12 Months

I've been working on this post for a while now, but just haven't had time to get it all finished.  And, I don't want to believe that a year has gone by.  Little babies no longer, Caleb and Clayton are 1!

 We have had another sickly month around here.  This has been a rough winter illness wise, for sure.  Caleb got his second set of tubes due to recurrent ear infections, and Clayton battled a viral throat infection that really ate his lunch for a few days as well as a respiratory virus that we had to treat with breathing treatments around the clock every three hours and oral steroids.  Caleb also joined in on the respiratory virus fun, but we were able to keep him out of the hospital this time.  Our pedi recommended we stay "away from other small children" for the rest of the month, so hopefully we can get healthy at prison  home for the next couple weeks.  I decided to keep nursing through the end of sick season, since we are all still benefiting.  We are doing morning, lunch, and bedtime feedings.  They are fine if they are without them.

 Clayton:
Still eats like a champ.  We are completely done with baby food, except for the handy squeeze pouches on rare occasions when we're out and about without finger foods.  He has become more picky on veggies lately, electing to toss the occasional carrot, green bean, pea, or hominy overboard for Fred.  He loves any sort of casserole that we're eating for dinner, fruit, black beans, and meats.  One of his favorite meals is sweet potatoes and salmon, much like his daddy.  He chugs whole milk out of his sippy.  A big treat to him are yogurt melts or honey graham sticks.  He rocked "fangs" for a few weeks, but his two front teeth are now in bring his grand total to 6.  Clayton doesn't always put his teeth to good use, as he prefers the swallow/gag/reswallow method of speed eating.

Clayton loves to play with whatever Caleb currently has in his hands.  Now fully mobile with his army man crawl, his pastime of choice is chasing after a ball pinging on our concrete floors.  He loves to "play catch" with a ball by handing it back and forth with you.  Our mini car ramp is also big fun to send cars and balls down.  Clayton drives cars back and forth, all the while making car noises.  He is new at pulling up, and it still requires a good deal of effort.  Clayton thinks he deserves a round of applause when he does lug his big 21 lb. 7 oz. body to the upright position.  He doesn't really have great balance and will slowly slip into the splits or fall over rather than move his feet underneath him.  Bath time is also a Clayton favorite.  He alternates between splashing up a storm and pulling out his earplugs, a stressful combination for sure.  He loves to sit in the little tykes truck he got for his birthday.  Clayton is not exactly delicate.  He reminds me of a bull in a china shop.  He also loves to play with nesting toys, stacking and unstacking them and hiding little items under bigger ones.

This boy loves his sleep.  He is ready for bed close to 8 and often times sleeps in to between 8 and 8:30.  I still put him down awake in his crib with his blanket around 11 for morning nap, and off to sleep he goes!  He sucks on his blanket while he's going to sleep and it's often soaked and stinky by the time nap time is over.  Thankfully, he still takes about 4 hours worth of naps a day.  A few days he's taken them all in one big morning nap and none in the afternoon.  I'm not ready for one nap a day yet, so I've been waking him if he's still asleep at 1:30.  His afternoon nap is usually much shorter, but still overlaps with Benton's.

Clayton still thinks that all animal say "ruff" like a dog.  He can frequently be heard barking.  He is pretty stingy with his words at the moment, but can sure cry for momma when he needs something.  He "mmmmms" all during meal times.  Clayton loves to play patty cake, clap his hands, blow kisses, and wave hi and bye.  He can touch his nose and ears when asked.  He also knows the sign for airplane.

Caleb is more of a picky eater.  He carefully chooses with two fingers what will go in his mouth, and if he doesn't like it spits it right back out.  He will eat the inside of blueberries, grapes, and peas and spit out the peel.  Chicken, fish, hamburger meat, lunch meat, and cheerios are some of his favorites.  He has been hovering around the 17 lb. weight since August.  If I can't get him to eat what's served, he occasionally gets a pouch of the pureed food he can suck out himself.  He prefers his whole milk with a scoop of Nesquick.  Who doesn't love a little chocolate?  I figure it's better for him to get the milk and we can phase it out as he gets more used to the taste of whole milk.

Caleb loves to play with his little people.  He frequently can be found crawling around with something in both hands and in his mouth.  He loves our zoo that we got for Christmas, and is often found opening doors, pushing buttons or levers.  I can tell he is going to be the mischievous one!  He is too smart for his own good.  Caleb will climb into or on anything then promptly dive right off.  He keeps me on my toes.  He loves walking behind and pushing ride on toys we got for his birthday.  Though I'm not encouraging it, he will be walking soon!  One of his favorite times of the day is the 45 minutes in the morning that he gets to play in his crib alone with toys.  I turn on music and he is so happy that no one will be trying to take what he's got.  He can already work puzzles with a little assistance and loves to look at books with me.  I feel like I'm always having to somewhat defend him from his brothers taking things from him.

Caleb is still a great little sleeper.  He is usually up and ready to get up for the day around 7:30.  It is rare for him to sleep in much more.  Caleb seems to be ready for a nap a little before Clayton, so he usually takes his naps in "the cave" aka our walk in closet set up with a pack and play.  Don't judge-it's quiet, dark, and cool.  Definitely the best nap spot in the whole house!  When he's ready for bed he starts crawling over to me, laying his head on my chest, and his thumb goes in his mouth.  His sweet cuddles melt my heart every time.  The sight of his beloved blanket also sets off the thumb sucking.

His little vocabulary has grown quite a bit recently.  He can say momma, daddy, nana, honey, night night, bye bye, and grunts two syllables for Clayton and Benton.  He will repeat other words back.  We watch signing times DVDs as we do our breathing treatments twice daily and he really is learning a lot.  He signs dog, airplane, ball, please, and is always waving his hands around wildly trying to tell me something.  He can touch his nose, ears, eyes, mouth, and head on command.  Caleb hears "no" quite a bit, and will always touch his nose.  Sometimes he just motors over to the blinds, touches them, grins, and points to his nose.  He is cute, a flirt, and he knows it.  When asked how old he is, he will smile and hold up one finger and clap for himself.  Caleb will also blow kisses to me unprompted.  He is very affectionate and loves to cuddle, suck his thumb, and pat my back.

These two have brought us more joy than we even thought was possible.  They are so different, and I feel incredibly blessed that God trusted us with two sweet boys to mold and raise.  We love you Caleb and Clayton!