The first thing we remember is you getting sick right after your first birthday! You got a really bad cough, like a barking sort of cough. You couldn’t laugh or cry without barking and it would get worse at night. Definitely had to be croup. Mommy was really worried and we took you to the doctor and the fun began. They prescribed this inhaler called Flo-Vent. We started using that on you at night and can I just say, you were SO GROWN UP about it. You let Mommy put the aero-chamber in your mouth and spray the inhaler and you would breathe calmly, just like my super good little guy. We did notice that the inhaler helped you a lot during the night and you were able to sleep well again, but that’s not all we noticed.

Over the next week or so of Flo-Vent, you underwent a transformation. You turned from our happy, sweet, laid-back little guy into A MONSTER FROM HELL! You threw tantrums for no reason, you were angry and hit Mommy and Daddy, and you started to get violent at other times too like randomly throwing things and walking around the house hitting things. We were totally confused by this sudden personality flip! It didn’t seem like a natural stage where you were just learning how to react to things. It was like you were constantly in a state of seething rage about SOMETHING. Finally Mommy was doing some research online and found a LOT of stuff from other mommies about Flo-Vent having those side effects! We took you off the inhaler, and although your cough came back and took awhile to go away, you were back to your happy and friendly self in about 3 days. The funniest part is that doctors say that medicine does NOT cause those effects! Remember this when you’re older Manimo… doctors don’t ALWAYS know what they’re talking about. Most of the time they do, but sometimes when it comes to yourself or your own kids, your instincts are right!

In the month of April, right after you turned one, you started to lose interest in nursing. It might have been because you had your cough for so long – coughing made it pretty hard to nurse sometimes. But you started to kind of self-wean, just during the day at first. You would just look around at your naptime nursing and be so distracted that Mommy couldn’t get a drop of milk into you. On April 27 you went down for your first nap ever with NO milk, and there was no fussing even though you weren’t at home. That’s when Mommy knew you didn’t need to nurse for naps anymore!

Another amazing thing happened in April. You learned to walk! On Thursday April 26, you took your first steps. You were standing at your pirate ship, and you walked about three steps from the ship to the coffee table. At first, Mommy and Daddy just called it a “controlled fall” and we weren’t going to count that as your first steps, because you grabbed for the table pretty fast! But the next day, there were TWO times when you walked 5 or 6 steps to get to Mommy! And the day after that, Mommy took you to visit Oma and you walked back and forth between Oma and Mommy at the playground. You were walking 7-8 steps at a time with NO problems, just two days from your very first step! Even when you stopped walking, you wouldn’t fall. You would just squat down – and you LOVED the whole process. Mommy’s mind was totally blown by how fast you picked it up! By May 8, you were walking like a seasoned pro AND you weren’t nursing during the night anymore. Mommy wasn’t sure if we could even call you a baby anymore!

In May we also had to do a HUGE culling of your stuff. You had grown a bunch, you were walking, and you’d been through a Christmas and a birthday. Your room was crammed to overflowing! Mommy went through your room and filled up a bunch of big bins of toys and clothes to put into storage. Then we went under the landing and Mommy went to work on the stuff under there! We kept all of Mommy’s favorite outfits and all of your best toys, and we still ended up with four big bags of stuff to give away. We sent it to Uncle Nick and Auntie Natasha to look through for your cousin Blake. Maybe he’ll wear some of your old stuff!

Since you’ve started walking, everyone has been thinking you’ll become quite a handful. But you are just a super good little guy! You do occasionally grab things you aren’t supposed to have, but most of the time you are just walking to get around the house and to whatever toy you want. You don’t even touch Daddy’s TV… good job! When Mommy does have to rescue you, you’re never mad… it’s like you’re already trying to learn what you can and can’t be getting into. You’re a pretty careful little guy, and you will NEVER hear Mommy and Daddy complain about that!

You do have your share of little mishaps though… the thing is, you don’t have to be walking for them to happen! One night in May, Mommy and Daddy were changing you and getting you ready for bed, and you grabbed the BIG bottle of baby powder and tipped it up just like a glass. There was a big FOOF and your whole mouth was filled with powder! This was part of the time right after you learned to use cups, where you thought EVERYTHING that was vaguely shaped like a cup, or bottle, or glass, must be something to drink. Your mouth shrank right up, you started smacking your tongue and lips like a dog with a mouthful of peanut butter… and you TRIED to cry, but you were so dried out you couldn’t! Mommy and Daddy were stifling laughs the whole time we spent trying to help you clean out and re-wet your mouth. Don’t judge us Manmo, when your kids do stuff like that someday, you’ll understand how hard it is to be serious when you’re “supposed” to be!

Your first walking injury happened in June. Pretty impressive… you were walking for over a month before you hurt yourself for the first time. You came careening out of the hallway (yes, careening… you get going pretty fast sometimes) and your top half just out-paced your bottom half and you went over face first. You biffed yourself pretty good on our magazine rack and cut your face open right at the corner of your eye. You had nice little goose-eggs above and below the cut too! Mommy just about had a heart attack when she saw how close the cut was to your eye. And as for Daddy… well, we don’t have a magazine rack anymore. Where’s Mommy going to keep the Sears catalogs?

Another thing you started doing this summer is stairs. Those took you awhile, but you follow Mommy up and down all the time now. And by follow, I mean you take 10 minutes to get between floors while Mommy goes about 1 or 2 steps below you in case you fall. With linoleum and concrete on our staircase, Mommy and Daddy will probably be paranoid for a long time. You go everywhere with Mommy now, and you’re learning about laundry… I don’t think you’ve ever been so interested as they day Mommy washed the your bubby and you saw me do it! Before too long you’ll be helping with the laundry, and maybe some other house work! (I’m allowed to dream, right?)

You’re starting to get pretty close to your cousin Jaiden this summer too. Mommy’s been babysitting Noah and Jaiden and you have been spending a lot of time with them! In July we had your 12 month immunizations and you were sick for almost a week from them, just with mild fever but you were pretty tired and clingy the whole time. I knew just how close you and Jaiden were getting when we were babysitting and without anyone asking her, she walked all the way to the kitchen, found your bubby and brought him over to you. It’s been a fun year for you – we took you guys to the corn maze, lots of parks and playdates, and even took Noah and Jaiden to three parades this year! It’s always a party in the car when you guys are together.

One last big milestone for this summer: Your first camping trip! Mommy and Daddy got a spot at Brewers’ campground and we went with our tent for 2 nights. It rained a LOT! We never got to go to the beach at all. We had Oma and Opa, Grandma and Grandpa, and Uncle Allan and Auntie Jolene out in the evenings for supper. We ate great – steak, thick burgers, hot dogs, roasted marshmallows – Mommy and Daddy even tried to make s’mores, and failed miserably. You loved the marshmallows and chocolate separately though! Unfortunately we barely would get a meal eaten, and it would be raining and we’d be sitting in the tent again. You were a good sport though, playing with your truck and other toys outside whenever you could and behaving like a perfect little man when we were stuck in the tent. One thing’s for sure – after this camping trip, we know that you can handle anything! We can’t wait for all the years of fun ahead with you, sweet little guy. We love you forever and ever!

