Adventures with Zilla: 12 months!

How old?: 

12 months!  1 year!  It's my mommiversary! We survived!

Weight/Height:  

At his 12 month check up Zilla comes in at 31 inches (87th percentile) and 21.6 lbs (50th percentile).  Sounds like a great build for an athlete if you ask me ;-)

Baby clothes:  

12 month clothes pretty consistently although I squeeze him into 9 month clothing on a regular basis.  Also, there are still 6 month outfits hanging in his closet because I don't want to put them away. 

Milestones: 

Wow!  I feel like a lot has happened this month.  Zilla is quickly becoming more and more confident with his walking.  We can walk just holding one hand and it is one of my favorite things in the world to just walk around holding my son's hand.  He pulls up on anything and everything and will walk along holding onto to whatever he can to get to where he wants to go.

Zilla has made strides in his fine motor movements as well.  Rather than knocking blocks over as a hobby, he is now able to stack blocks and continues to enjoy putting shapes into holes. 

I can see his little personality coming out everyday.  He will try to trick us sometimes or test our limits.  For example, one day he was dropping his food on the floor for Boots to eat.  We started to tell him to stop and when he didn't we held off on giving him more food.  When we did he ate a few pieces and then picked up a piece, put it close to his mouth, and then held it out to drop for Boots.  He's not great at his trickery skills just yet, but I can already see how important discipline will be from an early age. 

He likes to hit his head with his hand while eating and I think we've done it enough to where he knows where is head is.  He is definitely getting awesome at making associations.  He tries to put his socks and shoes on his feet, though unsuccessful.  He also picked up the remote to the fan and looked up towards it, like he knew that's what it did.  Which I'm not sure how he learned because we've not used that thing all winter.  He's simply very smart, pays close attention to detail and learns patterns quickly. 

Special outings: 

We made a trip to Houston this month.  As always, it was so nice to see our Houston family.  It was a pretty packed weekend.  We spent most of Saturday with Nina and that night mommy and daddy went to lunch with Hubskie's brother and family while Nina watched Zilla .  On Sunday we went to Hubskie's sister's house and they surprised us with a little party for Zilla's birthday!  It was so much fun to see everyone and wonderful to watch Zilla play with his Aunts and Uncles. 

 

I feel like we have been very plagued with illness this month (this winter) so we didn't go on as many outings as maybe we would have liked.  Also, it has been so cold it's hard to go out.  I am looking forward to the Sping so we can go to the park everyday after work! 

Highlights of the month: 

For sure Zilla's birthday!  I still can't believe he's 1.  We kept his birthday pretty low key, but did go out for ice cream with sister and bro in law; and of course little Reesearoo! 

Even though we technically had the party a few days after his actual birthday, I'll include it in the highlights.  It was so much fun to have all of our loved ones there to celebrate Zilla.  I am still overwhelmed by how loved he is.  We had people traveling from Houston and College Station just to celebrate with us! 

We got to spend time with some dear friends we don't get to see as often as we'd like and time with our family members who have been so supportive this past year. 

Jason gave me instructions that I was not to go overboard with this so I had to strike a happy balance.  I wanted the theme to be evident, without hiring a cat in the hat impersonator to come to the party.  Here's what we came up with:

Nothing too extravagant.  We were even able to reuse the foam board we made for Reesearoo's baby shower.  The banner on the window had a picture of him for each month starting with the day he was born and one picture from each of his monthly chair sessions.  I of course cried putting it together.

Even the artistically challenged can create some fun extras!  This was a great prop for some fun pictures of our guests

We wrestled with baking something or ordering a sheet cake.  I finally went with my gut and decided to attempt something Cat In the Hat like.  It didn't turn out too bad!

And of course my signature themed food...

I love this idea to sign a book for him!  I hope he does cherish these things one day!

I teared up while we were singing him happy birthday and had to stop singing to keep from going into a full on cry fest.  It was just one of those moments where you realize how blessed you are, and even more so how blessed your son is.  My heart was just bursting with gratitude.  I wish I could have hugged everyone in the room at that moment and tell them how much it meant to me that they were there, singing happy birthday to our one year old.  God is so good.

Baby's routine:  

Same as last month.  We are still trying to navigate his first and second naps and deciding how much sleep he needs between the two.  It seems if he gets his full two hours during his 9 to 11 nap, he will not go back to sleep for his "1:00" nap until 3...and then push his wake up time to 5.  Which just seems so late when his bedtime is 8.  So, I'm slowly wanting to shorten his morning nap but pushing it back to 9:30 and then 10-11 until we are ready to transition to one nap a day.

Baby's favorite food: 

What doesn't this kid eat?  Going to restaurants isn't too difficult these days because we can just feed him whatever we're eating and he is completely content to just keep eating and eating and eating.  He does love avocado and eats lots of those.  We are about to start him on milk and will likely go with almond milk.  

Baby's favorite activity: 

Holding our hands and going for a stroll.  He loves to walk and explore.  A new activity he started this month was throwing his balls.  This just tickled his daddy to get to play "toss" with him.

Baby's favorite toy: 

Hmm this is a tough one.   Zilla loves all of his sports balls. In addition to throwing, he is excellent at walking around and kicking his soccer ball.   

Big changes:  

The biggest change for me is that I feel like he's not a little baby anymore.  This little being has become a toddler right before my eyes.  Other than that, in general there haven't been any drastic changes this last month. 

Look at this picture!  He looks so grown up!  

Mommy Journal:

I mean oh my gosh, y'all.  It is surreal to think we have made it 12 months;to look back and see the struggles, relive the joys, and smile at all the memories.  What a year!  This month I focused on little things I never want to forget about this past year that I have yet to write down anywhere else:

1) The way Zilla crosses his legs while he eats

2) The way Zilla favored his daddy for much of month 11 and 12.  This made (makes) mommy very sad sometimes when he starts screaming as hubskie leaves the room.  I wonder what I did wrong to make him not like me as much.  But then I realize how blessed I am that my biggest concern as a mother right now is that my husband is too good of a father.  Woe is me.  

3) The look in Zilla's eyes whenever we go somewhere new.  He has a very distinct observant eye, where I can just see him taking in new information and making inferences about his surroundings. 

4) How mommy and daddy secretly "fight" over who will be holding him when we go to communion at Mass because there is no better feeling than bringing your son with you as you approach the table of our Lord. 

5) His love for eating paper

6) The way Zilla coos and babbles along with songs, and sometimes with mommy as I sing him to sleep


This video is probably mind-numbingly boring for most of you, but I just think it's so cute!

7) Mommy and Zilla's songs of choice for bedtime: Hallelujah, My Father; Hail Mary, Gentle Woman (just the Hail Mary part); and The Blessing Song (Aggie Awakening Whoop!)

8) Zilla's inability to sit still for longer than 5 minutes (I have a feeling I won't forget this one, as it may be a lasting trait)

9) His bizarre habit of purposefully bumping his head against hard surfaces like mirrors, windows, the entertainment center, etc.

10) His general curiosity for the world.  This kid loves to experiment.  I guess that's the nature of babies.  But I just like to think mine is extra explorative

I guess that's it for these monthly updates!  Phew, I have to say I am a little relieved.  Going forward I hope to share short updates on our major happenings and eventually fun quotes and anecdotes about our funny little man.

Zilla, I will love you forever, like you for always, as long as you're living my baby you'll be!