Food is a big part of our life around here. We probably spend close to 2 hours a day just in the kitchen eating which seems kinda crazy now that I'm thinking about it. Anyway, some of our favorite foods these days include avocado, sweet potato chips, pineapple, bacon, and pop chips. Brett seems to be pretty open to trying most things which is nice but I'm sure he'll hit the picky eater phase eventually.
In other news, my sister and her little family welcomed their newest addition on July 9, 2015 at 4:21AM. Everette Joseph Walter weighed in at 8lb 9oz and 20" long, and brings the count of Gessner grandchildren to a total of 6 boys!!!
Congrats Lins and Travis on your newest baby boy!
Vernon is already such a sweet big brother!
All 3 of the second children have the same noses!
All 3 of the second children have the same noses!
I'm not sure who he looks like just yet but he is such a cutie!
This month Brett:
- had to do sleep training again. The first time it took 3 days to get back to smoothly going to bed. Then he got sick, then he got a vaccine so most of the month was a mess sleepwise. Then we had to do it again about midway through the month. Again, it took about 3 nights for him to go to bed without too much trouble.
- got his first haircut. He wasn't really sure what was going on at first so he was stunned silent for the first minute or 2, then he realized he wasn't a big fan and started with the big pouty lip and started reaching for me. He made it through and we got rid of the baby mullet!
- has been really hard to get down for his naps. We've had to start using the car a lot of the time. His morning naps are pretty much impossible to get him down while we're at home still, so I just nurse him then pack the boys into the car and we head somewhere and once he falls asleep Blake gets to play on his Kindle (motivation to stay quiet and let Brett get his 30 minute nap). Sometimes he won't fall asleep and we've had a couple single nap days even though he does seem to need that morning nap still. He actually went down for his first nap ever by himself a couple days ago.
- knows how to flush the toilet. After watching me do it enough (he always comes with me to the bathroom) he decided to try and mess with the handle and one time he actually got it to flush so now he's drawn to it every time we're in there.
- knows his head, hair, ears, toes, nose, mouth, teeth, and belly button. We started with hair and then he learned head and toes from one of his bedtime stories and now he points things out on everyone else and wants to know what they're called so he'll point (poke) and grunt like he's asking a question to listen to us tell him what it's called.
- holds everything to his ear like it's a phone. He loves to imitate us talking on the phone and he'll grab all kinds of things around the house and hold it up to his head and even rest it on his shoulder sometimes. He's started making talking noises while doing it as well which is so cute.
- went for his 12 month checkup at the doctor (a little late). He measured in at 30" tall (34%), 21.5 lb (19%), and head circumference of 47cm (55%). He really hasn't gained weight in a while since he has been moving (running) around so much to keep up with his brother. But of course we have big heads around here hahaha! Everything else seemed to be right on track except sleeping through the night but that is something we'll have to keep working on. The doctor didn't say that we were missing any milestones, but basically that he's capable and to just do what works best for us.
- opens and closes drawers and takes things in and out of them. He has the easiest time getting into Blake's drawers and pulls underpants out and puts them back in all the time. Sometimes I have to check other drawers for things since he will put things back in the wrong drawers.
- wants to climb everything and is so excited to make it onto the couch. He will throw a leg up on anything and try and stand up on any toy he sees if he thinks it'll help him climb onto something else. He is very agile (guess that lean body helps) and has really strong limbs. It will be fun to see how quickly he can get up a climbing wall.
- started saying "uh" for up when he wants to be picked up. Also says UNH uh since I normally say that over and over after saying NO to get him to stop doing something. He doesn't really know what this one means since he'll say it when I'm pretty sure he means yes. A lot of times I'll ask him to say a word and he'll either just say "night night" which is his most commonly used word, or he'll make the "ck" sound with his mouth closed.
- loves holding onto bananas in the shopping cart at the grocery store. He always has to be holding onto something or he'll just grab for everything. We normally head to the produce section first and he grunts and points as soon as he sees the bananas so he gets one to hold onto.
- can open the door to the garage. Unlike all the other doors in the house, the door to the garage is a lever style and he's finally tall enough to pull it down and open it if he stretches as high as he can on his tip toes. So needless to say, we've had to keep it locked.
- bangs and knocks on doors like Blake, and imitates everything (especially that his brother does). We've reached full "monkey see, monkey do" stage which makes things so much worse when Blake starts misbehaving. He'll try and do almost anything Blake does and he usually does a really good job of it too! He also imitates me and it was so cute when he cleaned up all the bath toys and shook the water out of each one, just like I do, before putting it in the bucket.
- stacks Legos to make a long stick. He knows which way to put them together and can stack quite a few together.
- knows tissues are for blowing your nose. Every time he sees one he sniffs a little big and scrunches his nose. If he gets his hand on a tissue (clean or dirty) he'll quickly put it up to his nose and do a little sniff/blow combo.
- pretends to feed other people with a spoon. I guess he saw Blake doing it with me when we were playing pretend kitchen and baking soups and stews and we let each other taste the imaginary food. Now he'll shove spoons, spatulas, anything into your face to get you to "try" whatever he's "making".
- cut 3 more teeth within a week. He finally got the 2 on the bottom next to the middle ones. He's been teething on a bunch of stuff and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get those next ones. Then a few days later (after being exceptionally fussy) I felt that his top left molar had started to poke through while I was brushing his teeth.
- figured out how to climb onto the love seat without standing on anything. He was so stinking excited and wants to run around and lean over the edges on all sides. Now I can basically never leave him in that room alone, ugh.
- can go up stairs without assistance. He was able to do it at the mall in the hallway while he was dragging a bag behind him. He got stuck because the bag was too heavy, but when I lifted the bag, he went up 4 steps in a row by himself.
