What's Remy up to these days?

Man alive this kid is starting to chit chat his heart away!  Everyday he is trying out new words and getting more and more vocal.  If he's in the right mood he will try to copy whatever word you ask him to copy.  Here are some words I've heard him say pretty clearly: banana, juice, move, diaper, uh-oh, oh man, yes.  And his animal sounds are getting better and better!  He can make moo, monkey, doggy and piggy (his version of oink) sounds.  And of course we taught him "what does a fox say?".  Hehehe toooooo darn cute!  He's also doing much better at his sign language.  He's always been good at please (probably because he knows he's going to get what he wants when he signs it) and now he's much much better at thank you, more and all done.  Now were trying to teach him pew and poop.  Haha.  Gosh, teaching toddlers things is so much fun!  He's also giving high fives and fist bumps.

Remy enjoys putting matchbox cars in his pocket.  :)

He was so tuckered out that he accidentally fell asleep before lunchtime!  I had to wake the poor child up seconds later because it wasn't naptime yet.

Lunch outing with momma and daddy.  He was such a good boy!

Remy has also become quite attached to his "puppy".  We just took a trip to Ikea over the weekend to buy him a spare.  I've been bringing his puppy to daycare so he can have it during the day and at mostly for nap time and have almost forgotten it on a few occasions!  So I'd rather have a spare for when I forget.  ;)

Remy started at a new daycare today.  He's been going to a good friend of mine since he was 3 months old.  She's about to give birth to her 3rd so Remy is going somewhere else for her maternity leave.  I'm a little nervous just because he's never been to anyone's house besides hers without me.  I know the gal he's going to is great with kids - I'm just worried about him adjusting and giving her a hard time.  But he'll get to make new friends.  :)  When I dropped him off this morning he went straight to playing with the toys and didn't give two hoots when I left.  Guess that's a good sign.

We've recently started giving Remy time-outs when he's naughty.  Sometimes he thinks its funny, other times he isn't so thrilled about it.  When he knows he's naughty all I have to say is "get in time out" and he'll walk himself over to the corner and put his head in the corner.  I have to try not to laugh out loud.  After he's excused he gives me a hug and a kiss.  :)  Can't stay mad at him for long...

FYI - I don't ever have to dust my coffee table.

1 Year Old!

October 2nd, 2012 we welcomed this sweet sweet boy into our lives!  

 

 I’ll be honest and say the birth wasn’t my favorite part but once I saw his sweet face my heart just melted.  I forgot about all the pain and how tired I was.  Having a baby is quite the miracle.  Obviously, the pain and exhaustion came back to me soon after but he was so worth the 31 hours of labor.  I don’t even know how to describe how much I love him.  I would do ANYTHING for this boy.  He is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.  I know all mothers say this sort of thing but I seriously cannot imagine my life without him.  Knowing that I get to wake up to his chit-chatting and cuddles makes getting up early every single day worth it.  It’s funny, I don’t even care that I don’t get to sleep in because he’s such an awesome morning person that it’s so worth it.  RARELY is he unhappy in the morning.  I’m the one who gets up with him 100% of the time.  Every once in a while the thought occurs to me that I should let Phil get up with him so I can sleep in.  Then shortly after that thought I think naw, then I’d miss the smile he gives me when I go pick him up, the squeals of happiness that momma is there and I’d miss the cuddles (which I don’t get much of since he’s not a cuddlebug).  So Phil only gets to see that when I’m gone, which has only happened once in his whole life.  Lucky man you would think, but he’s missing out on the best time of the day.  That’s no lie…

Remy’s personality is busting through.  You can tell he’s got my temper though.  That will not be fun…  Other than that, he’s super sweet, loves to chat, loves to give kisses and thinks life is great.  I think we are very close to walking.  He’s getting more and more confident and daring.  He’s standing without holding onto things longer and more often and he’s diving between furniture taking maybe one step on his own (I don’t count this as walking).  It might be a matter of weeks and he’ll be walking!  Or he’ll think, ‘why do I need to walk by myself?  I can already do it holding onto stuff so why bother?’  So I guess it also could be a few months too.  I just hope I get to see it firsthand when he’s ready! 

Remy’s favorite foods seem to be anything pasta related, pineapples, mandarin oranges, peaches and grapes.  I guess fruit in general.  He doesn’t prefer potatoes much and doesn’t like pork chops.  He had his first cupcake at his birthday party and loved it.  Now I think he’ll be into the sweets.  He drinks water with no problem but when he’s around another baby with juice in their sippy he KNOWS that theirs is juice and his is just water.  Then he wants nothing to do with his sippy and finds ways to steal theirs.  So I guess we’re on to juice now.

