One Year and Counting

Finally up to date...

I cant believe it has been 2 1/2 months since I blogged last. There have been so many exciting events that have happened and I truly believe this parenting things gets better by the day! Here is an outline.

10-11 months

-Mommy and Daddy take a vacation to Paris and Nice. Daddy is gone for 14 days Mommy is gone for 8. Brock spends 1/2 the time at Nana and Papa's house and 1/2 the time at home with MiMaw. Both Joe and I missed Brock like crazy but truly had a fabulous time. I saw things I never thought I would be so lucky to see and it gave us an opportunity to have quality adult time together. Joe and I haven't had that much fun together since our Honeymoon.

-Brock's first Easter. Easter was spent at my parents house and my Grannie and Hopper were able to come in town to celebrate with us. It turned out to be a gorgeous day as we had so much fun. Brock played with easter eggs and rode around in his Radio Flyer wagon. He got not just one Easter basket, but 3!!! Shocking I know...

-Brock takes his first steps the Monday after Easter. Daddy stayed at home with Brock that day and got him to take a few steps on 2 different occasions. Throughout the month he takes a few steps here and there but can still get around quicker crawling so usually chooses that method. A lack of confidence more than anything.

-Brock gets 2 more teeth on top. Total of 6 now.

Loves this wagon!

11-12 months

-Brock is officially a walker!!! By his very beginning of his 11th month Brock has the walking thing all figure out! He can now walk quicker than he can crawl, so of course this quickly becomes his method of choice. No lack of confidence now, because walking turns to climbing in a short 2 weeks!

-Georgia and Melanie come to visit and we have our first bluebonnett pictures taken. Good thing, I hear they revoke your Texas citizenship if you fail to do this with your children.

-We had a loss of a pet :-( Joe's Bearded Dragon Archie died. Very sad because Brock really liked him.

-Brock gets an early birthday present form Mommy and Daddy. A playscape for the backyard! On the box it says for ages 2-6, well Brock is able to climb UP the slide on day one. I often wonder if I should have got the one for the 6-11 age range...

-We travel to Houston see go see The Freemans and Baby Jack and to go to Georgia's 3rd Birthday party. Jack is getting so big and Brock loves to play with him. Georgia's Birthday party was so much fun. It was at this play world place that I though would too old for Brock to enjoy. However, they had so much stuff for infants and toddlers, that he ended up having a blast! Brock's first Brithday Party was a total hit!

-We have a big Party at our house for Brock's First Brthday on Memorial Day weekend. Our theme was farm animals and my Mom brought over her miniature horse and miniature donkey. They were quite the hit and Brock just loves them! Tator Tot is the horse and Tiny Tiny is the donkey. We were so lucky to have some of our friends from out of town be able to make it as well as My Aunt Sherry, Uncle Tony, and Cousin Jesse from Arlington. Thanks to everyone who came! It meant a lot to us and we truly appreciate everything!

Brock and Archie

Brock (11 months) pushing Georgia (3 years) in his car!

First time to eat sweets! I think he liked it....

Sweet Georgia's Birthday Party

Brock teaching Baby Jack all about his jumpy!

ONE YEAR OLD!!

12-13 months

Brock is talking for hours on end. It is the funniest thing to listen to because he it totally having a legit conversation with himself, and boy does he have a lot to say!! Unfortuniatley, we cant yet make out what it is that he is saying, but we talk right back to himand he seems to be satisfied. The words we can make out are: Mommy, Daddy, NaNa, MiMaw, PaPa, Bottle, Ball, Dirty, Dog, and Baby. He understand more than he can say for sure. He knows come here, go get the ball, he can sign all-done, and will smack his lips when you ask for a kiss (my favorite of course)!

Brock is off formula and drink regular whole milk now. He eats pretty much normal food and boy does he have a big appetite!! Brock is transitioning to one nap a day and this is going quite well. He was sleeping 1-1 1/2 hours twice a day, but is now sleeping 2 hours once a day, usually 11-1. He will occasionally take a short nap in the late afternoon but that isn't too typical. Brock is enjoying playing outside in the morning and evenings when it isn't too hot, and LOVES going to to pool or playing in the sprinkler in the yard. We have taken a couple trips out to the lake to go for a ride on Papa's boat. He has so much fun swimming in the lake and Mommy bought him a super stylish life jacket, I know you are shocked :-).

