This boy. Oh, he has my heart. It started waaaay back when he was developing inside my abdomen. He would give me little kicks and I just knew I would love him. Then came the ultrasound. I fell in love so quickly, seeing the image of this sweet baby inside of me. He showed his personality in the womb, how he loved when we talked to him, sang to him, or when the kids got rambunctious. He still LOVES all those things. This boy is just a JOY.
Here are some fun facts about him:
-For a long time, he did not reject any foods that we gave him. He ate everything except for banana pieces, which he didnt quite seem to know what to do with. Too slippery, maybe? I gave him peas, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, potatoes, spinach, squash, and all the varieties of fruits as well, blueberries, apricots, mangoes, peaches, strawberries, applesauce, etc. He loved everything. But in the last month or so, he has started to get a bit pickier. He seems to want full on meals. If I give him too many snacky foods, he gets kind of mad. The boy LOVES to eat. I stopped breastfeeding him several weeks ago and instead give him several formula bottles a day, and the boy didn't mind at all switching. And I am a much happier mama since that boy was so distracted, would come off twenty or more times in a 5 minute feeding, so frustrating and I would have to hole myself up in the bedroom with the door locked so we wouldn't have distractions from kids, and still he would pull off constantly. So, yes, we were both done!
-This boy loves to PLAY. He plays and explores quite a bit on his own. It's interesting how these last two kiddos are so independent. He loves to crawl around and lately walk around. For awhile there, he was always trying to sneak off and go up the stairs without me and explore. He will go to the boys room and see all the interesting things that are in there or he will crawl into the bathroom and start splashing in the toilet, or start unrolling the toilet paper. Or he will wander into his room and open his bottom dresser drawer that has board books in it and pull them out to look at. He's quite busy! Thankfully, the kitchen is finally baby proofed, so I don't have to constantly watch him every second. Now, it's just every other second, ha.
-Thankfully I have a few places for him to play safely if he is aggressively exploring and I need to get something done. I put him in our unusable tub in our bathroom if I need to get ready. We keep a bunch of toys in there so he loves it and I have the pack n play set up in the family room if I need to get dinner done and he is going for the stairs constantly. He plays pretty well in there and by the time he wants to get out, I am usually done and can get him and sit and play for a bit.
-He no longer lets me rock him to sleep. :( He seems to know that when I am holding him and I turn off the light in his room, it is sleepy time and he gets mad and wiggles out of my arms, so I put him in his crib, hug him as long as he wants to, and then wave goodbye and leave. He falls asleep pretty quickly, thank goodness.
-But he still loves to be held by his mama and give me snuggles. Sometimes he just wants to be held, so I pick him up when he is fussing and he immediately calms, and leans his head into my face. It is the sweetest thing. I'm new to this having a snuggly baby thing and I actually quite LOVE it. I just breathe him in and savor those precious moments. I love being his mother and I love that he wants to be close to me. One special night, Brad and I were both putting him to bed, and when I went to hug him goodnight after putting him in his crib, he hugged me for a good minute, holding me close and leaning his head into mine. It was one of the most precious moments of my life, as usually he will hug me, but he is crying to get out. No crying, just snuggling. It was heaven. I can't help but adore him.
-He seems to know that Gabe is the funny man, silly friend. He laughs like no other when he is with Gabe. Gabe cracks him up. I've given Gabe permission to go inside the pack n play with Andre, and sit and play with him, and Andre just loves it. Gabe has started to play more and more with him, and Andre just is looking for a laugh and looking to be wild. It's so cute!
-Noah and Amalie are great older siblings to Andre. They are always ready to help out, getting him in the morning, getting him from a nap, helping dress him, making a bottle, helping to feed him or entertain him. They are amazing and they adore him so much, they just can hardly say no when I ask for their help.
-He is walking quite a bit nowadays. It started in January when my sis and bro in law brought their daughters walker over. They let Andre try it out and he loved it. So of course, we had to get one for Andre. And it really strengthened his walking. Now, he seems to try walking for about half the time. He looks so cute with his little legs spread out far for balance and he does tight turns and everything.
-He is getting more vocal, saying "mama" and "dada" and such and other things that I have no idea what they are, but I can tell he is trying to copy the things we say and the sounds we make. It is fun to hear his sweet little voice so frequently.
-He sleeps through the night, usually putting him down from 8 to 9 pm and he sleeps til a little after 8 in the morning. Heaven, I tell you! I put him down for two naps usually as well. Or at least I try to.
A year of JOY!
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