He is mostly expressing this through his food. Gray has been on a pea kick lately. He has been eating them for lunch or dinner every day for the past week or two. Today at lunch I made him a yummy looking pea/shredded chicken mixture and he literally would not eat it. He cautiously picked up a pea and stuck his tongue out and licked it and then promptly smeared it onto his highchair tray. He did this with eggs for the last three weeks and then for some reason today he ate all of the eggs that I gave him.

I don’t blame him for trying to control his food. He really can’t control much else. I know it’s only going to get worse from here (as far as the picky eating goes).

What do you guys do to trick your kids into eating healthy stuff?

And covered himself in frosting.

My favorite part of Grayson turning one? NO MORE FORMULA. Okay, that isn’t really my favorite part.. but I am really happy that he can drink whole milk now instead! Formula is expensive!

My little one is a year old today. I cannot believe that it has been an entire year. I feel like I just had him yesterday. This year has passed so quickly. He walks and talks (kind of) now. He can give high-fives and put his hands up on command. He hugs and tries to give kisses but he forgets to close his mouth before putting it on your face. He feeds himself and holds his own bottle (sometimes). Fortunately, he still needs his mommy for cuddles and lots of other things.

I love you, Grayson. Happy Birthday.

I had just taken his diaper off and I was letting him crawl around on the living room rug while I grabbed a fresh one. All of a sudden he stopped crawling around and just sat on his hands and knees. I heard him peeing on the rug and then he said “uh oh.” I started laughing and I called for Damian to come help me clean up the pee. Our rug is brown so I didn’t notice the poop immediately. As soon as we did, I started laughing hysterically. Gray just carefully crawled away from the poop and tried to keep playing.

We were very positive about the whole thing and gave him lots of compliments about what a good poop he had. My mother in law told me a story about her coworker making her son feel bad after pooping on the floor. Now they are trying to potty train him and he refuses to go on the toilet. I want to avoid any hang ups about poop and pee being a bad thing so we just cheer him on.

I think the best part of the whole incident, and probably why I can think it is so funny and not annoying in the least, is that Damian very nicely cleaned up all of the poop while I bathed Gray.

Gray is almost a year old! He turns one on the 26th of this month. I can’t believe that he is so old already!

He has changed so much in the last month. He is now a walker. I love it. He toddles around and falls down constantly. Every day he is a bit more stable. He also talks so much now. He speaks in long sentences… in gibberish. He punctuates his sentences with his hands and speaks with such conviction. He also laughs at himself after he says a lot. So completely adorable. And I swear the other day he said “Up!” and put his hands in the air. Damian thinks that it is pure coincidence but I disagree.

I can see that the baby is slipping away and slowly he is becoming a toddler. Sometimes I feel nostalgic (already!) for the days when he was only seven pounds. Then I realize that I slept 10 hours last night and I feel grateful that the sleep deprivation part is mostly over.

Three weeks ago I decided to do weight watchers to start (FINALLY) losing this dreadful baby weight. Tonight I find myself eating lukewarm stuffing mixed with creamed corn in bed. I’m not sure how many calories I am consuming but I am sure it isn’t a good number. Now that I have written that down, I can’t seem to make myself take another bite.

I also now realize how lucky I am that my husband will tolerate a wife who eats something so gross in bed.

On another note, Grayson understood a word today! At least we think he did. Damian was playing with Gray and he told Gray to clap. AND HE DID! We were so excited! He didn’t just do it once. He did it over and over again!

The next word I want Gray to learn to understand is no. It would make my life a million times easier.

It was the first appointment where I didn’t barrage the doctor with questions. During the last three months I have become less of the paranoid, nervous new mom and more of the relaxed, confident in my ability to take care of my baby kind of mom. I am happy that I am beginning to cross over that line. I spend a lot less time worrying about irrational things. I still have my moments, Damian and my mother could tell you lots of them. I think going through Gray having the flu has also relaxed me a lot. Having him so sick has really made me appreciate his good health.

Today I found out that swine flu vaccine is only available in our area via a mass vaccination in a park, of all places. They are expecting 2000+ people to come. Isn’t bringing a massive group of people together to stand in line and wait for a vaccination the perfect breeding ground for illness? It seems illogical to me. Whatever though, we need to get it, so we will go.

I have quickly begun to enjoy this routine. I love gathering his warm body against my chest. I love stroking his cheeks in the dim light. I love the way his little hand reaches up and touches my skin. I love the rhythmic butt patting that I have to do to get him to go to sleep. (why do babies love this?) I love to see his drowsy smiles as he drifts off to sleep. I love every bit of it.

All of those things make it worth it to have my sleep interrupted once again.