Joe is off the entire month of July and is anxious to spend a lot of time with little B. I have enrolled them in a 2 week swimming lesson class close to our house so am very excited about that. The class with be Mon-Thursday for two weeks. I will take him on Wednesdays but every other day Brock and Daddy will be hanging out with the Housewives of Cedar Park and their babies. :-)

Sometimes I really miss the 9lb. gorgeous baby boy that I brought home from the hospital. I miss napping with him, watching him sleep, and bonding while breastfeeding. However, seeing him turn into a toddler and become more independent with a true personality of his own, is the neatest thing. Joe and I are having so much fun with Brock and at least once a day find ourselves totally cracking up at him. Every day truly does keep getting better and better and being a parent is truly the greatest gift of all.

All smiles like this, all the time :-)

Too bad Brock doesn't like the water.....

New Police Car

The First "Trip"

This morning I had to take my sweet baby boy to the ER because of a very high temperature. He has had a fever of 100-102 for the past 3 days but the Pediatrician said viruses could take 4-5 days to pass so we have been treating with Motrin and Tylenol. This morning when he got up he was not a very happy baby at all and he was BURNING UP to the touch. I took his temperature 3 times and all 3 reading were in the 105 range. I knew this was entirely too hot for a baby so I decided to take him to the ER immediately instead of waiting 3 hours for the Dr office to open. Turns out everything is OK, thank God!!! They did a chest x-ray and a urine sample for further testing, and both came back clear. We are home now and Brock's temperature has been normal for the past 8 hours. He has slept a lot today and not had much of an appetite but I am hoping we are on the down hill of this nasty "virus". Whatever that word means....

I got my new camera today so I will be putting up some pictures as soon as I can.

Spring/Travel/10 Months

Happy 10 Months Sweet Baby Boy!!!

Joe is gone this week on a 2 week trip to the UK and France. I will be joining him in France at the end of the week and am so very excited! I feel very fortunate to get to travel with Joe occasionally and think that a Mommy and Daddy vacation is just what we need. Not to mention the awesmoeness of spending a week in Paris and Nice with the Love of my life. This will not be my first time to leave Brock over night but it will be the longest I have gone without seeing him BY FAR. The few times he has stayed the night with my parents I am usually there by 10AM to pick him up. Thinking of not seeing my Sweet Baby for 8 days gives me pretty bad anxiety but I know he is going to be just fine with his Nana and Mimaw. Chris will come stay here on the weekends and my Mom will keep him at her house during the week. I am taking my computer and have downloaded Skype to I can see him and talk to him every day. Brock is so close to walking, I am very afraid that he is going to decide to take off while we are gone. Hopefully he will hold off for his Mommy and Daddy :-)

This week Brock has his first cold with a fever. He got a runny nose back in January but never ran a fever with that. Starting yesterday he seemed a bit fussy and just not his normal happy self. He started running a small temperature but I thought it was probably just teething. This morning when he got up his temp was 102 and I got really scared! It went down by 7AM to the 100 range but I was still feeling very concerned. I took him to the Dr this afternoon and it is a virus of some kind. I am happy that it isn't an infection and so thankful that it isn't the Flu. They did test him for the Flu to be safe and luckily that came back negative. We hope that in the next couple days he is feeling better and fever free.

As for new stuff Brock is doing, he is all over the place!!!! He can crawl from room to room, he can pull up on pretty much anything including me, he can walk with his push toys and stand unsupported. He hasn't taken any steps on his own yet but I think that is coming very soon. I am trying to start "table food" for Brock so he can get used to chewing and eating things that are chunkier and more like real food. I still make his dinner separate and he struggles a bit but seems to be getting better every day. Now that it is getting warm outside and staying light longer, Brock and I have spent many days playing at the park and have started back up our neighborhood walks. Brock loves to go to the park and swing and slide on the slides. He also enjoys playing in the grass and eating the leaves. Typical boy I guess :-) I am anxious for summer so we can go swimming at our pools and boating with Papa. We didn't get much pool or boat time in last year since Brock was so little, the weather was SO HOT and the lake was so empty. I would even like to get him in swimming lessons if I can. I know he is young, but Blake and I started very young and have always loved the water and we're always very good swimmers. There is a place by my house that has a under 2 class so maybe I can get us signed up for that.