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This month there were some other big changes for you! You have so many toys now, thanks to Christmas, and your birthday is coming up next month, and you were running out of space to keep all your toys in your bedroom. This is amazing because you have a BIG bedroom compared to a lot of kids! So this month, Mommy took the change table out of your room (you are too big for it now anyway). Then we used a gift card from Granny and bought a set of big, SOLID shelves to install in your room. Mommy mounted them right on the wall and I bet they could even handle you climbing on them. I hope you never DO climb on them – we are starting to worry about you doing things like that because I’m sure you aren’t far from walking! Your toys are all organized on and under those shelves now, and your room looks awesome!

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Your poor little body keeps undergoing lots of changes. I don’t know how you can handle all the growing, learning, and then the little problems you have that Mommy tries to keep at bay and just isn’t always successful! You’ve developed eczema – all over your back, arms, thighs, most of your body really. It looks itchy, and sore… but you are a little trooper about it. Even when Mommy makes you sit still while she smears cream all over your body, you’re pretty good about the whole thing. Maybe because you’re having more trouble with your teeth? Your top two front ones are trying to come in and they’ve come through the gum and then disappeared probably three or four times now. This has got to drive you crazy, I mean it drives Mommy and Daddy crazy and they’re not even our teeth! One day, little man, I promise you – all these changes in your body will slow down. I would say “and then you’ll be able to enjoy life” but… you already do. My happy little guy.

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One big event this month was Mommy’s birthday party. We celebrated on February 20 (Family Day) at Bower Ponds. We built a fire and roasted hot dogs, and you had some of those cut up with some potato salad. We took you out onto the pond in a sled and pulled you around, although you weren’t too keen on that… you were a little happier sitting with Mommy in a big sled and both of us being pulled! Next year, we’ll try to introduce you to tobogganing, but for this year you are just too small. You did pretty well that day though; you fell asleep on Oma at the ponds, and then you stayed up and played with Zoey at the house after the party. You had half an hour of sleep the whole day and you still were our sweet little man!

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You also attended your cousin Jaiden’s first birthday this month. We went to the arena in Lacombe and there was cake, balloons, presents, and lots of other kids! You ate lots of pizza, but had no interest in the cake and you were quite content to watch the other kids. You were VERY quiet the whole party and we’re thinking we need to get you out around some other kids more often! We don’t want you to be the shy kid on the sidelines. But then on the other hand, we kind of DO want you to be that kid so that you’ll continue to need your parents. We will ALWAYS be here for you.

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This month you did something both Mommy and Daddy have been looking forward to and DREADING at the same time! You started cruising – you walk all along the edges of the coffee table, couch, or another piece of furniture. Sometimes you even make it around the corner to the second side, but usually you fall down. On February 28 you walked across the house with Daddy supporting you. We are encouraging you to start walking, but please don’t feel like you have to hurry. You can take as long as you want because every step you take seems like another step away from your Mommy and Daddy. Please don’t grow up too fast, OK?

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The last week of February was a tough one for you. You came down with an ear infection, and you really got sick with it – not only did your poor ears hurt, but you also had the runs and a pretty sick little tummy. You even had some nasty cold symptoms to boot, although that could have been your teeth because your front top teeth FINALLY came through and STAYED through! As usual, you were a real tough little guy and hardly complained. When you’re sick, you still cruise around the house and play, and you’re still friendly to everyone even though you look like you’re totally miserable! When you’re sick it hits you hard and fast, like Daddy – a few days and then you’re better. We are grateful for this and Mommy hopes you stay this way. I don’t ever want you to be sick, but since you have to be every once in awhile, I’m glad it’s always quick!

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Mommy and Daddy love you so much Mister, and we just hope you always know it. We are proud of every milestone you hit, although sometimes we feel a bit sad about your increasing independence. We will always, always be here to help you when you need it and we promise we’ll try never to hold you back. Love you, forever.

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On January 10, you ate food all on your own for the first time. You just started eating chunks around Christmastime… before that, even though you have teeth and you COULD eat cut up chunks, you would get mad if something wasn’t pureed. Then suddenly you started eating pieces, and only a couple of weeks later you started picking up the pieces and putting them into your own mouth! You didn’t do it gradually… one meal, Mommy still had to feed you, and the next one you suddenly started to do it yourself! It was a rough meal… you are still pretty clumsy at getting the food to your mouth, and every time you dropped something you would cry. But you did a great job!

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After your first foray into feeding yourself, the next day you ate your WHOLE lunch with no help at all. I called your Dad at work and told him he should have seen you at lunch. He asked “was he an eatimo?” and yet another nickname was coined! You lost interest pretty quickly though, and now you will start out eating on your own but after a lot of drops and misses, Mommy or Daddy has to help you.

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Of course, with feeding yourself came putting other things into your mouth! January 11, just a day after your first self-feeding demonstration, was the first time Mommy caught you eating something off the floor. Maybe you have done it before… who knows? But that was the first day you got caught doing it. Mommy frantically jammed a finger into your mouth to hook out whatever was in there, and lo and behold – it was food. Cue the loud sigh of relief.

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Mommy’s relief was short-lived, of course… the better you get at putting food in your mouth, the easier it is for your to put everything else in too! So far, objects of note that have been retrieved from your mouth include the green fibers from the artificial Christmas tree, a pointy shard of clear plastic, a motherboard thumb screw, a GIANT dust bunny, and grass that you pulled off Charlie. Nothing toxic, but a couple of those could have been bad if you’d swallowed them! Mommy is getting more obsessed by the day with following you around and taking things away from you!

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Around mid-January, you took the next step in eating – you started holding your sippy cup or straw cup and drinking on your own. Now you have a cup with you all the time and you LOVE to have water with your meals, just like Mommy and Daddy. You are REALLY good at drinking out of the straw cup – you’ve known how to drink from a straw since you were about 3 months old – but you haven’t quite got the sippy cup down yet as you haven’t figured out that you have to tip it up.

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By the end of January, you were so good at feeding yourself that Mommy and Daddy don’t help you at all anymore. You eat all your meals on your own and you’re FAST. At least we think you are… we don’t really have any other kids to compare to! You’re so independent with your eating that some foods like bread or cheese don’t even need to be cut up anymore.

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And the biggest milestone you had this month: You stood up for the first time! Mommy was sitting on the couch and you were playing on the floor, and suddenly Mommy looked down and you were STANDING! You had pulled yourself up using the end of the coffee table, and you were just standing there hanging on for dear life looking a little bit confused and stuck. Mommy got a picture of you standing there, but I wish I’d actually seen you get up! The things we parents miss!

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Anyway, Zane, you’re not even a year old yet and Mommy and Daddy are amazed every day at the steps you’re making toward growing up. We are both proud and sad at the same time… proud because we think you’re the brightest and cutest baby in the world, and sad because you are so quickly changing from a baby into a little boy. We hope you know that we will always love you no matter what changes you go through, and we hope you’ll like to stay close and not make us miss you too much. We love you.

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Opening one of your first-ever Christmas presents at Oma and Opa’s house.

OK buddy, here is yet another way-late monthly letter from Mommy. You have had a big month this time around, and there was NO time to write your letter on time! Mommy has been catching up with things from Christmas and working steady on photography, building prints and albums for the bridal show in February. But we’ve kept some notes, so here goes – your ninth month!

