Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Tatum Beau: 15 Months

Now that Tatum's past his first year I figured for the second year I'd just do these posts every three months really just for my own memory!


 12 Months - End October
 13 Months - Early December 
14 Months - Christmas Day

Height, Weight & Health:
At his 15 month appointment he weighed 21 pounds, 12 ounces and was 30 inches  - his weight was down (34th percentile) since he'd been sick and his height was off we think because he'd either moved a lot at this appointment or the last one (10th percentile).  He also got three more shots at his appointment

Tatum was late with getting teeth but in addition to his bottom two his top four center teeth came in just about all at once between 12-13 months.  At 14-15 months his molars started coming in.

Clothes:
Tatum's wearing 12 month and 12-18 month clothing as well as size four diapers.

Sleep:
We're still doing two naps and depending what we have going on that day depends on which is longer. His morning nap is usually his more set at the same time each day and longer.  We tried doing one nap recently and while he did do a nice long nap he was cranky before and exhausted by dinner time (12 months).

At 13 months we started fighting the battle of one nap vs two.  Tatum wasn't always into two naps but not quite ready for one - it's been a progress to figure out our new schedule - occasionally he'll take one 3 hour or so long nap, some days it's two shorter naps and some days one average length nap (13 months).

When he was sick he got back into the habit of doing two naps... We'll see what next month brings!

Feeding:
Has learned to throw food from his tray and knows exactly what he's doing - he get's a little smirk as he drops a piece.  We've noticed at this age one day he'll love a food and one day not be into it - just hit or miss (12 months).

Perogies, Apple Cinnamon Donuts, Lasagna, Hamburger, Quesadilla and Mexican Rice, Hard Boiled Eggs, Goldfish, Chicken, Etc.

Schedule:
With the time change we usually do his bedtime routine earlier so he has his bottle right around 7 and falls asleep right after - some nights if we're out or have other things going on he does a little later and handles it well.  He's usually up a bit earlier now too anywhere from 6:30-7:30 in the morning (starting at 12 months).

Likes:
Really enjoys his bigger playsets that he got for his birthday from us/friends.  A little tikes food car and a little tikes garden play center (12 months).

Walking - everywhere!  He loves to grab toys to pickup and carry with him - big or small.  Waving to people.  We've been to a few events where he's gotten balloon animals and he loves them.

Playing in the pantry and mudroom.  Also climbing on anything he possibly can!  The vacuum cleaner and dust buster.

Has fun playing with his little people sets.  During the Christmas season he loved playing with one of Stella's Rudolph toys and the two would have so much fun stealing it from each other.

Ballon animals - we've been at a few events lately and he loves getting them and then playing with them (13 months).

Dislikes:
He had a big fall at his party party (12 months) and got a big bump and cut on his head but luckily the swelling went down quickly, a few nurses were at the party and said we were fine.

If he's walking/playing and doesn't want to be picked up - he'll let you know!

Doesn't always like wearing bibs.

Getting medicine and being sick.  He had a really bad cold and then the next week threw up twice and couldn't keep food down for the day (14 months).

He's started the stage of temper tantrums - if you take something he wanted, if he doesn't like something, etc (14 months).

Milestones:
Celebrated his second Halloween but his first that he could really partake in. (12 months)

Time to baby proof! He loves opening/shutting the cabinets, pulling things out, etc. (12 months)

Celebrated his second Thanksgiving and got his first taste of Thanksgiving food... and dessert (13 months).

Learned how to clap and is so proud of himself when he does it!  Claps when he does something right or fun, when something excites him, etc (13/14 months).

Celebrated his second Christmas - He loved opening presents and the wrapping paper, playing with everything and getting his first tastes of our traditional Christmas meal(s).

Had his first real sickness - a bad cold, throwing up, fever, etc.  He didn't have a big appetite and would only keep a few liquids down.  Spent an entire night not sleeping.

Started getting his molars in... the same time he was sick (14 months).

Places:
We visited Linvilla Farm to go to Pumpkinland, apple picking, seeing the animals and playing on the playground the week  before Halloween and he loved it all (12 months).

He made a few more visits up to State College to finish out the season. (12/13 months)

His first trip to Dallas and a visit to AT&T Stadium. (12 months).

He went to get his second Christmas tree, meet Santa, see Jack Frost at a local theater, a Santa parade, Brunch with Santa, and many more Christmas activities (13 months).

Tatum's first time to New York City (14 months).

He went to the mountains for a weekend with a few of his friends - his first time playing in the snow (14 months).

Favorites:
Little people, fisher price food truck, lil crunches, basketball hoop (12 months).

Step2 Christmas tree, little tikes rocking horse, paw patrol car, lil crunchies, throw away placemats (13/14 months).

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

This & That

We've been pretty lazy since January hit and have been enjoying some family downtime.  Early to bed, cooking at home, etc.  We kept our little trees up until last week and I miss them so much.


