoa and schnapps.

As much as she eats, she has definitely cut back on her nursing schedule, although she refuses to drop the midnight feeding. I KNOW she doesn’t need it – sometimes she goes from midnight until noon the next day without nursing – but she wakes up every single night and is so much easier just to pop a boob in her mouth than to argue. In case you didn’t know, arguing with toddlers almost never works. We are leaving her with my parents (more on THAT later) in March, so my goal is to have her sleeping through the night by then, if only because I don’t want them to refuse to babysit ever again. I’m also debating weaning her before then, or at least mostly weaning her, so I don’t have to do much pumping while I’m gone. (I have SUCH. MIXED. FEELINGS. I think I need a whole separate post for them.) But for now, she’s still a nursing champ.

But besides the waking up, she is an awesome sleeper. If she doesn’t fall asleep when we rock I can leave her in the crib with a book or a toy and she’ll play herself to sleep. Oh my God, do you hate me SO MUCH right now? Seriously, she is at an insanely easy age, so even when she’s having a clingy day she is still a darling child. Today at Target a woman literally couldn’t stop herself from trying to hug her, although when I looked alarmed she was like “Oh no! That was inappropriate! I’m so sorry, she’s just so gorgeous and she’s SMILING at me!”

It’s true. It’s impossible not to love her when she smiles at you. I love her so much I forgave her for breaking my iPhone.

Favorite things include: iPhones, the dog, the cats, her brother, putting trash in her mouth, cheese, cookies, spaghetti with meat sauce, boobs, her fancy patent leather shoes, blankies, forts, sleeping, bath time, dinosaurs, biting things, giving huge slobbery open mouth kisses and throwing herself head first off the couch.

Least favorite things are falling on her face, diaper changes, the vacuum cleaner, watching me leave the house, being buckled in the shopping cart and when I fish the trash out of her mouth so she doesn’t choke to death. Such a TERRIBLE MOTHER.

I don't like this sticker, Mom.

No, seriously, get it off me or I will CUT YOU.

Ha ha, just kidding. *BABY GANG SIGNS*

C'mon, do you want YOUR age in giant numbers on your chest?

Ok, FINE, if you won't help I'll do it myself.

Here you go! I fixed it!

Showing off the baby gun show

OH FOR THE LOVE. Now the tutu AND the sticker?

Dude, do YOU know what's wrong with this woman? --- Just smile and nod, kid, smile and nod and plot our takeover.

12 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Imitates others’ activities – Her new favorite game is taking very important phone calls on my iPhone. I’m expecting a year’s supply of cheese to show up on my doorstep any minute.
Indicates wants with gestures – Gestures, screeching pterodactyl noises, same difference.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Takes a few steps – Runs, climbs, roundhouse kick’s me in the face.
Says one word besides “mama” or “daddy” – She can say “mama”, “daddy”, “kitty”, “hi”, and things that sound like “I got it” and “all done!” but I wouldn’t swear those last two weren’t my imagination. She also puts words together and says “Hi daddy!!” in the absolute cutest way ever.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Walks alone – See above
Scribbles with a crayon – She still put too much stuff her in mouth to let her have crayons…unless I want rainbow-colored poop in the morning.
Says two words besides “mama” or “dada” – See above. I sort of think I’m imagining ALL the talking, but since BabyCenter assures me it IS possible she’s talking I like to believe I just have a super genius baby.