PS I am sorry I don't have any new pics to include with this update. I had a camera fatality and will be replacing it this week. I have been using my phone for pics the past few weeks but it just isn's cutting it......

Jan Feb

2010 is off to a fantastic start! Our sweet boy is growing so fast and ready to take off walking any day now. January brought us a lot of new and exciting things. At the beginning of the year I stopped giving Brock his reflux medicine and he's been fantastic! They say most babies will grow out of reflux between 6-9 months and since Brock was showing signs of it clearing up, I decided what the heck. I'm very happy that Brock fell right into that category, is off the Prilosec, doing awesome, and rarely spits up at all. YAY!!! Also, at the beginning of the year I started supplementing formula during the daytime on the three days that I go to work. It got to a point where I wasn't able to keep up my milk supply to his demand, so I didn't have much choice. I was sad at first, but since I'd made it past my 6-month goal, I was ok with starting to wean him, and more than ready to give up mid-day pumping. Over the next six weeks I weaned him completely and now Brock is strictly on formula for his bottle feedings. He has transitioned very well and doesn't seem to notice much of a difference at all. He's eating three solid meals a day and taking four bottles. He's still a big eater and eats pretty much everything I give him. He's not really into meat ,but I don't worry about it too much right now since I think it's more of a texture issue than anything. I'm still making his baby food and now starting to introduce pieces of food for him to pick up and eat himself. Lets just say, Louis and Sam have a new best seat in the house, right under Brock's high chair! Hehe!

In January we found out that Brock won two "cutest baby" contests. No particularly interesting prizes to report, but we were pretty excited. One of the contests Brock was the overall winner of almost 700 contestants. :-) Side note, Joe is the one who entered Brock into all of the contests. I know that's shocking, but it's true.

Brock and Mommy took a trip to Houston to see two of my dear friends who both had babies the last couple of weeks of December. We stayed with Melanie and Georgia and had a blast! Getting to meet Jack Freeman and Caroline Ryser was so much fun. I am excited for them to get bigger so they can all play together.

Brock's crawling has really taken off. His army man belly crawl turned into a real crawl around 7 1/2-8 months. After that, it was just a matter of a few weeks before he started pulling himself up. Now Brock is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything. I'll turn my back to put the silverware away, and by the time I turn back around, he's halfway in the dishwasher! I'm trying out the "No" word but he doesn't seem to understand. He usually just smiles and laughs at me. I think he gets that from Joe..... Just this past week Brock has started to walk around anything he can pull himself up on. Sometimes he gets excited (or maybe he's just being brave), accidently lets go with both hands and of course falls down. He's a pretty tough cookie and usually only cries if he is starting to get sleepy. He did get a small knot on his little forehead last week from a crash with the coffee table. It broke my heart, but I know it's just the first of many, so I better get used to it. At 8 months I took Brock to the Dr and he was 22 lbs and 29 1/4 inches long. I quickly had to go out and buy toddler car seats, since his infant carrier only went up to 30 inches. He seems to be more comfortable in his big boy seat and has a lot more room. It makes mommy sad to see her baby get so big so fast.

In less than a week Brock will be 9 months old. I truly cannot believe it! It seems like just yesterday he was born and Joe and I were settling into our new life as a family of three. Brock continues to bring us more joy every day and I can't imagine my life without him.

Ready to get up Mom

Brock giving himself his bottle

We have a crawler

and a stander....

still LOVES bath time

Cupid

fun day at the park

Holidays

I'm so sorry for not posting an update last month. Things always get crazy around the holidays as you all know, and having a 7 month old takes the craziness to a whole new level. I wouldn't have it any other way though! Having Brock around for the Holidays has made this season the best one yet.