In the second week of December, you hit a huge milestone… at least, WE thought it was a milestone because everything you do impresses us. You started (reliably) standing up when we set you up on your feet! You have to be holding on to something of course, and you don’t stand up on your own yet, but you are learning through us setting you up, that your legs can do more than get in the way! Right now, you fall down very easily with even the slightest wobble, but we know you’re working on that balance. When you start walking I have a feeling we’ll be left wondering how it happened so fast!

A super-cute close up shot by Auntie Melina.

On December 17, you had your first-ever Christmas dinner. This was one of the many times you’ve made liars out of us at Oma’s house. We’d continued pureeing your food even though you could eat cut up chunks, because you didn’t like the chunks. And when I say didn’t like, I mean you would FLY into a white-hot RAGE when Mommy tried to give you chunks of food. Even hidden inside a puree, you would find them and spit them out, and then LOUDLY refuse to eat any more! So at Christmas dinner, as usual, we pureed your food, and you didn’t eat ANY of it! You ate cut up pieces from your high chair tray for an hour before you were finally filled up. Mommy had to put them in your mouth for you, but you ate so much we had to get your seconds and thirds. You seem to be developing even more food appreciation than you already had!

Peeking over the coffee table at Mommy, which you learned to do soon after learning to crawl.

On December 19, I guess you decided that one milestone for the month wasn’t enough… you learned to crawl forward! You just crawled on your belly using your arms, but you were moving FORWARD instead of backward, and you were steering yourself properly and getting to where you wanted to go. This was huge for you, because now you no longer had to end up in random places and scream to be rescued. (This was a pretty nice change for Mommy and Daddy, too!)

Of course, the very next day you proved that the milestones are happening just too fast. Mommy wasn’t ready for your new crawling skill, and you crawled into a corner in the office where you shouldn’t be and had another First. You stuck your hand into an open computer case and got your first cut! This was also your first “case cut”, which is an important milestone for any geek, but let’s stick to the first cut ever because every Mommy out there can identify with this one! Mommy knew you’d done something you didn’t like, because you cried suddenly, but when I turned around to check on you, you were sitting up with a couple of toys and seemed fine. A minute or two later, Mommy checked again and almost fainted – you were playing thoughtfully with your red, sticky hands which you’d soaked in the pool of blood between your feet! At least, it looked like a pool at that moment – later, when Mommy cleaned it up, it didn’t look nearly as bad. But you did have blood everywhere – your hands and up your arms, all over  your clothes, in your hair and over your face. And you were MAD that Mommy didn’t let you play in it, and MAD that Mommy bandaged up the tip of your finger and cut off the fun at its source. It was a deep cut though, and took a long time to stop oozing, so Mommy had to ruin your fun and get it covered up!

Another Christmas present at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

That same day – maybe because you were bored after Mommy took away your fun new blood toy – you decided to upgrade the crawling skill you’d just learned the day before. On December 20, you crawled up on your hands and knees for the first time. Your legs went out from under you a couple times and you were pretty slow, and you regressed to crawling on your belly a couple of times. But by Christmas five days later, you were crawling like a seasoned pro. And of course, that meant that you were going all kinds of places you shouldn’t be. Mommy’s spent the last little while going through storage boxes, getting rid of extra things, Zane-proofing the lower areas, and finding homes for everything!

December 25 brought another exciting first – your first Christmas! Mommy bought you a Christmas tree ornament at the craft show in Red Deer, so you have your baby ornament on the tree now. On Christmas morning we got you up and helped you open some presents – Santa brought you a little activity cart that you can play with now and push around when you start walking, and some little toys in your stocking too. Mommy and Daddy got you a pail with plastic shapes that you’re supposed to put through the matching holes in the lid. You actually opened some of the presents on your own… although you would stop about halfway through and just eat the paper. You are too smart for your pail though – you just pull the lid off and put your shapes in and take them out. Why do things the hard way, right? You also got some clothes from other family members, and two pairs of Cars pajamas, and a couple of toys from Grandma and Oma. And even though we went to TWO Christmas dinners and you hardly had any sleep, you were really good!

Modeling one of your many pairs of Christmas pajamas.

Right around the end of December (right before you turned nine months) you made one more little step that forced Mommy and Daddy to start cleaning off even more surfaces. You started pulling yourself upward on things. The couches, Mommy and Daddy’s legs, the coffee table… anything you could get hold of. You aren’t standing on your own yet, we still have to stand you up… but you can pull yourself up onto one knee or into a squatting position on both feet. One day after your nap, Mommy went in to get you and you were squatting in your crib, up on both feet, hanging on to the railing. Just a pull and you would have been standing all the way up! Mommy lowered your crib mattress that day, because we knew that it was only a matter of time till you stood up, and if it’s anything like when you sat for the first time, you will probably do it when we’re not looking and least expecting it!

You and Mommy at the crazy Christmas light house in Eckville.

You seem to do everything like that… right when we think it’ll be awhile yet, you show us some new skill that we had no idea you had. You are growing by leaps and bounds and learning new things every day, and Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you. Sometimes we talk about how we can barely remember what you were like as a tiny baby, and how we wish you wouldn’t grow up quite so fast. But the reality is, we are proud of every new thing you do and every milestone you reach and fly past, and we think you are perfect just as you are. Even if you do grow up blindingly fast, we love you, our amazing little boy!

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This month, you had your first cold. You were so miserable – your nose ran nonstop and you would sneeze out huge gobs that covered your whole mouth and chin, and the bottom half of your face was red and sore from all the wiping Mommy had to do. You sounded plugged up too, and played with your ears a lot so we’re pretty sure you had a sore throat. The doctor said it wasn’t an ear infection, so thank goodness for that! You must have had headaches too, because a lot of that week you couldn’t sleep without Tylenol. This was the week you started your nursing strike too – that started on November 12.

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On November 13, you had your very first visit to the ER. You hadn’t eaten or drank anything in 24 hours and you weren’t sleeping well, and you were fussing nonstop which isn’t like  you at all – even during the first days of your cold, you were a real trooper. When that changed so suddenly, Mommy and Daddy got really worried and took you in. You had a really little umbilical hernia (still do) and when we were waiting in the ER we noticed that it was VERY red and swollen and oozing – gross, and also scary! The doctors were worried that the infection might be inside and they kept us there all day and did tests to see if they would need to operate on the hernia. They took blood from you a couple of times which was AWFUL… we had to help hold you down while you screamed in terror. Mommy and Daddy hated it! They also took a pee test, but that was a lot easier… they just stuck a little bag over your doodle and let you go to town! We did have to hydrate you first though since you hadn’t been eating or drinking, but once we got that done you started to feel a lot happier. And at the end of our visit, we found out that the infection was just surface, so all we had to do was give you antibiotics for a few days. There was also a few days of bad diaper changes though… the sticky pee bag in the hospital irritated you really bad and you would SCREAM when we cleaned your bottom. We sure are lucky that’s the only real diaper “rash” you’ve ever had because you do NOT take having a sore bottom very well!

