The Harvey Family: Blake

A lot has happened each week this first year in Blake's life. Now that he's walking, I'm sure we'll be busier than ever. I'm probably going to start doing the blog every other week for a while and see how it goes. It really does take a ton of time to get all the pics ready for this blog, but I'm really glad we have them to look back on. Crazy to think that there are only 2 days left till Blake's 1st birthday! Stay tuned for cake smashing video.

This week, Blake:

started tearing apart his food while eating in his highchair. I guess he saw me tearing off pieces of his toast to give to him so he thought he should do the same thing once it was on his tray. Once I started cutting it with a knife, it kinda fell by the wayside. I thought it was pretty interesting to realize how much he picks up without me giving it a second thought.
has had a much bigger appetite. I guess all this walking around really burns a lot of calories. He used to just eat a serving of rice cereal with his lunch, but now he eats that plus half a piece of toast, a couple oz of either chicken or ground beef, some avocado, and a handful of Cheerios or puffs. He lets me know he's done when he starts throwing things on the floor. I've been trying to come up with an alternative for him so I just have him hand stuff to me when he's "all done". Sometimes it becomes a game because he'll wait for me to put my hand out and then he'll touch his food to my hand then put it in his mouth real quick.
started picking things up off the ground and actually giving them to me instead of putting them straight in his mouth. I've started calling dirt and other things on the floor "yucky" and put out my hand, so he'll pick it up and give me the "yuckies" instead of putting them in his mouth. Win!
learned how to climb steps finally. We don't have any steps in our house so he didn't really have a chance to practice. However, at the library the little stage where Mother Goose sits has a couple steps with the prize of books at the top so he was motivated enough to climb up and start throwing books over his shoulder, oiy.
still loves his morning walks in the stroller. He starts getting antsy every morning once he's been up for 1.5 hours and knows it is time for his walk. It is totally his "relax" time to point out the squirrels, airplanes, dogs, and birds. He used to fall asleep almost every morning but now that he's been sleeping a little later he doesn't fall asleep as much. When he doesn't then it becomes a 1-nap day which has been ok lately. That way we aren't late for our morning activity and the afternoon nap lasts a little longer.
went to the playground at the Dunedin Community Center again and was finally able to walk around. Instead of walking around all he wanted to do was try and pick up all the "yucky" leaves off the ground... and there were a TON. Oh well, he did have a lot of fun on the slide at least. I'd hold him as he went down by himself then let him climb off the bottom of the slide and walk around to me so I could lift him back up and do it again.
said the word "clock" and meant it. We keep a table clock on the end table in the living room and we've been pointing it out to him. On Friday night he turned around, pointed to it, and said "cock". Daddy was so caught off guard and impressed he let Blake up on the couch to get a better view of it as a reward. Now Blake thinks all he has to do is say clock to get up on the couch.
is pretty good at retrieving objects. He'll bring us objects or take them somewhere if we ask. One of his cups was on the floor in the kitchen so when he was done eating, I told him to take the cup to Daddy (in the living room) and he walked all the way in there and gave it to him. So cute! Now how can we exploit this? =)
can show you where his head is and sometimes where his nose is.
started throwing temper tantrums... this has been a fun new development.

Week 52 Pics:

Trapped by pulling all his toy bins over.

A little early morning teething on the remote control.

Hanging out in his PJs.

I have good company while using the bathroom. Moms, you know the lurker well.

Testing the length of his go-go-Gessner arms.

What happened to my stroller? I'll figure it out by poking at these screws.

Dissecting his food.

All the cabinets are open, now quickly crawl away, mission accomplished!

Whew, got all the seat cushions on the floor where they belong.

I'm not sure they come any cuter than this.

Always has his pointing finger ready.

Carrying the heavy cube around to show his brute strength.

Gangnam style?

Going down the slide at the playground. He loved this until we had a friend take some pics for us. Then he got camera shy.

I love this action shot. <3

Climbing up the steps.

Big mess in the kitchen while making bday cake.

Fresh out of the oven... looks like it worked this time!

I made 2 filled up to different levels in case one overflowed. I had to taste it to make sure it was the right consistency and it worked great this time! Definitely tastes like a dense cake this time and not a fluffy cookie that fell apart.