 We said goodbye to the bottle around 11 months.  He was taking a sippy just fine and one day I just never gave him a bottle and he didn’t care one bit!  He’s still getting breastmilk mixed with cow’s milk in his sippy in the morning and at night.  We’re down to about 15 bags of milk though so it won’t be long and he’ll be on 100% cow’s milk.  I don’t think he’ll care one bit.  I think we’re going to try using a real cup soon just to see what happens.  But I’m pretty sure we’ll be picking up a spill.  Remy likes to throw his sippy sometimes.  Bad habit!

I think Remy has 12 teeth right now!  It’s hard to tell since he doesn’t like me fiddling with his mouth.  I know he has two of the larger teeth in the back.  Those puppies look like they had to have hurt coming in!  Poor buddy.

He still has the leaky eye as we like to call it.  We’ve been working real hard on trying to get it unclogged on its own but I think we might have to bring him in to the eye doctor to have it done.  I guess we will find out what the doc says at his 1 year appointment later this month.  I sure hope we don’t have to put him through that.

Remy loves to take his toys out of containers and put them back in.  If I just point at the toy and then the container and ask him to put it away, he does.  He’s been doing that for a while now and he loves it.  He also loves to hang out on the couch.  I think it makes him feel like a “big boy” to sit and hang out with us.  I’m trying to teach him that he can’t stand on the couch and he knows what sit down means.  I think he likes to stand just to get a reaction from me.  But he’s really good about listening right away and sitting down.  Well, most of the time...

 Remy talks up a storm and says the usual, mama/dada and I swear he says “bye-bye”, “up” and “doggie” (or at least his version of those words).  He never says bye-bye to me in the morning when I drop him off at daycare but he says bye-bye to other people when they leave our house.  It’s funny when the dogs fight he puts up his hand as if to say “stop” and yells at them in his own language.  Or he points his finger at them and yells at them.  It’s way too darn cute!

Phil and I gave him part of his birthday present the morning of his birthday.  Here’s his new set of wheels!  He LOVED it!  He’s played with one before at daycare and seemed to really like it so we got him one of his own.  Too bad summer is over.  It will have to be an inside toy until winter is over.  I find it funny that he jumped right in and shut the door.

 Remy throws temper tantrums all the time.  It’s actually pretty funny.  He usually gets down on his belly and whines if he doesn’t get what he wants.  Just this morning he threw a tantrum because I had to take him out of his new birthday toy to leave to bring him to daycare.  He wasn’t done playing with it apparently.  So yes, like I said earlier, he’s got my temper.  :-/

Oh how I love my little man.  :)

11 Months Old!

My little man is 11 months old!!!!!!!!  One more month and he won’t be a “baby” anymore.  So sad.  :(  I love the little guy he is turning into but I’m sad that he’s growing up so fast.  Remy is getting quite the personality.  I love making him laugh and seeing what he thinks is funny and what pisses him off.  He’s at the stage where I can finally start annoying him and having more fun with him.  Haha.  Currently one of his favorite things is to crawl away from me and he wants me to come run after him screaming “I’m gonna get you” (the louder the better and the more I make him jump the better) and when I get him I have to tickle him to death.  He laughs sooo hard!  I can tell when he wants to play this game because he’ll start to crawl away and then look back at me as if to say, aren’t you going to come get me momma?  So freaking adorable.

Remy has also gotten very good at walking with a walking toy.  Just over the long weekend he seemed to get really good at it.  A few days ago he didn’t have much control over it but today he’s a pro!  His only problem is when he gets stuck against a chair or the wall – then he gets frustrated.  He’s also practicing standing all by himself without holding on to anything.  He did this the other day for like 5 seconds!  He was also doing it over and over again last night but he would only last a few seconds before he fell over.  He was so proud of himself.

Remy is still a very good eater!  He eats most anything but definitely has his favorites.  He loves loves loves mandarin oranges, pineapples and spaghetti.  However, he’s picked up a really bad habit of throwing his food once he starts to get full/bored or when he doesn’t particularly like something.  We’re hoping this phase ends soon.  Telling him “no” just seems to make him do it more – he likes the reaction he gets.  So for now we’re just ignoring it and giving him smaller portions – he gets more when he eats it all.  That way there’s not a ton on his plate flying throughout the room.  This is one good thing about having dogs.

We took Remy to his first fair over the weekend – MN State Fair.  He does so good out and about.  He usually hates being tied down all day in a stroller or on someone’s lap but he did awesome.  All the distraction definitely helps.  He was the life of the party on the bus ride back.  He was making the whole front of the bus laugh.  He was chit-chatting and playing with everyone.  I love that he’s not shy like his momma!