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Back to your nursing strike – Mommy figured out that the reason you went on strike is because Mommy had almost no milk! I’m still pretty sure that this is from getting a flu shot. Mommy gets the flu shot every year, but if I’d known it would make your milk supply drop I would have skipped it for sure! We rented a BIG pump on the way home and got a prescription for some medicine to make the milk come back. It was slow going… Mommy was pumping 8-10 times a day, basically any time that you refused to nurse, and we had to buy you formula to feed you in the meantime.

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Eventually after 5 days or so, you would SOMETIMES nurse a little if Mommy very carefully tricked you into it, or if you were half asleep. You would flip out as soon as you realized what you were doing though, and demand a bottle! This was tougher on Mommy than on you… you weren’t going hungry, so you didn’t care much, but Mommy felt really sad and rejected. Who knew that nursing could be such an emotional thing! Everything turned out OK though, by November 21 you were back to loving nursing, and Mommy’s supply was much better! Mommy was really happy about that, because I want weaning to be OUR decision and not something that happens because some vaccination ruins our supply!

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On to happier things, this month you had your first “social” experience outside of family. Mommy took you to KAPS (Kids at Play Society) on November 15. We probably spread your cold germs all over Blackfalds, but you were feeling better so we went anyway! There were a LOT of kids running all over the hall and making all kinds of noise, and you were fascinated! You ate your breakfast there and did a fairly good job in spite of all the distractions, and then Mommy sat down with you and found you some safe toys. You weren’t very interactive though. We decided that we would try KAPS again when you’re a little bigger… maybe after you start walking, and maybe when your cousins can come along so Mommy has someone to talk to! For a play “group” the other mommies there sure weren’t very friendly. Mommy tried to go around and introduce us to a few people, but everyone just got in their little groups and no one bothered to even say hi to the new person. You’ll understand when you’re older why this made Mommy not want to go back!

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This month you STILL aren’t crawling… your cousin Morgan, who’s three weeks older than you, has been pulling up on things and standing for a few weeks now. And your second cousins Frances and Emilia, who are YOUNGER than you, are both crawling already! You still get around… you haven’t crawled, at least not that we’ve seen, but somehow you always manage to get where you want to go. We’ve developed a theory that you must be teleporting, because at this point that seems like the only logical explanation! We’re starting to think maybe you won’t crawl at all, but just go straight from scooting/rolling/teleporting right to walking. You have to learn to pull yourself up onto your feet first, though!

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The only other thing Mommy can think of this month is that you had your first stay away from home that WASN’T at Oma’s house. Daddy’s birthday party was this month, and you stayed at Uncle Allan and Auntie Jolene’s place overnight so that the boys would be able to make noise with their gaming. As it turned out, they were pretty quiet! You probably could have stayed home and slept right through everything. But it was still a nice night off for Mommy. Daddy has a hard time understanding why Mommy likes these nights or days off… he seems to think that taking care of you isn’t a job. What Mommy keeps trying to explain is that it IS a job… except Mommy doesn’t get to have evenings off, or weekends, or statutory holidays, or three weeks vacation like Daddy gets from his job! Mommy’s job is, as Daddy would say, 24/7 yo! Just know that Mommy only wants time off for her own sanity, and to get some extra sleep once in awhile. Taking care of you is a lot of work, but it’s still the best job Mommy’s ever had, and I wouldn’t change it for the world!

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In your stroller at Oma and Grandpa’s place at Thanksgiving. Not sure why you were so indignant looking!

Well Zane, Mommy is in true form writing your seventh-month letter. You’re almost 8 months old! We will try to keep this letter all about things that happened in your seventh month… good thing Mommy kept notes again because Mommy and Daddy can’t keep track of what you’re doing from one day to the next! You are such a busy little boy, it seems like every day you’re learning (and demonstrating) some brand new skill. We’ve got to try to get these things out on time… or try harder I guess, since the trying isn’t working. This was a busy month though, Mommy had a lot of photography work to catch up on and that got in the way of writing about you. But tonight, manimo, it’s all about you! (I should mention here, in case we don’t remember this in 20 years, that “manimo” is what we’ve been calling you… it evolved from “The Manimal”. Don’t ask us how, just go with it… like you do with all your other nicknames.)

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In the leaves on Thanksgiving Day at Grandma and Grandpa’s place.

This month was your second holiday dinner – you were born right before Easter so you got in on that day. It was still a first though… on this holiday, you sat up to the table and ate dinner with everyone else! We had Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa’s and at Oma and Grandpa’s and both meals, you ate what everyone else ate! Well, you ate some of the things everyone else ate. And yours was pureed of course. But you surprised everyone with how much food you could pack away! Uncle Carl’s girlfriend asked us “he can eat ALL THAT?” And you COULD! You’ve been growing like a weed though, so we aren’t surprised!

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You’re getting used to your two new teeth this month. You have both bottom front teeth in now, and you look so silly and cute when you smile with them. Everyone loves it. You bit Mommy for the first time though… at least, the first time with a sharp edge! Mommy takes the boob away when you bite, and so far you don’t bite until you’re done eating. You haven’t managed to hurt your Mommy very bad yet either, but I am apprehensive about the day when you inevitably will! Hopefully by the time that happens, you’ll either be old enough to wean or old enough to teach NO.

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Sitting on the floor in the office. We put Mommy’s nursing pillow behind you so no head bonks when you topple over!

You can sit up a lot better and longer than you could last month. This month, we set you on the floor sitting up, and you can stay that way for a LONG time! You don’t randomly fall over nearly as often, and you can actually lean to grab something and get yourself back up instead of falling or getting stuck. You do still fall over if you lean too far though… and you can’t get back up on your own yet. At least you couldn’t for most of this month… on October 28, you sneakily sat up on your own while Mommy’s back was turned. And on November 2, just a few days before you turned 7 months, we saw you sit up all by yourself TWICE! After those two times though, you didn’t do it for awhile, so we kind of wondered if it was just a fluke… but as of your 7-month birthday you’re sitting up on your own whenever you want to. Never know though, it seems like you will do something and then just not bother with it for awhile even though you know you can. Are you developing a bit of a lazy streak?

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Proof that you move around a lot… Mommy had to pack you around while doing laundry! We put you in the basket and packed the laundry in all around you.

You’ve started moving around a lot this month, too. You don’t have any real control over it yet – mostly you’re rolling. In the first half of this month, you would roll over and over across the room, but you can only roll one way. So you’d get all the way to one side of the room and then be stuck, and you would lie there and yell indignantly until someone comes to rescue you. The next movement you started was inching along on your belly. Again, this isn’t very reliable… you usually end up going backwards, and you don’t have any control over where you end up. You get stuck under the coffee table a lot by backing yourself under there up to your waist… it’s hard for Mommy to come and rescue you without laughing at you just a little! The moving around has still changed things though… Mommy has to really watch you now, and you go everywhere Mommy goes when housework needs to be done!

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One of many messy meals enjoyed in your high chair.

This month we added a lunchtime meal to your daily repertoire. You’ve been pretty cranky in the afternoons, and having lunch seemed to improve that late-day personality a lot. It also makes it a bit easier for Mommy to put you down for your afternoon nap! Right now, you eat plain yogurt mixed with fruit for your lunches, and you’re pretty happy with that arrangement. Mommy found out from Oma that yogurt has protein, so we’re not too worried about adding meat to your lunch just yet.

