Sunday, January 30, 2011

Success!

we have a winner! yobaby drinkable yogurt did the trick. wahoo! tman will drink milk if it's mixed with drinkable yogurt (right now we're at half milk/half yogurt...i'm going to give it a little time before i start cutting back on the amount of yogurt). but for now, i'm celebrating the fact that he's at least drinking some milk (and ignoring that it probably has something to do with the fact that sugar is the second ingredient listed in the yogurt). now the trick is getting him to sit still long enough to drink some...so we do lots of "driving" loops around the house so that he can sit still and drink.

and thanks to lance, we've finally gotten the boy child to eat meat. well, i guess that's true if you consider hot dogs meat. i personally don't do hot dogs-they're just gross to me. but lance loves them and really wanted to see if tanner was a fan. i made him at least buy turkey dogs. and the result...he ate them...and really seems to like them. of course! ugh! but at this point, i'm willing to get over the smell and feeling disgusted at meal time (and diaper time) to get him to eat something other than fruit and veggies.

here's to expanding tanner's list of "acceptable" foods!

all the good things...food like mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, pasta and chick fil a still all get spit right out! and no luck on bread yet either.

the kiddo just LOVES his fruits and veggies...we eat LOTS and LOTS of lima beans (canned, not frozen), peas, green beans, carrots, black eyed peas, black beans, fruit (pears, peaches, mandarin oranges,  applesauce, avacado, bananas (sometimes...but not lately), squash and sweet potatoes (sometimes), corn, and cheerios. and LOTS of cheese and yogurt! tanner loves cheese...he turns into a little chipmunk with it and crams 4 to 5 to 6 pieces in his mouth at a time.

and his newest dinner-time trick is trying to feed himself. he definitely understands the concept and he loves practicing...it just makes meal time a little slower.
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Friday, January 21, 2011

Milk...it does a body good

apparently tanner disagrees with this statement, which has created the latest child-rearing challenge. the child will NOT drink milk! at a year my time was up...i have diligently served my time, and this milk factory is shutting down shop!

so we pulled out the sippy cup and poured in some milk. nope! he wasn't having it. trust me, friends, we have tried EVERY combo. i tried it warm, cold, straight breast milk, mixed breast milk/cows milk, straight cows milk. we've tried it in EVERY sippy cup we own...with a straw, even in a big person cup since he used to love that. he will drink water all day long, no problem, but for the milk, i've gotten a lot of head shakes, lips that are closed tight, and arm swats at the cup (watch out, he can bat that cup away with some force!).

heck, we have even tried making it CHOCOLATE milk...and still no. what?!?! what kid (especially a kid with lance's dna) doesn't like chocolate milk?!?! well, that would be mine (oh yea, and he doesn't like mac n cheese either...yes i know, crazy).

so we have resorted to lots of yogurt and cheese to make sure he gets plenty of dairy. a friend suggested yobaby smoothies with milk added...so we're off to the grocery store after nap time today to get some of those to try. and while we're at it we'll probably get some strawberry flavoring too-maybe he'd rather have strawberry milk over chocolate!?!? seriously, it is stressing this mama out (yes, i'm trying not to stress, but have you met me?!?! um i don't do that very well).

in other news, he is loving playing with dakota and gizmo lately. dakota will follow close behind as we do laps around the house in the cozy coup-tanner either riding inside or pushing from behind-and tanner thinks dakota is just the funnies thing. he laughs at him all the time. he's started trying to play with the dogs...and he gets really upset when dakota or gizmo decide they've had enough "loving" from tanner and get up and walk away. the other day i caught him hugging on dakota looking out the front door...the dogs make great "pulling up" aids.
and yesterday, he took his first 2 steps not holding on to anything (he "walks" all the time-but always holding on with one hand to a cabinet, table, wall, toy, couch, person, etc). and what was his motivation to walk...oh yes, i was holding my cell phone up and he REALLY wanted it so he decided he could try to walk over and get it. yes, it's close to impossible to have a phone conversation with tanner around these days. he used to be happy if i'd just put it on speaker phone. not anymore! he wants to HOLD the phone. all. by. him. self!
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Monday, January 10, 2011