Remy almost has a mouthful of teeth already!  He’s had the 8 teeth for quite some time now (4 top, 4 bottom) but the others are popping in and out left and right.  One day one will have shown its ugly head and then go back down.  He doesn’t let me get a good enough look usually so I can only look when he’s screaming or something.  Yesterday I saw one of the back molars and OUCH is all I can say.  That thing is huge.  Poor little buddy.  I’m guessing at this point he has about 11-12 teeth.  

Remy is getting to be such a chatter-bug.  His vocabulary is getting larger and larger.  He seems to understand what we're saying lots of the time but obviously can't tell us what he wants yet.

We had to establish a bedtime routine because Remy was wanting to stay up late every night and “party”.  We usually start “quite time” around 7-7:30.  We have to turn off the lights, read a few books and then get gets his bottle and goes to bed.  This routine is definitely making things easier for him to calm down and realize he’s super tired and need to sleep.  We really need some more book though because I'm getting so tired of reading the same ones over and over and over again!  Good thing his birthday is coming up.

Remy still loves to watch Sesame Street.  I usually put it on in the morning while I’m finishing getting ready, etc.  His favorite part is Elmo’s World and he hears the theme song for that and drops what he’s playing with and watches.  He just seems too young to be doing that!  I never give kids enough credit for what they can learn and do.  But, I guess Netflix is getting rid of Sesame Street this month so we’ll have to find a new show to watch on instant.  :(

Remy is finally too big for the bumbo.  He can now get out of it quite easily.  I’ve barely used it these last few months but when I need to sit him somewhere for 2 minutes and not let him run around it was nice.  Not anymore!

10 Months Old!

Remy is 10 months old!!!  Only 2 more months and then he’s a year old!  My little buddy is growing up wayyyyy to fast.  It's time to start planning his first birthday party.  

 In the last month I feel like he’s learned so many new things.  Still no real crawling but he’s very quick at belly scootin around.  I can’t wait until he picks his belly up off the ground so I don’t have to see how dirty my floors are anymore!!  He can also go from his belly to sitting all on his own now and likes to do this over and over and over again.  This is a huge milestone that I was very happy to see.  No more whining for me to pick him off the floor and put him in the sitting position – he can do it himself!  :)  It's super cute to go upstairs to get him in the morning and see him sitting in his crib chit-chattin away.   

Remy is  also pulling himself up on everything.  The windowsill, the couch, the coffee table, his train table, whatever is nearby.  He doesn’t need help in that department anymore either!  He’s also attempting to walk along furniture but isn’t very sturdy at it yet.  But he can definitely get from point A to point B if there is furniture to walk alongside!  We are also practicing our walking and standing by himself but I think it will be a while yet before he’s doing that on his own.  We’re also working on our crawling but if he wants to get somewhere fast he gets right on his belly and scoots.  He will stay on his knees for a little bit but has not moved forward or backward while on his knees.  

Remy doing his current favorite thing - standing:

 
 Remy also thinks I'm a jungle gym:

 
 We’re also doing very very good in the food department!  My picky eater isn’t so picky anymore.  Most everything we put in front of him he eats.  In fact, he eats so much food!!!  I don't know where it all goes.  Dinner time is when he seems to eat the most.  Right now he loves green beans, brats, mac-n-cheese, fish sticks, grapes, rice sides, toast with jelly and chicken on the grill.  We've also started putting a little cow's milk in his bottles.  Soon I'll be done pumping!  YAY!

Remy loves to chit chat and most of the time he's saying babababa or mamamama.  He still doesn’t say dada and I don’t think he knows I’m “mama” quite yet (though Phil thinks he does).  I think he just likes to say it.  He also tries to copy me when I say “vroom” while we’re playing with his cars but can’t seem to say it right.  So cute!   

On the weekends Remy loves to start his day watching Sesame Street.  He's entranced with Elmo:

 Remy is one happy baby.  He loves all of his new found abilities and practices them over and over again.  He laughs at himself all the time and loves watching the dogs.  If the dogs are playing with a ball in the living room he likes to scoot after them and try to get the ball too.  Or he likes to just sit and watch them bark and growl at each other.  Apparently that's hilarious.   

We also had our first haircut this month, which I already blogged about.  Ahh, he looks so much older now, more like a toddler!  We are a little behind on his 9 month pics.  We were at the cabin when he turned 9 months and then he got sick when we were going to do them when we got home.  Then we attempted them last weekend and he was super crabby (unlike him) so that didn’t go over well.  So our final attempt was last weekend.  They will be 10 month pics instead.  :)  He wasn't exactly crabby but wasn't his normal happy self.  He just doesn't like sitting in the grass and of course we want to take his pics outside!  Hopefully we got a few good ones.  
  
I just love this boy to bits and pieces!!!  I love watching him learn and grow and I can't wait to see what he does next.  :)