Mommy Minute: Kason’s 1 Year Update

Hey y’all!

Kason Michael is ONE! December 29 was the big day, and it came and went so fast. I realize that I am posting this update late, and that’s mainly because his 1 Year Check-Up was pushed back to February 11.

Kason weighs 23 lbs. 12 oz. (75%) and is 32 inches long (95%). He now has 8 teeth, and LOVES to use them. He doesn’t bite us, or anyone else thankfully, unless of course you put your fingers in his mouth to check his teeth. He does, however, like to bite his stuffed animals and crawl around with them in his mouth (it’s really quite funny). He’s also, slowly but surely, growing more hair!

Kason was officially off of formula after his birthday and I cannot believe how easy it was. He gradually weened himself over the course of a month (around the 11 month mark), so stopping the formula was absolutely no issue. He also quit drinking from a bottle around the 11 month mark. That was all him too. He naturally preferred to drink from a straw. The last month or so that he was on formula, he drank from his sippy cup. I realized he was ready to stop the formula because he wasn’t drinking the whole serving I was giving him. He went from having three 8 ounce bottles a day, to only two 8 ounce bottles a day (one in the morning and one before bed). Shortly after that switch he stopped drinking all 8 ounces in one sitting, so I bumped him down to two 6 ounce bottles a day. I purchased his last formula refill in December and when it was gone, I didn’t buy another. He’s now on 2% milk and has had zero issues. I started him on whole milk, but it was upsetting his stomach. When we switched to 2%, he stopped have the stomach issues. I give him a cup in the morning, a cup mid day, and a cup before bed. We had a VERY easy time switching from formula to cow’s milk, and it was all because of him. He led the way and I just followed.

He is SUCH a good eater! I can already tell this boy is going to eat me out of house and home. He will eat pretty much anything you give him, but I’ve noticed he is starting to become more selective. For breakfast he has a plain waffle, torn apart into bite sized pieces, with either cut up strawberries or bananas. For lunch he has a variety of things. His favorite thing to have is sandwiches. He eats grilled cheese or peanut butter usually, along with a side of fruit or crackers. He will sometimes have a hot dog, chicken, or whatever I’m having that day. For snack we change it up from time to time. Sometimes it’s goldfish, cheerio’s, fruit, or as of recently cinnamon applesauce. For dinner he eats whatever we are having. He’s super easy when it comes to meal times thank goodness. He also drinks a lot of juice and water throughout the day. My favorite juice to buy for him is Mott’s for Tots. He has had apple and fruit punch with no issues. The only juice I have found that does not work for him is Cran-Apple and Apple & White Grape. He liked the taste, but he pooped all day long and they were giving him diaper rash, so we had to stop those.

This little guy got so spoiled over Christmas and his birthday that we are swimming in toys. He does play with a lot of different toys, and is now to the point where he actually plays. He still, however,  prefers to play with paper, explore around the house, and play with the tv remote. His favorite stuffed animal is still his Scentsy Lion and he cannot sleep or leave the house without it. We went to the zoo for Valentine’s Day, and his Lion disappeared unfortunately. I found one on eBay thank goodness, and that should be in sometime today.

He’s currently in size 12-18 month clothes, and I’m thinking by next month he will be making the switch to 18-24 months. He is not a fan of socks and shoes. He takes them off immediately. I have learned that it’s best to not even put them on him until we have reached our destination, and that when we do put on him shoes, they need laces and we have to tie them really tight with a double knot so that he can’t get them off.

He is finally walking! He took his first step at the beginning of last week, and has been progressing more and more every day. It’s so fun to watch him and cheer him on. He gets proud of himself when he walks for a good while. He is still a bit wobbly, but his balance is getting better every day.

I hope y’all enjoyed today’s post. I can’t believe Kason is already a year old. Like everyone says, they really do grow up SO fast!

xoxo,
Casey

Mommy Minute: Kason's 8 Month Update

Kason is 8 MONTHS OLD today!! I can't believe how big he's getting and how much he has changed in these 8 short months. Pretty soon I'm going to be planning his first birthday party, it makes me a little sad just thinking about it because time is flying by. I'm going to update ya'll on what he's been loving this month, changes and milestones, and giving an update on the issues we were having earlier this month regarding bottle feeding.

