Hanging around the house

We're enjoying the Christmas season, even with the cold. Every night the last couple weeks has been been in the 20s-30s. The lawn is covered with beautiful frost every morning.
Daniel has been very good with the tree and presents. Occasionally he pulls on an ornament, but no catastrophies. He also got a candy cane open at one point.
This is such a fun age. He loves exploring and playing. He keeps coming up with new sounds. This week, he's started sucking air through his teeth, like he's practicing Lamaze.

Sleepy Eater

The other day, Daniel was eating his lunch and I look over to see him acting very strange. Come to find out, he didn't really fall asleep during his morning nap and this is what happened.

Fun for everyone

Katie came over to play for the day. Daniel had a lot of fun pushing her in the swing. He also got her laughing a bit. It was fun to watch the interaction.

Bathtime is still a bunch of fun. There is more fear now when laying his head down in the water, but overall, he enjoys the tub and especially splashing.

Tahoe

We took a little trip up to the snow this past weekend. The weather was really nice and there was enough snow left from the last storm to enjoy a little sledding. Daniel was a little apprehensive about the white stuff and didn't really want to walk in it, even with his super cool spiderman snowboots. He warmed up to it once daddy took off his mittens and he could feel what it was really all about.

Swinging

Daniel and Darian got to play at the same park we all grew up playing at. There was only one baby swing so they had to share. They didn't seem to mind at all. It was so much fun watching them laugh together.

Happy Thanksgiving

With all of the attention Daniel gets when we're around family, he wanted even more. He came up with a new game a couple weeks ago and figured out it works really well when there are a lot of people watching. He did seat drops for about 10 minutes solid getting big laughs every time. His cousin, Darian was content just gnawing on the sparkly coaster. So much for the toys.

Out and About

Daniel is really getting good at this walking thing. He's now walking more than he is crawling.

Yesterday, we went to Half Moon Bay with our neighbors. We had a good dinner at Barbara's and watched a beautiful sunset.

Southern Friends

We took a little trip last week and got to see a few old friends. It was a lot of fun playing with the boys and seeing new baby girls. This is Daniel playing with Hewson who just turned two. He ran circles around Daniel when we got there. Later in the week we played with Eli who is 3. Daniel is walking a lot more now, I wonder if it's because he was trying to keep up.

Morning Frost

We got to play with Darian and her parents yesterday. She's crawling now and they looked like they had fun together.

This morning's Frost
More frost from this morning. (=

Buddies

We had a fun time with our visitors today. Daniel and Kaitlyn played so nicely together. They practiced sharing toys and held hands.


Sometimes I just don't clean up after lunch fast enough and Daniel goes back for seconds.

Daniel's walking face.

Tricks n' Treats

Our little 1 year old is really toddling. He's walking half way across the room. He's very excited about it and most of the time that he's walking; his mouth is wide open, smiling, with his tongue sticking out. He's getting better and better at this walking thing everyday. He tries to walk right through his toys though. I guess he hasn't figured out how to look where he's walking. So sometimes he gets a little tripped up.

He got a toy walker from his Grandparents which he loves pushing around the house. Now he's figured out that he can use other pieces of furniture as makeshift walkers as well. He pushes the little green stool in the living room right into the corner. Today he pushed the office chair all the way into the living room.

Not so Little Anymore

After seeing a couple friends with their newborns, I'm reminded of how big Daniel's gotten. He was so fragile back then and now, he's a rough and tough little boy who likes being tossed up in the air and spun around. The stages change so fast it's easy to forget how it was just a few months ago having to nurse him every three hours. I have to say, I think things are easier now. I do enjoy the full nights of sleep, two long naps and three square meals a day.

Party

Daniel celebrated his 1st birthday with some friends and family yesterday. After 5 weeks of colds, viral infections, asthma, ear infections and a new tooth, he was finally feeling himself for the big day. It looked like he had a lot of fun. Of course, all of his friends and cousins at this point are girls. But there are a couple boys on their way in the near future.

He dove right in to his cake that Grandma made. He loved it and was kind enought to share some with his mommy.

New Birthday Toy

Uno!