November, 6 Months old:

We spent Thanksgiving here in Austin over at my Mom's house. The Bungo's joined us over there and it was really a fun day for everyone. Brock was the center of attention, of course, and he did very well. Brock is such a good baby, and Joe and I really have nothing to complain about. He adjusts very well to different environments and has a pretty good schedule. Brock's MiMaw (Chris) is still taking care of Brock on Mondays while Nana (Donna) has baby duty on Tuesday. Thursdays vary a bit; when Joe isn't traveling he stays home with the baby and when he is, we have a babysitter who comes to our house and watches him for the day. Kasey is really good with Brock and he seems to really like her too.

I have listed below some of the milestones Brock reached in his 6th month:

-Brock started eating veggies along with his cereal once a day at 6 months. He likes them all but sweet peas. I am making his baby food and that is going really well. It's actually quite a bit of fun and I get really excited each time I make something new :-)

-Brock got two of his bottom teeth in! The first when he was about a week shy of 6 months and the other two weeks later. Brock's smile has always melted my heart but seeing those two tiny teeth in there make it even more precious!

-Brock rolls ALL OVER the place! You can lay him on the floor and in no time at all he has barrel rolled across the floor.

-Brock LOVES his toys and boy does he have a lot of them!! It's fun playing with him because he can interact so much more these days.

-Brock can sit completely unsupported. He was getting pretty good around the end of 5 months, but by early December he was a pro.

-At Brock's 6 month well-visit he was 27.5 in long and weighed exactly 20lbs. He's in the 80 percentile for both.

-The Dr was VERY impressed by how strong Brock was and she said he's developing "perfectly".

-Brock found his voice and loves to test it out and hear himself talk loudly. It isn't uncommon for him to let out an all out yell for 5 minutes or so. If he's not in immediate sight, it might sound like he's unhappy or about to cry, but I assure you, they're happy screams!

-Brock started waking up in the night to eat at 6 months. I read that this is normal as they go through a pretty big growth spurt at 6 months. I'm happy to report that he's back on his 10-12 hour sleep schedule and goes to bed between 7-8 PM every night :-)

zucchini first veggie

trying out the sippy cup

loves to read

looks like Daddy here

still LOVES bath time

Nickname- One Sock Brock

sitting like a big boy

December, 7 Months old:

December has been FULL of all kinds of excitement!!! Joe and I went to the Riverwalk in San Antonio for a weekend trip and my company's holiday party. We had a great time getting away for the night but were excited to get home to our baby boy! Melanie and Georgia visited for a long weekend in mid-December. It was fun having them here and Georgia loved "Baby Brock"! She even named a doll after him once she got home, and I hear she takes very good care of him. Celebrating Christmas with a brand new baby has got to be the best thing in the world. It has been 10 years plus on both sides of our family since there was a baby around for the Holidays. Brock, being the first Grandchild on both sides, was well taken care of as you can imagine. One of the neatest parts of our Christmas was that we GOT SNOW, and LOTS of it!!!! We spent Christmas Eve in Forestburg, Texas (north, close to the Red River) and it snowed for 10 straight hours and dumped a total of 8 inches on the ground. I've NEVER seen snow like this before and never had a white Christmas. Sharing my first white Christmas with my sweet angel Brock was very special and one that I'll certainly never forget!

December was another month full of milestones for B:

-Brock is crawling! Well, "army man crawling" is what we call it. He can crawl with his legs and crawl with his arms just not at the same time. However, if there's something that he wants he'll get it! (Not sure who he got that from.....) His favorite item to go after is a cell phone, and a close second is the TV remote. Haha!

-Brock saw snow for the first time.

-Brock is on a pretty consistent 2-naps-a-day schedule. One in the morning around 10 and the other in the afternoon around 2. He naps naps on average about an hour each.

-Brock eats 2 solid meals a day. Fruit and cereal in the AM and veggies and cereal in the PM. His favorites seem to be pears and butternut squash. Brock isn't a big fan of bananas.

-Brock started a "sippy" cup. He just drinks water at the moment, but he's getting pretty good at it. It took a few weeks for him to figure out what to do with the cup but he has it down pretty good now. I think he enjoys chewing on the spout the most but seems to like the water some too :-)

determined to get the present

GOT IT!!!!

Christmas Day

Daddy and Brock in their "fort"

unfortunately, Brock has NO toys.....

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and wish you all the happiest New Year. I will post again soon, I promise.

Until next time, we are sending all of our love,

Joe, Emily and Brock

Hook 'em