1 year old

i can't believe we have a 1 year old on our hands! the past year has FLOWN by...it's definitely true what they say-the days are long but the years fly by. yup, some of the days are FOREVER long...um like yesterday...tman had a rough night (meaning he wanted to party from about 12:30-3:30 am), was super fussy and tired all day long, didn't want to take an afternoon nap...which leads to lots of screaming and crying from his crib. normally on those days we'd load up in the car even if it's just to drive around. but nope, not yesterday...we were STUCK at home...it was freezing outside and snowing...and then of course it turned to ice last night...yup, we were going a little stir crazy and tman was in bed shortly after 6! :-) and we have no snow pictures to show for the day...he just wasn't up for it.


ok, back to tanner's 1 year post...i feel like we were just at the hospital having the tman. what a year this has been! it is amazing to see how much he has changed in just 365 days. the last few days i've been working on making a book with all the pictures from tanner's first year, and it's been fun to look back...crazy how much one little person can change...and how you so quickly forget things. but not to worry-we have 4,043 pictures from the last year to help us remember!


little did we know how much our lives had just changed...in a good way...but man, we had no idea!
a year ago...this was about 1 am on January 3...and yes i look rough and have 5 chins, but i get a pass-i had just birthed this kiddo like 30 minutes prior and had been pushing for over 3 hours before that-um see head circumference percentiles below-yup, big head-and had been hooked up to ivs and fluids (adding to the puffiness of my face-well really the puffiness of everything) for a whole 24 hours before that. yes, gold star to me.


who knew you could love a little guy so much?!?! and who knew that being a parent could be so fun, hard, exhausting, rewarding, baffling, exciting, confusing, emotional, joyous, overwhelming, and hilariously funny?!?
in one year's time tanner went 
from this:
to this: 
(oh my goodness, he looks like such a little boy in this one compared to the other...he's definitely not a baby anymore!):

we had his 1 year check up on friday...3 shots-yes these were doosies!-and a toe prick for blood (which doesn't even bother him at all). 
tanner's measurements...we've got a tall, skinny dude on our hands.
height: 30.75 inches (76%)
weight: 19 lbs 5 oz (8%)
head circumference: 47 cm (75%)

karen thinks once tanner starts drinking whole milk and eating more and more yummy things, he'll start to pack on the pounds. we've started trying to give him whole milk...he's not so sure about it but we'll get there. he's finally learned to like a sippy cup and is quite proud when he gets a drink himself. and i've finally started weaning him-yes, i really can't believe i/we made it a year. i almost quit at 4 months-nursing strikes are no fun. and even after that i really hadn't planned on going a year...had really always had 6 months in mind as my goal. but it kind of just happened, and hey, it did save us a bunch of money! but it will be a good day when the milk factory shuts down for good!


teeth-he's got 4 on top and 2 on bottom but i think the other 2 bottom ones are working their way out (which could explain yesterday's extreme fussiness). hopefully these will come in handy for all the yummy food in his future. 


we've been trying lots of new foods, but he has a thing for textures and has discovered the skill of spitting out food. yup, it makes meal time lovely! most new foods get spit out at least once. and even if i hide a new food that he doesn't love in with something he does like, he usually somehow finds a way to swallow the good food, isolate the new stuff and spit it out. yes, my friends, that takes skill! and just because he likes something one day, doesn't mean he'll like it the next. yesterday, he had part of a blueberry muffin for dinner. so of course i figured we could share one this morning for breakfast. he wanted NOTHING to do with it! same thing with mandarin oranges. loved them yesterday, this morning, nope! but he did have his first few bites of ice cream sandwich the other day and he was a fan! and he's still quite into feeding himself. every once in a while he'll tolerate something that i have to feed him (ie applesauce or yogurt), but i haven't been brave enough to let him try the applesauce on his own with a spoon (although he'd probably love to try!). tanner's current favorite foods: lima beans, peas, cheerios, cheese, pears and peaches.