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Your sleep habits have changed yet again this month… you are back to sleeping 12 hours a night, but you sleep a lot less during the day – there’s too much to do I guess! You sleep heavier at night too… Mommy and Daddy can actually sneak up to your crib (most nights) and look in without waking you up. About the middle of this month, though, you started getting up about 1-3 hours after going to bed and you MUST NURSE NOW before going back to sleep. We don’t think you’re doing it just for comfort either, because you eat quite a bit when you get up! Why are you doing this? Aren’t you full enough when you go to bed? And if you aren’t, then why aren’t you eating more THEN instead of 2 hours later?

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This month, we got you your first toddler bathtub. Mommy is going to go ahead and tell you the story, because you’re going to learn anyway about your Mommy’s obsession with finding a bargain! Daddy and Mommy looked at this tub at Babies R Us, set you in it and everything, and it was PERFECT for you. You could sit up in it, and it had a little raised part between your legs to keep you from slipping down into the water. But the tub was $40.00!!! Well a few days later, Mommy walked into a kids consignment store and got the same exact tub for $5.00! So that night, we filled it up and you had your first “big-boy” bath… no more kitchen sink for you! You sat up in your new tub and played with your rings and sucked the suds off your hands. Mommy and Daddy tried to teach you to splash, but you weren’t interested… although a week later you were splashing up a storm and we were wishing we hadn’t showed you how! Mommy also bought you some squirty bath toys this month, and eating those is your other favorite bath activity.

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Dressed up as Scooby Doo and sitting in Grandma’s inflatable coffin. We’re pretty sure you were the cutest kid there and probably the most well-behaved, too!

Right at the end of this month, you attended your first kids’ party. Grandma hosts a Hallowe’en party every year for all the grandkids, and this year you got to go for the first time! You were dressed as Scooby Doo. The costume was perfect because your Daddy loves Scooby Doo, but you picked it out all by yourself! Mommy was looking through the costume racks in WalMart and your stroller was parked right near them… when Mommy looked down, you had a costume in your mouth, and it was a Scooby Doo in your size! So that was the one we bought. You didn’t get to do much at the party, since all the toys and candy were for older kids, but you sure looked adorable in your costume… and you were an ANGEL all night even though we kept you up so late! Next year, we’re going to try and plan your costume a little earlier so we don’t buy it from WalMart the week before Hallowe’en again.

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There was another big event for you on Hallowe’en – you had your 6-month vaccinations and your first flu shot. You took these ones better than either of your other two times… you screamed of course, but you were smiling at the nurse within a couple of minutes as if she’d never jabbed you at all. And you were super good for the Hallowe’en party that night, as Mommy already mentioned… even though your legs were probably hurting. You did come down with a bad cold a week later though, so maybe the shots knocked your poor immune system down a little bit. Mommy got a flu shot too, and it made your milk supply go way down… that and your cold together made you go on a nursing strike right at the end of this month. But that’s going to be a story for your 8 month letter!

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Mom, how am I supposed to eat fruit that’s as big as I am?

The final thing to mention for this post is that in the very last week of the month, you started to get your “crawling” under control a lot more. You still only crawl backwards, and you still only use your hands and don’t get your legs up under you. But you also learned to roll the other direction, so now between the rolling and scooting backwards, you can get almost anywhere you want to go. Although it does still take you some time… we are OK with that because we like still being able to keep up with you! Not to mention keeping you out of things that we forget to put away. Mommy and Daddy think you might just skip right over crawling and go straight to walking, but who knows? Whatever order you decide to do things, and however long it takes you, we think everything about you is perfect and we love you more than anything. We can’t wait to see what the coming months bring!

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Here you are sitting on Daddy. Daddy has some play time with you every night and you laugh almost the whole time. You're one of the happiest kids we know!

So Mommy is running late AGAIN this month with writing your letter… you’re actually almost 6 and a HALF months old. At least this month, Mommy was smart enough to take some notes during the month so we should hopefully be able to put together a letter that doesn’t mix in anything that actually happened in your seventh month! You have grown by leaps and bounds in your sixth month – you haven’t gained as much in size as you have in previous months, but you are doing and learning so many new things, that it’s getting hard to remember what you were like as a new baby!

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Early on in your sixth month, you started to always be hungry. I mean you would nurse till Mommy was empty on both sides and then want to nurse again an hour later. You just couldn’t be filled up! You even started getting up in the night STARVING, which you hadn’t done in ages! So right at the end of month 5, Mommy and Daddy decided we’d better start feeding you solid food regularly. You had already tasted mashed potatoes when we went to Canmore and you LOVED them, so we figured you’d like other solid foods too! Mommy makes all your food by blending what Daddy and I eat and adding breastmilk… for your first week, you had pork chops and carrots. By about the middle of your sixth month, we had you eating a solid supper every day and you were sleeping MUCH better at night, back up to 8 hours at a time! You also go down for two naps a day – no fuss in the morning, but in the last week of this month we noticed you were starting to fuss a lot when we put you down in the afternoon. We aren’t sure why yet, Mommy tried moving you to one nap per day and that didn’t work. But we’ll figure it out!

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Having some delicious beets for supper. You've liked EVERYTHING we've offered you so far, except bananas. You're a better eater than Mommy and Daddy!

So far, you’ve really taken to eating solid foods… now that you know you can eat things, EVERYTHING you touch goes straight into your mouth. Mommy and Daddy really have to watch what you get your hands on since we don’t want you to choke or hurt yourself, but if something is safe for you to have, we let you chew away on it! Your grabbing gets really bad when you see Mommy or Daddy eating or drinking something. If your parents are putting it into their mouths, then you HAVE TO HAVE IT, STAT… and sometimes you even get mad if we don’t give it to you! You even get mad during your regular meals when we don’t have the next spoonful of food ready fast enough. Sometimes we share our food with you, but some things (beer, Coke, candy) just aren’t appropriate for a little baby!

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About halfway through this month, Mommy noticed you were really pigging out in the morning and you didn’t really seem satisfied throughout the day until you’d had supper. So we added in a second daily meal for you – rice cereal in the morning. At first Mommy just made it with breastmilk, but you didn’t like the taste very much – so we started adding some pureed fruit in for flavor. Now breakfast is your favorite meal of the day – you pork it right down, and you’ll even get mad if you open your mouth and the next spoonful isn’t ready! Daddy fed you a few times this month, and he was the first one to discover that you had learned a new trick – after only a few weeks of eating solids, you learned to “pffft” and spit things back at the person feeding you! We say “no” and correct you when you do it, but really it’s HILARIOUS and we’re trying not to laugh and encourage you – just like when you stick your thumb in your mouth during meals. It’s hard for Mommy and Daddy to say “no” and stop you from doing things that are still cute or funny right now. But it’s for your own good – and ours!

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It's getting harder and harder to get you to sleep. You sleep just like Mommy - very lightly! This is the day you were at the store in Sylvan Lake with Mommy, and we made you a cardboard house to keep the light out of your eyes so you would sleep!