Kason has been playing a lot more this past month. Instead of spending a lot of time in his bouncer, he's really enjoyed sitting on the floor surrounded by toys. He can sit there for long periods of time, go from toy to toy, and be perfectly content. His favorite toys this month have been a set of Infantino Stackable Rings, the Go GaGa Squeeze & Teethe Elephant from Target, and the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Love to Play Puppy. I will set him in the floor and he will rotate each toy, play with them, lick them, and throw them. Throwing things has been really fun for him lately, especially with the rings. The rings are the first thing he goes for. He grabs the base of the stacker and dumps it upside down so that all the rings fall off. He then proceeds to play with just the stacker by turning it over and beating it like a drum. As for the rings themselves, he likes to pick them up and wave them around before he launches them all over the place. The teething elephant has been so wonderful for him. It doesn't have a good squeaker like Sophie the Giraffe, but it's so much better for teething and chewing. The ears of the elephant are what he likes to chew on. He likes to bite down on the ears and tugs on them to rub him gums. It's also super lightweight so it's easy for him to hold. I got him the Laugh and Play puppy at the beginning of the month because I noticed he was starting to play a lot more. He loves it! There's a ton of different buttons and places to press to make the puppy sing, talk, and light up. The buttons are extremely sensitive, so all he has to do is touch it and it starts making noise.

I got Kason a new carseat this month because he had outgrown his carrier. I went with the Graco MyRide 65 Convertible Carseat, purchased from Target. It's rear facing and forward facing, with a minimum weight of 5 lbs and a max of 65. That's one of my favorite things about this seat, you can use it from the time your baby is born all the way through their toddler years. It's also all in one piece, so when it's time to turn it forward all I have to do is unbuckle it and turn it around.  The first time I put Kason in it, he got so excited. I would look in my rear view mirror into his mirror, and he was waving his arms around, kicking, and smiling the entire car ride. It was like he was saying "Oh my gosh! Look at all this room I have now! This is so awesome!". It was so cute and made me really happy to see him so happy. It was kind of bittersweet for me when I was picking his carseat out. It's been so fun lately now that he's getting a little older and is able to do more and play more, but at the same time I'm sad that he's no longer a little tiny baby.

Kason finally got his first tooth!! And it's the cutest little tooth I have ever seen. It came in really fast too. I saw that his gums had a tiny little slit in them, and the next day there was the tiniest little white tooth poking through. As soon as the tooth broke the skin, it's been sprouting more and more every day. It's really visible now, and can be seen when he smiles or laughs. Tooth number two is coming in as we speak. I figured since he hadn't cut them yet that they most likely would come back to back. I saw the white cap right under the skin last Sunday, and his gums now have the little slit in them so that tooth is going to pop up in the next few days I'm sure. He's been handling it really well. He's had his fussy moments and his tantrums, but they are sporadic and don't happen all the time. What I've noticed is that he was mostly irritable for about two weeks before that tooth came in. We went to dinner for my sister's birthday, and normally Kason handles being in restaurants really well. However, this time was an exception. He had a complete and total mental breakdown as soon as we got there, and it was off and on during the whole dinner. I was so embarrassed and irritated, especially when he completely changed his tune as soon as we got back in the car to leave.

After that meltdown, I started having problems with him drinking his bottles. I wrote an entire post about it, if you haven't checked it out you can click here to read about it. Well, I finally figured out why he was doing that. It was because of his tooth! Every baby handles teething differently, and apparently when mine is about to cut a tooth, his bottles go out the window. The day his tooth cut he started taking his bottles again no problem. We went about two weeks with him not taking his bottle, and about two weeks of him taking them before he started refusing them again. When this started back up, I looked in his mouth and noticed the second tooth coming in. The only thing I can figure about why he does this, is that his bottom jaw must be really sore from the new teeth that it makes it really uncomfortable for him to suck. I'm already on the highest level nipple, and if I cut the holes to make them bigger the milk will just pour out, so I can't do that. The only thing I can do is give him smaller, more frequent bottles when he's cutting his teeth, and keep the Orajel and Infant Tylenol on hand. I've found that the smaller bottles work really well when he's sore, because he gets enough to satisfy him for a couple hours, plus he's not sucking for as long of a time which makes him less sore. The Orajel offers him instant relief, and I give him the Tylenol when all else fails. After the Tylenol, he's much more comfortable within 20 minutes. Another thing that's been helping him through the teething process has been more naps. He's been taking a lot more lately, and has been falling asleep within a couple minutes of laying down. Still not a whole lot of luck in the sippy cup department. I bought a couple different types of cups and he's still kind of confused. Surprisingly he's done the best with the Nuby cup. After his tooth cut he figured out how to get the liquid out of the mouthpiece. I've been putting a little bit of apple juice mixed with equal parts water and letting him practice with that.

Something new that I've started doing with him this month is reading to him. I love to read myself, and it's something that I want to raise him to do as well. He has been enjoying our reading time and so have I. We sit on the floor of his bedroom and I sit him in my lap so that he can see the pages as I'm reading. He tries to hold the books, and likes to touch the pages. He will scratch on the pages to hear the sound it makes, and to see what the texture is. He really enjoys all the bright colors and pictures in the books, and likes to reach out and bang his hands on them. Reading is a big part of me, and is one of my favorite things to do. I remember learning to read at a young age, and how much I loved it and still do. I wanted to start something that he and I could enjoy doing together, and to give him a memory that he will always remember.

That's all for this months update! Let me know in the comments below what toys your baby loves, and what activities you like to do together.


xoxo,
Casey

Mommy Minute: Kason's 7 Month Update

Hey ya'll!!