- can blow. He watches me and Blake blow on our food to cool it off and he started doing it and if I blow on some of his food then hand it to him, he'll put it right up to his mouth and blow it too before putting it in his mouth. He also got his hands on a party blower and was able to do it on the second try!
This month Blake:
- loves when I put him to bed and tell him what I'm proud of him for that day. This is something I started to try and give him something to look forward to with the whole going to bed routine and also something to work toward during the days. He's been getting a little defiant so I wanted to try and focus on the good things he does during the day. Now as soon as he crawls into bed he asks "ok mom, what are you proud of me for?" Most of the time it is how nice he is with his brother, or how he helped me during the day, or when he did something nice when I didn't even ask.
- had his crib converted to a toddler bed. We mentioned to him last month about getting him a big boy bed instead of a crib and he FREAKED out. I mean tons and tons of tears. We decided that the smallest change would be for him to first have his crib converted to a toddler bed for a few months and then we can get him a more long term bed next when we hand his crib down to Brett.
- went in for allergy testing. He got the skin test done on his back and we had him tested for a lot of common allergens. The list was mostly put together by the allergy doctor but we changed a few of the food items out. The list that he was tested for is as follows: american cockroach, german cockroach, cat, dog, A. P. dog, Alternaria, Cladosporium, Helminthosporium, Penicillium, Asperigillas, Cow's milk, soy, egg white, egg yolk, wheat, peanut, almond, corn, salmon, oat, beef, tomato, and coconut. He only tested positive for peanut surprisingly, so the next step is to get a new blood test that they have that will narrow down which of the 9 peanut proteins he's allergic to so we know if he is at risk for severe reactions that might require an epi-pen.
- has been kicking and throwing a lot. He's getting a lot stronger and possibly is just producing more testosterone, but he cannot control himself when it comes to throwing things. He always throws things over his head when he's done with them. He even tried this at the beach with sand and this didn't work out so well for himself. He also has a lot of strong emotions and if he isn't happy about a decision or gets really excited, sometimes he'll just kick his legs around as fast as possible and has no clue how strong he is and it is quite dangerous, especially with Brett around.
- likes for me to sing nursery rhymes to him before bed. I'm not really sure how this started but this is the last thing we do at night after he gets in bed and I tell him what I'm proud of him for. It is nice getting to snuggle with him now that he isn't at the bottom of a crib anymore. We pick some nursery rhymes from an Elmo CD that we have in the car and we keep the lyric song books in his room.
- instead of answering a question with "no", he'll say other negative words like nothing, nobody, never, none, not at all.
- had some good quotes: "I have some good news and some bad news...", "Activate lift arms (or grabber hands or anything machine-like)", "Me and my pop chips are having a great time sitting here watching TV".
Pics:
We went to the beach for the 4th of July and Chris got a pic of me and the boys in our patriotic attire. I couldn't find another flag for Brett since I waited until the day of to start looking for one, but Blake's flag has made it 3 years now. It was a good dollar store purchase!
Getting ready for his first haircut.
He's not sure about this whole thing.
He was silent but you could tell on his face that he was ready for it to be over.
It was so nice to get all the uneven baby hair trimmed up.
Bye bye baby mullet!
He was pointing to me because he wanted me to come pick him up and save him. The tears weren't far off at this point.
Yay, all trimmed up!
Blake's crib was transformed to a toddler bed and both boys love it.
Posing with his favorite blue blanket.
Showing me this is how he sleeps.
This is pretty much how Blake always looks when he asks for his picture to be taken.
We finally got some updated pictures on the wall. We've decided to do a collage for each year and I love how it turned out!
Blake always has to be flopping around.
"Mom, you're idea didn't work." Blake says this to me a lot and in this case he was right yet again. The baby gate idea was pretty ineffective... (and Blake flopping again...)
Just chilling out.
Playing on Blake's bed is so exciting.
OMG the cuteness!!
Such a loving big brother!
I finally finished Brett's baby blanket. It's 36"x 48" and much too big for his bed right now. Hopefully it'll grow with him since the one I made for Blake was 36"x 36" and I've already had to make it bigger. He does love to snuggle with it though.
Shopping for some fruit pouches.
The boys playing their nightly video games together.
Our arsenal of ride-on/push toys. (Not pictured: the fire truck and golf bag)
Art time, and Blake isn't interested in finesse painting... just smash it into the paper.
Brett was happy to be included.
Is he right handed?
Maybe left? (I'm pretty sure he's right, but he's double fisting and it was the red crayon's turn.)
Blake loves his playdoh press.
He also learned how to roll snakes finally!
This is one of his favorite "phones". It really is about the size of a Brett sized smart phone.
Talking and driving.
He just can't get close enough to his toys. (Diaper boxes make really good toy bins too.)
Daddy watching the boys while I was in the kitchen.
We got rain for a few days straight and probably ended up with around 10" or so. Brett certainly did not like being out in the rain but he liked watching it from inside. He got a pretty good view of our little patio area which turns into a swimming pool. He was pretty mesmerized by it.
A perfect sized box for Brett to sit in.
Helping clean the floor. There is always a mess in the kitchen.
Decorating his coffee filter for our art project. The next step involved water so it was fun for sure. Oh and you can't see his face but it had marker all over it hahaha.
Videos:
Brett loves to stand on the ride toys.
Brett looking at his tongue in the mirror.
Brett's first time in the Gulf.
Blake running at the children's museum.
The boys doing "hip hip hooray".
Brett dragging a bag at the mall. A ton of people kept commenting on how cute he was. He brings so much joy to the old folk who are all over the place at the mall.
Brett blowing his nose.
Blake jumping to the high bar at MyGym.
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