On the last night of month 5, you slept in your crib for the first time. That was a hard night for Mommy and Daddy – every time Mommy put you in the crib, you cried and cried. Mommy would let you cry for a few minutes, then take you out and nurse you a little more and try again. Eventually you went to sleep and slept through the night. I don’t think it was the crib though – it was a couple days after that, you started eating solid food for supper, and that’s when you started sleeping well again. So your transition to the crib would have been easier if Mommy had known you were just hungry! By a few days into month 6, you were sleeping in the crib every night with no issues… Mommy nurses you, you’re still awake when you get put down, and you go right to sleep every time with (at most) only a few minutes of fussing. I hope it always stays this easy, but Mommy and Daddy aren’t going to assume anything! So far though, I think you sleeping in your crib has been harder on Daddy than it has on you.

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It seemed like you outgrew a lot of things this month… Mommy can’t even remember what you were like when you were smaller, without looking back at pictures. We put away your bathtub and baby towels this month because they are way too small for you. You were displacing water right out of your tub and Mommy was having to use two towels to dry you! So now you have your baths in the kitchen sink. You’re not really a fan of this, I think because you want to sit up but the bottom of the sink is too slippery! Mommy has to hold you up a bit so you don’t fall back and bonk your head, and you don’t like to be held in one position. We also use big-person towels for your bath now, so Mommy can bundle you right up just like we used to do with the baby towels. You like the warm scratchy towels a lot more than you like your new “bathtub” though!

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Just one more thing we put away this month... this is one of the last times you used the bassinet in the top of your playpen. This is you chilling out in the back room at Sylvan Lake Business Solutions.

There are a few other things that got put away this month. You haven’t used the wedge pillows in awhile because you can roll over now – so when we try to prop you up on a wedge, you just roll off and get mad because you’re on your face! We also put your cradle away because you touch both ends of it when we put you in, and you almost fill it out to both sides! You like to move around a lot when you sleep, so we know you would HATE to be in the cradle now. Daddy misses having you in our bedroom, but your crib just won’t fit in there with all our other furniture! The last thing we put away this month is your bouncy chair. You are still under the “maximum” weight for it, but Mommy put you in it one day and didn’t get one clip done up all the way… and you leaned forward and flipped the whole chair over! You were fine of course, but just a week earlier you wouldn’t have been able to flip the chair even if BOTH clips were undone, so Mommy didn’t feel comfortable putting you in there after that. You didn’t like it that much anyway, once the little hanging toys started to bore you!

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You’re moving a lot this month – on your way to becoming mobile. Mommy and Daddy are happy to see every new development and we encourage and praise you… but we’re a little bit sad to see you growing up so fast. We know there will be a day when you’ll be running around without needing our help, and that’ll just be that much closer to the day when you won’t need us for anything anymore! So far, you just roll or inch… but it’s still pretty impressive when we set you on your back on a blanket and we turn away for a minute, only to turn back and find you’ve rolled or inched a couple of feet from where we put you down!

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You’re really close to sitting up too… you are already trying all the time to sit up on your own. You strain from the lying on your back position to pull yourself up and you just can’t quite make it. We think you have the muscles you need for it, but you just don’t know how to use all of them in the right combinations yet! If we sit you up, you can sit there with no help, but you are very wobbly – you can’t reach for anything without falling over, and you fall over randomly with no warning too. One day this month you were sitting up and suddenly you just pushed with your legs and dove headfirst into the floor! Mommy freaked out because there was a big loud THUD, but as soon as you hit, you rolled onto your side, looked at Mommy and started laughing! Just like Daddy said in your first month you are a TOUGH little boy.

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Wiggling around on the floor. You wiggle all the time now... you never stop moving. You don't move very far yet, but Mommy and Daddy know that won't last much longer!

I think the BIGGEST change you went through this month was TEETH! Mommy and Daddy have thought for weeks that you must be teething because of the sheer volume of drool that comes out of your face. And this month, we finally found the first tooth! On September 29 Mommy felt a little sharp spot on your gum, the bottom left front tooth. It wasn’t through the skin yet, but it was definitely a tooth! And the very next day, we felt your bottom RIGHT tooth coming in… two teeth at once! No wonder you had been drooling so much. By the end of the sixth month, both teeth were through the skin although they’re still not grown in all the way. It won’t be long until you’re chewing up your own food! You are getting to be such a big boy – so fast – and Mommy and Daddy are just as proud of you as we could possibly be. We love you so very much. ♥

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Your measurements at the end of this month:

• Height: 28 inches
• Weight: 18 lb. 12 oz.

Mommy took this picture when Auntie Carolyn was holding you. We even printed and framed it for Daddy to take to work because it was so cute.

Well Zane, here Mommy is, writing your five-month letter. Late, again… but not as late as the four-month letter was! Still, I promise I will try to improve on my writing time for your future posts! The weeks following the wedding were a little busier than we thought… trying to catch up on housework, stocking up on food, and many hours of Photoshop to get Mommy’s business out there for people to see and get some wedding photos onto Facebook. Not to mention, we went on a trip (a mini honeymoon)AND Mommy started working for one of her old bosses for some extra money! There is a lot to tell you about that went on in your fifth month, so I guess we should just dive right in!

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Your growth this month – and how you’re turning into a little grown-up right before our eyes – blows us away. You had so many firsts in your fifth month, and with each one, Mommy and Daddy are happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because you are doing so well and doing so many great things, and sad because each new thing you do means you’re just a little bit closer to independence!

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Here you are sitting in the high chair. Usually you have toys or a keyboard or your piano, but soon you will be eating here every day too!

The first major thing you did this month was to sit in your high chair! You couldn’t quite sit up on your own yet, but you hold your head up perfectly, and since the high chair has sides and straps, you could sit in it just fine. Mommy started putting you in there when she’s working in the kitchen or cleaning, and you would sit and play with toys (and throw them on the floor) and just enjoy yourself. I think you loved being able to really see what’s going on around you… Mommy would put the chair right in the middle of the house so you could really look around.

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Your taste in toys has started to change this month. You still enjoy your little chains of plastic rings, and your various teething toys and rattles, but instead of staring mesmerized at them, they are always in your mouth now! We’re pretty sure you’re teething, since you’ve had some pretty long (and loud) evenings. Luckily those have (so far) been few and far between. If you don’t need something in your mouth, your old toys sometimes fail to amuse you! You have a couple of toys now that make noises, and you love your Laugh and Learn playcenter now that you know you can interact with the things on it. And interact you do… with your hands AND mouth. You also have a little Baby Genius piano that we have taped onto your high chair tray, and sometimes you sit in the high chair for quite awhile hitting buttons on it.

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This is the day you took an interest in Daddy’s gaming. We had to get you your own controller so you would leave Daddy’s alone!

Mommy and Daddy are actually a little bit surprised about the direction your interests are taking. We didn’t think you’d start becoming a nerd this early, but you are already showing a lot of interest in the things Mommy and Daddy like! The first thing you wanted was our cell phones. We think that’s because they have bright screens that you like to look at. You liked the cordless phone too, and you would push random buttons while Mommy and Daddy watched to make sure you didn’t prank call someone. The second thing was our computer keyboards! You used to sit really well on our laps if we were using the computer, but now you throw yourself toward the keyboard and try to push all the keys. We have actually taped a keyboard to your high chair tray a couple of times, but you don’t like that unless you’re facing a computer monitor (probably so you feel like you’re making things happen). You also like remotes and game controllers – one day, Daddy was playing Xbox, and you threw yourself over trying to get his controller. So he got out a controller for you to play with, and you sat there beside him on the couch and played Xbox “with” him with your very own controller!