Today my baby is seven months old! I'm gonna go over what a normal day is like for him, what he enjoys, and how his temperament has been this last month.

I have seen a huge change in him this last month. He had been really fussy for a while, and I was convinced it was teething because he was drooling up a storm and chewing on everything. At his six month check up the doctor told me to go ahead and introduce more solids into his diet. Oh my gosh what a difference that has made! He literally has turned into a completely different baby. I felt kind of bad, that this whole time I thought he was crying because he was teething, but really all he needed was more solids to keep him full. He was already getting 30 oz of formula a day, so I wasn't able to give him any more than that, and he was getting two to three solid servings to accompany the formula. He now has six solid servings a day, and is taking in less formula, about 20-22 oz a day. I have moved him to Level 2 solids and he's been loving it. Two of those six servings were oatmeal, but I was getting the feeling that the oatmeal was starting to be too heavy for him so I changed that about a week and a half ago to either a veggie or a fruit, and it's worked out great.

Another change this month is his reflux. He has finally grown out of it and has been completely off his medicine for about three weeks now! I am so happy that he is finally over that. If any of you have had a baby with reflux, or have a baby with it, then I know you understand what it's like. The reflux would flare up sometimes and really bother him. I'm talking crying all day kind of bother, wanna pull your hair out kind of bother. Some days were better than others, and some days were just awful. I felt so bad about him having to take the medicine too, because it did not taste good at all. Plus, I didn't really like the fact that my baby had to take all that medicine in the first place. I had started weening him of the medicine before his six month checkup, because I could tell that it had been getting better. After getting the okay from his doctor, I stopped giving it to him completely after a week and had no issues what-so-ever.

Kason loves the water! He's been a big fan of bath time lately. Since he sits up good now, I've been bathing him in the kitchen sink. I fill the bubble bath up to his belly button, put his rubber ducks in there with him, and he has a blast. He grabs at the ducks, flips them over, and splashes the whole time. He also really loves being in the pool. I have a float that he sits in and his legs go through. He will kick his legs and swim himself all over the pool. It's seriously the cutest thing ever! Even when he's being held he kicks his legs, it's really cool to watch him. I like that he loves the water and isn't scared. I'm hoping that doesn't change as he gets older.

He still loves watching TV in his bouncer, and sitting in his Big Boy Chair (a red bean bag). He's been a lot more independent lately and wanting to just sit up on his own on the floor. As far as tummy time goes, he still could do without it. For some reason, he has zero interest in being on his tummy. He can hold himself up fine, sits up good, and can pretty much stand up with little support. But when it comes to rolling over, and scooting around on his belly, forget about it. I keep joking that he may walk before he ever crawls because he could care less about being on his belly!

A few toys he's really been loving lately are these silicone and plastic keys, and his Scentsy Lion. The keys have a yellow plastic ring with two big plastic and silicone keys on it. He loves to chew on them and wave them around. His Scentsy Lion smells so good! He's been grabbing for him a lot lately at bed time, and has been holding him while he sits in his red chair. The lion has been his TV buddy lately. He's also still obsessed with Socks the Fox his BlaBla Doll, and still won't sleep without his Bedtime Buddies (stuffed animals he sleeps with). I don't mind though, I think it's so funny and just the cutest how much he likes his stuffed animals. I'm sure doctors and some mom's out there would freak out about the fact that I let him sleep with his toys, but he's been doing it since he started sleeping in his own bed and I have no intentions of taking them away now. Even when he stays overnight with my mom or Kevin's mom, I pack his Bedtime Buddies. Socks the Fox goes everywhere with us, but if we are going somewhere overnight, the whole Bedtime Buddies crew comes too.

I think he has been going through a major growth spurt this past month because he has been sleeping a ton. He has always been a good sleeper, and was sleeping through the night at two months old. I've been putting him to bed at 8:00pm every night, and he will sleep until 8:00am the next morning, and sometimes even later. He also takes about three naps during the day. He takes a morning nap about 10:00 or 10:30 and will sleep anywhere from an hour and a half to two and a half hours. He's ready for his afternoon nap around 2:00 or 2:30 everyday. He will sleep about two to three hours and will be ready to get up again. Sometimes he will even want to take an evening nap, if so its usually for about 45 minutes to an hour around 6:00pm. His naps are all him too, I don't just automatically put him down, he lets me know when he's tired. Ever since we upped his solids he hardly fusses, and only does when he's tired or is bored. He starts to fuss like clockwork around the same time everyday, and as soon as I lay him in bed, he rolls over and grabs for one of his Buddies and is asleep in five minutes.

I hope you enjoyed this check up! I will give another update on Kason and his routine next month. Also, I'm needing to get him a bigger carseat. Let me know in the comments below if you have any recommendations on brands or styles, and what kind you have for your little one.


xoxo,
Casey