Ok, this is it, the final monthly (well, twi-monthly) update for my little Victor Emmanuel.  Not to say I won't be mentioning him here anymore on the blog, but my goal was to write a blog post every month recording his life for the first year. These posts will be printed and put into his baby book, since this format has recorded his life in much more detail than a few lines in a baby book ever could.  I'm so thankful for blogs and the Internet at times like these, how I wish my mom had written a blog about me when I was a baby!  Hopefully Victor will appreciate it later on in life.

Anyway, on to the update...as I said, this is his 12 and 13 month update (so from January 26th up until March 26th, 2011), since the events from that period all seem to  have blurred together (I blame my first trimester, ha!)

So here we go, an update on my no-longer little bébé... 

*Stats: Eeek, I don't think we weighed or measured him either month! At his one year appointment/needles I believe he weighed between 19.5 and 20 pounds and was 29 inches long, but we haven't weighed him since then, will have to do that soon!

*Still wearing his small cloth diapers (!), but his clothing sizes have changed dramatically.  He's running into the issue of his pants being too short but his waist being too small to hold up the larger/longer sizes, and of being a bit too long for a lot of his smaller PJs even though they fit fine in the torso and shoulders.  He's been wearing everything from 6-12 months PJS, shirts and pants, all the way up to 18 month PJs and onesies.  I've been packing up a lot of his clothes though, soon he'll only have 12M+ stuff out.  He's wearing a pair of 4.5 shoes, and we had to switch him into a larger coat since the one he had at the beginning of winter (6-9 months) no longer fits him.    

*Sleep has been fairly steady these past few months.  On average he's napping once a day late in the morning (usually between 11am and noon) for an hour and half or so (even though he's had some loooong naps too, sometimes pushing 3 hours!)  He will sometimes nap later in the afternoon but most days he's ok with just the one nap.  He has been going to bed at around 7:30-8:30pm and waking up at around 7:00am or so.  He wakes up once in the night at least, but often it's just because his soother has fallen out and he's back to sleep within minutes of picking him up (yes, we still pick him up and often bring him to bed with us).  The past month or so he's woken up at around 6:00-6:30am and we bring him to bed with us until Dan has to get up for work, but that will soon have to change once there is no room in the bed (both from my belly and then from the new baby!)  He's soooo wiggly when he sleeps though, at least when he's in bed with us, so I think that when we transition into his 'big boy bed' this summer we will definitely need a gate so that he doesn't wiggle right off the bed!

*As for eating, he's basically been eating what we eat for awhile now, but overall I can't say that his diet is ideal.  He gets enough grains and dairy for sure, his protein is ok, but his fruit and veggie intake isn't nearly where I would like it to be, which is partly my fault for not offering them enough and partly pickiness on his part. He basically doesn't eat any fruit of veggies in whole pieces, only when they're mashed or from a jar (baby food-fruit only).  He likes potatoes ok but ever since he started eating 'real' food with us, he's just not interested anymore.  And he's definitely showing signs of pickiness.  I've said more than once in the past couple of months that I was worried about his food intake, but from what I can tell it's quite normal for toddlers not to eat consistently or heartily, and as long as they are happy and active and not losing weight, then I shouldn't worry...still, I worry!  So I'm always trying to get him to eat, which has basically turned him into a 'grazer'.  He eats little bits all day long; crackers, yogurt, bread, string cheese, milk, whatever I can get into him (even some not so healthy things). This next year will definitely be interesting, I have a feeling we're going to be having quite a few 'food fights'!  Also, he's pretty much insistent these days that he eats by himself (feeds himself) which is fine for the most part but because he's so messy, he ends up not eating as much as he would if we were feeding him...sigh, all part of growing up I guess.  He's getting pretty good with a spoon and fork though!  He still drinks a bottle of formula (8oz) at night before bed but I think that I may switch gradually over to milk once I feel like he's eating enough (I kind of look at it like a 'safety net' to cover whatever he's missing in food during the day).  Oh, and another trick he learned: drinking from a straw :)

*The biggest new skill this month has been standing/taking a few steps.  He started shortly after his first birthday and he's been working on it ever since.  He can stand for a few seconds at a time and can also take a few steps (although he basically lunges forward so he doesn't get very far).  He will only stand and let go when he's leaning on us, he hasn't let go of any furniture and attempted to walk yet...but it's coming! I'm thinking that by summertime he'll be walking just fine :)  He's a bit behind I guess you could say, but at the same time he gets around just fine crawling so there's really no rush.  He also learned to steadily sit, finally! For the longest time he wouldn't sit and I didn't really trust him not to topple over if I had him sitting, but he has since learned to sit back on his haunches, so that's how he now sits.  So happy he caught on to that, it makes things so much easier! He can sit up in the bathtub, sit to play with his toys, it's all just much better.  And his last new/big skill is clapping! This was another thing that we tried to get him to do for months and months, but he just all of a suddent caught on soon after his birthday (it seemed like as soon as he hit 12 months, everything started happening!)  We were so excited when he first did it, I think I scared him when I squealed his name in excitement!  Now he does it all the time, especially to music.  Apart from those big three new skills he's been getting better at using his hands as always, loves to bounce on the bed and enjoys being active. 