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You were lying there saying “DA DA DA” when Mommy took this photo. (Actually, Mommy just wanted to use it here because it’s funny! How did you get your foot out without undoing your sleeper?)

You also make a lot of new noises this month. Mommy and Daddy like to think you’re saying our names, even though you’re probably not quite making that connection yet. But around the end of August, you started saying DA DA DA all the time. Daddy was SO happy, and convinced himself that you were talking to him… Mommy tried to argue that you didn’t know what you were saying, but Daddy wouldn’t have it! And then about a week later you started saying MA MA MA, and now we are both convinced! You know why? Because you say DA DA DA DA when you’re happy, hyper or just talking, and when you are mad or crying or want something, you almost ALWAYS say MA MA MA MA! Daddy thinks it’s hilarious… but Mommy hopes one day you’ll call out to me for more than just food or a dirty bum!

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I think this is the only time you weren’t good for Oma… what a mess! We didn’t mind though, since it was hilarious!

About midway through the month, you stayed overnight at Oma and Grandpa’s house. You’ve stayed there twice now, and the second time you even went to church with them the next morning! Apparently you were very well-behaved in church, and everyone fussed over you after the service while Oma and Grandpa happily showed you off. Grandpa was so proud we were a little surprised he was able to get his head back out of the church door! Both times you stayed there, Mommy and Daddy missed you like CRAZY and couldn’t wait to see you the next day. But you were a little trooper and slept through both nights and you were excellent for Oma. Well that’s what she says anyway… do you think she is biased a little bit?

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Your first haircut happened this month – you have rubbed most of the hair off on the top and back of your head, so it’s pretty short in those areas, but your sides and bottom of the back were getting so long that it looked like a mullet! We couldn’t have you wearing a mullet around, so Mommy held you and Oma gave you a haircut with Mommy’s sewing scissor. You SCREAMED the whole time – you did NOT like getting a haircut! We’re not sure why – we know we didn’t hurt you – but apparently, Daddy screamed bloody murder when he had his first haircut too. So I guess that’s just one more way you’re a chip off the old block.

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Here’s you in one of our wedding photos. You were SO good this day, even if you didn’t smile or look for any of the other shots!

One HUGE event for you this month was Mommy and Daddy’s wedding. This was a LONG day for you – you went with Mommy first thing in the morning to pick up rental cars and get Mommy’s hair done, and then right to the hall where the wedding was happening. You were very easy to get along with that day – quiet, not fussing much at all except when you got hungry. You did make the ceremony a little later by pooping your pants right before we were supposed to go in, but we didn’t mind delaying it a little to change you. After all, you were the ring bearer! And you cried a little right before we went in, but when it was time to go, you just laid back in your little wagon in your red vest and tie and looked ADORABLE for everyone. You were good all through the ceremony too, even with having to come up on stage and getting passed around among several people. There is a story about you tooting on Uncle Chris a lot, but that’s just what you do! Mommy and Daddy were SO PROUD of you and so glad you got to stay in the room for the whole thing. You were even wonderful for photos and through the whole reception although you hadn’t slept all day and you were really tired.

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The night of the wedding, you had another first – your first camping trip! Mommy and Daddy were busy with the wedding reception, so you stayed with Oma and Grandpa in their camper. Oma said you were awesome – just went down and slept through the whole night. But what Mommy will always remember is when we came to get you the next morning. Oma was holding you and you were just fine, but when you saw Mommy your litle face broke out in a huge grin. Mommy felt so wonderful knowing you missed me and were happy to see me. But Mommy was also glad you were so good and so okay with staying overnight with someone else.

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Here you are sleeping in your carseat. This isn’t on the Canmore trip, but this IS what you did for a lot of the drive!

Just a couple days after the wedding, just as you were starting to get over the big weekend, Mommy and Daddy ended up dragging you to Canmore for a couple of days! Uncle Allan and Auntie Jolene rented a suite there, and they invited us to come along. It’s about a three hour drive out, and you were awake for quite a bit of it, but you were really good! You played and talked and when you were a

Your first hot tub! Of course you can’t put a baby in a hot tub, but we let you get a little taste of the experience.

little cranky, you slept for a little bit. We couldn’t believe how a baby could deal so well with a long car trip! You were good the whole two days we were there too, sleeping through both nights in your playpen, letting Mommy and Daddy visit with Uncle Allan and Auntie Jolene, and in a good mood most of the time. We dragged you all over Canmore checking out stores and just walking. The second day, we went to Banff and spent the whole day there – first shopping, then walking around Twin Ponds and Lake Minnewanka. You were great putting up with the bright sun and the shaking stroller on the bumpy paths, you even seemed to enjoy it for most of the day. Back at the condo, we all went to the hot tub after supper and you even got to put your feet in the warm water a little bit! You didn’t know quite what to do with that experience, but Mommy promises one day you will LOVE it!

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Sound asleep in your stroller while we walked around Calgary zoo. This isn’t all you did though; you were really interested in the camels, elephants and tigers.

When we came back from there, we went to the zoo in Calgary, and even though you were exhausted from all you’d been through, you still did pretty well. You fussed quite a bit when you got tired, but then you fell asleep lying in your stroller and slept all the way home. Mommy and Daddy were proud of you AGAIN for taking the two stressful days so well. We’re always proud of you of course, but even more so when you do so well even though Mommy and Daddy are disrupting everything you’re used to. You are really a big boy and very relaxed and happy as long as you feel secure wherever you are.

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Enjoying some crushed raspberries. This isn’t your first time eating (that was mashed potatoes) but these are your favorite food so far!

While we were in Canmore, you had your first solid food! Oh, Mommy and Daddy had tried giving you little tastes of things earlier on, but the only thing you had liked was raspberry. Everything else we tried, you made a face – but such a funny face! This time though, we gave you a little piece of mashed potatoes with gravy. You made a face the first try… and the second try… and then suddenly decided you LOVED it! We let you have a few more bites, and you were grabbing Mommy’s finger and shoving it in your mouth so hard you almost gagged yourself. We all laughed the whole time… none of us had any idea that solids would be such a big hit!

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You’ve had some more solids since then… the second thing you tried was broccoli, which you loved so much you were throwing yourself at the spoon again. You even grabbed it at one point and put it in your mouth on your own… and DID actually gag yourself. A couple of nights later you had chicken and broccoli for supper, and that was the last night you slept all the way through the night. Mommy ALWAYS has to get up and feed you during the night now. We think you’re just not staying full as long anymore, so Mommy and Daddy are going to start feeding you something for supper every night. We would sure like it if you went back to sleeping your 10-hour nights, but it’s okay if you still need to get up. That’s part of the deal getting to be parents to an awesome little boy!