This is mainly a photo blog and I like to let the pictures speak for themselves. But yesterday was a big day and I just realized I didn't take a single picture. Daniel turned one yesterday. It was a rough day though. He was crying most of the day, so we ended up going to the Doctor. He has his first ear infection. I baked my first cake for the big day. But after we got back from the Doctor we went to the store to get the ear meds, then off to great-grandma's 81st bday party. So the cake sits in all of it's humility, untouched in the frig. We'll celebrate properly next week when he's feeling better hopfully.
Daniel has been nursing three times daily for the past several months. We cut out the lunch time feeding a few weeks ago, then he was going without the dinner feeding the last few days. I thought the morning feeding was going to be harder to let go since that was the first thing he thought of once he was out of his crib in the mornings. But the morning of his birthday, he slept in for a couple hours and didn't seem to be asking for milk when he did awake, so that's that. He's all grown up. No more nursing. He didn't seem to miss anything today either.
And then...
We were playing our little stand-up-then-dive-at-mom game. But today when we were doing this, he stood there for a minute and then took THREE steps before diving at me. I'm so proud of the little guy. It's 3:30 and I put him down half an hour ago. He's still chatting and squealing in his room. Such a great sound to listen too.

In Concert

Daniel has decided to take up the piano as his new hobby. In the last few days of his first year of life, he's preparing for the next big thing. He took his first step two days ago. Then he decided it's more fun to just fall into mom's arms instead of moving his little feet, so it's become our new game... he stands there for a minute and then just falls forward. He's standing longer and longer by himself and one of these days he's going to decide to walk. He's just not interested yet.

Fun with Grandpa

Here's Daniel having a good time with his Grandpa during Kia and Ryan's rehersal. The wedding was beautiful and now Daniel has a new uncle.

Great-Grandma's BBQ

We had a BBQ at Great-Grandma's house the other day, enjoying the nice weather before it turns cold.
Daniel is still crawling, getting faster and faster. He also started to give kisses the other day, this is not consistant, but very cute when he does it. There are currently six little teeth in his mouth, his hair keeps getting longer and blonder, but no hair cuts yet- daddy's rule. He's getting taller and thinner, but eating well. In other words, he's less & less a little baby, and more & more a little boy. He is such a joy.

Strike a Pose

Playdates

We had several guests over this week. Daniel had lots of fun playing with all of his friends... All girls. Alyssa came earlier in the week, then Katy, Vienna and Kailyn all came to play. He's no longer the youngest in the group. It's fun to watch him get more social, a few weeks ago he only looked interested in older kids, but now he's interacting with other little tykes. I think he'll be ready to play with his cousin, Darian next week when she comes to visit.

At Work

Adventures in Spaghetti

Out Jogging

Playtime

This look means business. It is usually accompanied by very fast crawling with some very important place he needs to go.

Opening and closing doors, then opening and closing them again is a favorite past time for Daniel these days. To guard against smashed fingers, most of our doors no longer close. We improvised and put our own door stoppers on the tops of the doors.

Crawling is performed with one knee and one foot and both hands. I suppose he gets more traction this way, at least when he's wearing pants and can charge faster.

Dancing Fool

Auntie Jessica had to say goodbye to her niece and nephew as she headed off to college. We miss her a lot and she's only been gone a couple days. Hope you're having fun Jess!

Daniel has been dancing a lot lately. Almost everytime he hears music he starts moving and grooving. Sitting, crawling, or standing, it doesn't matter, he just bounces and dances. Here he's dancing with his Grandma at Aunt Nikki's house. We stopped to visit Darian and her parents on our way to drop Auntie Jessica off at college.

Wonder

In Action

Photos courtesy of Aunt Megan.

Clap Your Hands

The latest in a long string of new tricks, Daniel figured out how to clap yesterday. It makes spoon feeding him a little harder as aunt Tracy found out last night. But it's really cute, especially when he fusses and claps at the same time. He has yet to learn what clapping means.

Daniel helping his dad build our backyard fence.


The garden has officially started. We planted cucumbers, zuccini, peppers and some herbs yesterday. It's been a long time coming and I'm very excited about it.