*Favourite toys these past few months include his books (though he's less interested in them now than he once was), a ball popper that my parents got him for his birthday, a guitar with all kinds of buttons to push (this toy actually spurred on the clapping), his Buzz lightyear ride-on, some bubbles that he also got for his birthday, and basically anything he's not supposed to get into.  Still loves to play with jars and lids and containers (which is handy when I'm making supper, I let him stand on a kitchen chair and play with various tupperware type things on the table), and touching everything in sight, especially when he's in our arms (lightswithches, pictures on the wall, thermostats, etc).

*Speaking of pictures, he also loves to look at pictures of his cousins.  We have a board up in the kitchen with all their photos and he likes to touch each face as we say their names.  He's drawn to photographs...which mama loves :)

 

*Teeth...we have 'em! 3 new ones to be exact.  2 more on the bottom (he has 4 now), and one hillbilly tooth up top (it's not one of the middle ones, it's the one next to middle one, which looks so funny and weird).  Also, every since he got these new teeth he has started grimacing in this weird way that shows off his top gums, he crinkles up his nose and exposes all his teeth, squinting his eyes. It's weird/funny/cute (you can see some of these faces in the iphone pics below).

*He has become pretty obsessed with his soother lately, which is why you see it in so many of the pictures...he used to only really use it when he was upset or to get to sleep, but he now wants it pretty much all the time.  I figure it might have something to do with the multiple teeth coming through, or with needing something comforting as he becomes more independent...or he just really likes it.  Either way, I'm ok with it and don't really intend on trying to cut him off from it for a few more months yet. 

*Activities these past 2 months include taking walks in his new winter sled (in his new winter snowsuit), trips to see his cousins and grandparents, dining out at restaurants (and trying some not so healthy foods), swimming at the Aquatic Centre, the big 'one year' birthday party, and doctor's appointments/needles (fun fun, I know!)  

*One big change that happened between 12 and 13 months is that Victor has started going to a  babysitter's 4 days a week.  He started going to my friend Sara's house during the days so that I could work on my photography business beginning around mid-March, and so far it has been going really well.  We went to Sara's house quite often anyway for playdates and babysitting while I was on Mat Leave, so he was quite used to the environement and to the people, so there really was no transition period, he jumped right in with no problems!  I miss him during the day of course, but I'm glad that he gets a chance of pace for a few hours everyday (he's only going about 25 hours a week, but we may up it more in the summer once I start getting busier with shoots).

*I almost forgot to mention this because it's not very pleasant, but Victor also experienced his first real bout with being sick (besides having a cold). We all caught a Norwalk-like virus in March and unfortunately our little bébé had it too...throwing up for the first time, diarrhea, and feeling generally miserable.  I felt so bad for him (as bad as I could, being sick and pregnant myself!), but luckily he recoverd fairly quickly.  Not fun and I hope that he doesn't have to go through that again for a long time (he's generally very healthy, except for the occasional snotty nose, like all kids).

*He is slowly becoming more independent, but overall he still really likes being with us (or with someone in general), and prefers that over solo play.  He does go exploring on his own and will play by himself for little bits of time, but more often than not he wants us to interact with him.  He's playful and likes to laugh, he's quiet when we're out in public, and he's overall still very sweet.  With age though I can see more of his rough and tumble nature coming out, he can be pretty rough sometimes with me and Dan (pinching our bellies, pulling hair, grabbing noses).  I know it's all normal but I'm going to miss these days when he'll still occasionally cuddle up to me and is still gentle and mild.  I also realize that discipline is going to become a bigger part of our lives soon, and I'm anxious about how that will all go down (considering he cries at the slightest indication of being scolded, it should be interesting...) Let the toddler years begin!

(To finish off, I've included a collage of iphone photos from these past few months...as predicted, most of our daily photos now come my phone and not my camera, but the important part is that his life is being documented, and for that I'm grateful.)

On t'aime Victor,
Mama et Daddy 

(If you made it to the end of this, bravo! I hope that it hasn't been too much of a pain, I know that my blog has been mostly kid-centric this past year or so, but it's a stage in my life that I'm very proud of and I want to document it the best I can.
...
Now to print all these updates off, oye!)