sleep-wise we have finally gotten this kid to sleep past 6...wahoo! he's usually waking up around 6:15-6:30...but that is a heck of a lot better than 5:30-5:45! and he's still going to bed around 6:30 at night. part of me would love for his bedtime to be a little later (bedtime at 6:30 makes going out to dinner a little challenging and it doesn't leave him much time to play with lance when he gets home), but we'll get there eventually. let's just say it's usually not worth it to keep him up late...we ALL pay the price for that! he's still taking 2 naps a day-kind of. his morning nap has gotten really good...usually about 1 hr 15 minutes. but lately he's decided that he wants to fight his afternoon nap. he's tired and needs it, but the last few days he's just refused despite anything i try.


toys...he is on toy overload after christmas and his birthday. we've got some stashed in his closet to pull out when he needs some new entertainment. but he loves his laugh n learn house, table and kitchen, his new ball popper, and of course all of his vehicles that he can ride/push around the house (ice cream truck, 4 wheeler, push cart and cozy coup...and even the big tub of dog food...he loves pushing it around the kitchen). he loves walking and pushing those ALL around the house! some days i feel like he's doing laps. 
the birthday boy playing with his cars

and of course he loves to play in the kitchen...opening and closing doors and cabinets is the best entertainment! and he's just recently started to "let go" of whatever he used to pull up with and balance for a little bit without freaking out!
 playing with his farm animal fridge magnets...he love to make it play the songs 

clothes-still in 12 month outfits for the most part. 6-12 month tops still fit great, but the pants are starting to get a little short so we've moved to some 12-18 months. diapers are still size 3 but probably not for long...i'm seeing size 4 in the near future.

all smiles the morning of his birthday...we went to visit lance at work and then went to lunch in grapevine, and then tanner took a nice nap in the car on our way home (yup, i got home and drove around the neighborhood for a while and sat in a parking lot for a while as to keep the boy asleep).
i had a little fun fixing his hair...it does quite the spike!
 
 and a few of his pictures with the puppy dog...round 1 by myself didn't work so well
he thought it was so funny to throw the puppy off of the chair-apparently he didn't want the dog sitting with him.
 yup, about to grab the dog and throw him off again! can't you see it written all over his face-get off this chair, puppy!
 if he wasn't throwing the dog off, he was throwing himself off. he has no fear (taking after his ipop and uncle grant)...nose dives off the chair are hilarious apparently!
 the best 2...taken with poppa's assistance
we love you little guy...what a wonderful year it's been!

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Friday, January 7, 2011

tanner's 1st birthday party!

can't believe my little guy is one!!! we had a little party with family and a few friends...still so hard to believe he is ONE!
his party invites...
aren't they so cute?! i can say that since i had nothing to do with them...i didn't even have to mail them! these were all stacie! i loved them!
the birthday boy ready to party!
the food table (and yes i realized after the party that i took this picture without the fruit...so just imagine a long plate of cut up fruit in the middle). his picture display was an idea i borrowed from a blog...ipop made the stand and i printed out one of his monthly pictures for the last 12 months-crazy!

 as you walked in the front door...some party hats, blowers and little favors...his favors were a little bag of kisses with a picture of him kissing his puppy dog and a note thanking everyone for coming and giving them kisses from tanner...
 he wasn't a fan of wearing the hat (surprise, surprise!)
me and the birthday boy
the cake...i had sent the invitation and just asked that the cake go along with the invite...it matched perfectly and was SO YUMMY! we had a big one for everyone (oh yes, it was HUGE...we barely ate half of it at the party) and then tanner of course had his own personal size cake
time for CAKE! 
 about to dig in...
 trying some icing-still not too sure what he thinks about this
 the extent of his mess...not nearly as messy as i had thought he'd be!
 presents!!! 
he's definitely catching on to the whole unwrapping idea!
 the guys supervising...
 he was ready to play once he opened his laugh n learn kitchen...
 love this face!
 checking out his present from uncle mark...money!
 trying on his new rain jacket from kelly and grace
 checking out poppa's present...it's a picture of a wagon that is on its way...yea for wagon rides with poppa!
 play time!!!
playing with grace and audrey
 tv time for the guys
 uncle grant was named "assembly man" this christmas and birthday...he was putting together the cozy coup
 aunt taylor making tman laugh, and laugh, and laugh...thankfully he didn't get too many kisses from brian and taylor since they both ended up sick that night/next day
trying out his new cozy coup...he loves it! we're working on teaching him no texting while driving!
 what a fun party!!!
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