Tatum wasn't feeling well again on Monday and couldn't keep down any of his meals then just had no appetite - I'm ready for our little guy to feel better!  We've been doing a lot of cuddling and laying low.


Since we've been home a lot lately, we've been doing a lot of indoor playing and getting creative with anything we can - also lots of time in sweats, ha!


We went to the mountains last weekend with some friends and had a good time relaxing, eating and playing in the snow.  With both the Eagles and Cowboys in the playoffs we've had fun watching Sunday football but now both are out and I'm ready for some cozy Sundays.

Friday, January 11, 2019

Thirty


Five days before Christmas I celebrated my 30th birthday!  I don't mind having my birthday right in the heart of the holiday season - it makes that week all the more special.  (Although one year I wouldn't be opposed to doing a pool party half birthday instead of a December birthday celebration!)


I had such a wonderful day - we kept it very low key and scrapped our original day plans to enjoy more relaxing - dropped off all the food from our Christmas party to the food bank, went to my favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch and a few errands then Christmas movies and naps on the couch! We met my family for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants that night and had a wonderful dinner and time.


After dinner everyone came back over for presents and cake... and a little bit of playing with Tatum. After all that we got cozy on the couch by the Christmas trees for another movie.  What a wonderful day!


The next evening as I was finishing up baking cookies and we were deciding what to do for dinner Derek told me to go get ready and my parents were coming out to celebrate that he wanted us to go out for dinner to celebrate my birthday! I suspected something was up as we'd just been out in the city two nights before.

He'd planned such a nice surprise party with a bunch of our couple friends at a private room in one of my favorite restaurants.  He and one of our good friends picked the menu family style based on all of my favorites and we all had the best time.  I felt so special!

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Scenes From Christmas Break

Christmas Break could pretty much be summed up like this... lots of relaxing, sleeping in, naps, eating, etc.  I still can't believe it's over - we've been trying to get back into the swing of things this week - eating healthy, working out but Tatum has been sick so we're taking it slowly.


We did a lot of playing - Tatum was loving his new toys and Derek and I both had fun testing them out too.  I did a big playroom clean out too and we now have a big box of baby toys in the basement since Tatum doesn't play with them as much anymore.


Lots of big family dinners, small family dinners just the three of us, nights with friends and just going with the flow - what Christmas Break is about!


We went to Disney on Ice with some friends for a birthday party and the Mickey lover our little boy is was very into it with all the action, lights and music.


We have a family football pool (which thanks to Clemson I won the pool!) so we usually get together a night to all watch together with a bunch of family - this year we went out.


The library had a little NYE countdown party for kids a few days before New Year's Eve that Tatum enjoyed and one of our best friends also visited for the night for take out, drinks and chatting.


We went out NYE but didn't get a single picture!  It was fun but as Tatum gets older, next year I definitely want to stay in with him.  New Year's Day was centered around the Penn State game - we had a viewing party and despite the loss had a nice day.


And last but not least, we took down Christmas.  I'm so sad to see it go but having the house clean and tidy is nice.  We do still have our living room tree up and will probably take that down this weekend.


Monday, January 7, 2019

Christmas 2018


A few weeks late but I'm finally getting around to sharing our Christmas - these are my favorite posts to look back on for myself so I wanted to make sure to get it done.

After getting Tatum some breakfast we took him in to see what Santa brought - we started with stockings and his Santa sack and could have stopped there - his first stocking items he would not put down!  Stella of course got a lot of attention and gifts as well.


We moved over to the tree next and Tatum was such a joy to watch - he went right to each of his big gifts to check them out and then continued looking back between each of them - we let him play a little bit before opening up the rest of his gifts.


Tatum's favorite was his car - now he loves his kitchen just as much too.  He happily played for a little bit while Derek and I opened up our stockings and gifts then we all played fora bit together.


Next up was Christmas part two - about 10:30 we headed over to my parents for stockings, gifts, playing and our traditional brunch.  We let Tatum go right at it and see what Santa had brought him there.  Lovie cleverly put some toys into his playpen which kept him pretty occupied while we all started in on our gifts to each other.


I'll probably say this every year but it was all our our favorite year yet.  We spent less time dwelling on opening gifts and more time enjoying being together, playing, relaxing, etc.


About noon we sat down for our usual Christmas breakfast of coffee cake, sausage casserole and fruit - Tatum's first time trying and he loved it just as much as us.  We all took spots on the couches after for napping and relaxing.


Mid afternoon Derek, Tatum, Stella and I made our way back home to get changed and ready for dinner with all of our extended family.  I'd set up most things the day before and prepped food so luckily we didn't have too much to get done.


I kept the apps simple with peppers/dip, a cheese platter and some crab dip.  For dinner we did our usual ham, potatoes, broccoli salad, mushrooms, lasagna, green beans, lobster mac n cheese and then cookies and such for dessert.


We spent the rest of the night chatting, playing with toys, opening a few more gifts, enjoying a few cocktails and having a wonderful Christmas night.  I can't believe the magical season is already over - looking forward to next year already!