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You love sleeping in the bed with Mommy and Daddy… lots of times we’ve caught you wide awake, just chilling out. Daddy is already missing you being in there with us.

Toward the end of your fifth month, you started to really look like you’re on the way to sitting up. You were actually able to sit up for a minute or so, although you were leaning on your hands. Eventually though, you forget that you’re leaning and try to grab something, and then you fall over. You’re getting close though! Mommy and Daddy decided we better start putting you in your crib, because when you start pulling yourself up to a sitting position, your cradle will be too shallow! You’re almost too long for the cradle anyway… the only reason you’re still in it, is because Daddy is having trouble letting go of having you sleep in the bedroom with us! He will have to be okay with it though, because we can’t slow down your growing up no matter how much we’d like to!

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This photo is here because it’s Daddy’s favorite photo of you. He even took it – maybe he’ll be a photographer yet!

The very last night of your fifth month was (Mommy thinks) your biggest FIRST this whole month. You slept in your crib in your own room for the first time. Mommy had a lot of trouble putting you down that night, because you are used to eating lying down in Mommy and Daddy’s bed and then falling asleep in the bed. And here was Mommy trying to get you to eat in a chair?!?!? It took Mommy almost three hours to get you to go down peacefully… we didn’t want to let you cry yourself to sleep on your first night in the crib. But eventually, Mommy was able to get you to sleep and set you in the crib without fully waking you up. You only slept in there for about five hours that night before Mommy took you back into bed with me and Daddy, but it was a huge milestone on your road to growing up. We miss having you in our bedroom, but at the same time we are PROUD of everything you’ve done this month, happy to see you taking steps forward so well, and we LOVE you so much.

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Your measurements at the end of this month:

• Height: 27 inches
• Weight: 18 lb 3 oz

You sleeping in Mommy and Daddy’s bed. We love to watch you sleep… you look so content and secure. We always want you to feel that way!

Well Zane, I guess Mommy is making up for that post that I wrote the day it was supposed to be up. This one is almost a whole month late, and now Mommy is going to have to scramble to think of things that happened in your fourth month without mixing them up with things you did in the fifth! I’m going to go ahead and blame wedding planning, and make a promise to you: Now that Mommy and Daddy are married, your letters will be written much closer to the correct date!

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One major thing we noticed is that you can’t be entertained with just your hands anymore! You always have to have a toy or something else to grab and eat, otherwise you realize you’re bored and get pretty crabby! You did find your feet for the first time this month, and often when you’re lying down with no toys or when you’ve just woken up from a nap, we’ll find you grabbing your feet with both hands. You’ve had them in your mouth a few times, although you don’t suck your own toes just yet!

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Here you are reaching for your toys. You can get these hanging ones in your hands now, and you spend quite a bit of time trying to pull them to your mouth too!

If you don’t have toys and you’re not playing with your feet, you are trying to grab anything within reach! You don’t just grab things that touch your hand like you did last month – now, you are always reaching out for whatever you see. You’ve torn Daddy’s glasses off a couple of times, and you pull hair a lot (ouch!). You have also eaten blankets, sheets, pillows, couch cushions, and many other things that Mommy and Daddy don’t think can be very good, but apparently you love them!

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You love to watch everything; people, TV, cars, animals. Here you are studiously following some TV show Mommy is watching. Mommy’s actually had to cut down on her TV watching because we don’t want you watching too much!

If you are bored and have nothing to pick up, you let us know… by talking your baby language VERY loudly and earnestly. You also let us know – as loud as you can – when you want to be picked up, held or played with, and when you are hungry. You are starting to develop real attitudes and moods – we can tell you are crabby when you get overtired, or that you are mad when you don’t get fed right on time. Sometimes your attitude is downright foul, but when I think about it… Mommy is just glad you are able to let us know how you feel! At least you only get mad when you need something. You communicate moods to us with body language, facial expressions, and your voice now – it makes you seem so much more like a growing boy. Growing up too fast!

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Speaking of your baby talk, it has changed a lot this month! You are so much more expressive and you operate at a lot of different volume levels now. When you wake up in the morning, we hear a small, happy “oooo, oooo” noise from your cradle, and we LOVE the smile you give us when we come over to pick you up! When you are sitting up with toys or watching us do something, you talk constantly – loud O’s and Ah’s, and occasionally you even make a B or D noise. You are starting to pronounce consonants!

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Here you are at your very first parade. You were a big flirt; watching the floats, socializing with all the strangers at pancake breakfast, and getting right into the excitement!

One big first this month was your very first parade! We went to a pancake breakfast the first morning of Westerner Days, and watched the parade from the side of the street. You were great – you slept through quite a bit of the breakfast, and then you watched raptly as all the parade floats, cars and animals went by. You especially loved the horses, and stared at them as if you were trying to memorize every detail. The only problem we had was that you kept trying to pull your little arms out of the bundle Daddy had you in. You hate being covered – if Mommy and Daddy want you warm, we have to actually dress you, because no matter how cold it is, a blanket just doesn’t last with you!

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As far as other people go, you still are a huge flirt. You LOVE attention from anyone that will give it (which is everyone) and you have huge smiles for anyone you meet, as soon as they talk to you. Your grandmas keep worrying that you’re going to make strange with them, but so far you haven’t made strange with ANYONE, even strangers! You are such a friendly and happy little boy that you brighten the day for anyone who meets you. While Mommy and Daddy know we’ll have to teach you about strangers eventually, we still hope you’ll never lose your friendly personality and your unbiased love for everyone!

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Finally, and probably the best thing this month, is your laughter. You laugh all the time now – when Daddy plays with you or tickles you (you are very ticklish), when Mommy pretends to eat your hands or feet, and sometimes just when someone talks to you. You’re a little stinker sometimes with the timing of your laughter though! Mommy will be trying to feed you and you’ll be lying there, looking up at me, playing with the nipple and laughing! Mommy can’t decide whether you should stop playing with your food, or whether Mommy should just stop and enjoy your antics! You like to laugh on the change table too – whenever you have a poopy diaper, you burst into giggles just as Mommy opens it! It’s like you KNOW!

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You fast asleep in your car seat. You don’t always go to sleep in the car, but if you are tired you zonk out right away. And you are always holding your chains, asleep or awake!

All inappropriate laughing sessions and baby mood swings aside though, you are still the PERFECT baby and every time you talk, smile, or laugh is a joyful bright spot in Mommy’s day. So far, all of Mommy’s days are pretty bright thanks to you! I think you make Daddy’s days pretty sunny too. We love you so much, our beautiful, happy and amazing little boy, and we can’t wait to see what the coming months will bring!

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Your measurements at the end of this month:

• Height: 27 inches
• Weight: 16 lb 10 oz

This is you just a few days before your three-month milestone. You hardly even seem like a baby anymore… it’s pretty easy for Mommy to imagine you as a little boy running around and playing!

Well little man, Mommy can hardly believe it, but you turned three months old yesterday. This month flew by so fast that Mommy didn’t even get any other blog posts written! So I guess the blog is all about you this month. Which is okay, since Mommy’s life is all about you too! You are really developing into your own little person now, and you are so much more fun and interactive this month. Although sometimes a little TOO interactive… Mommy is getting behind on housework AGAIN because it’s just so hard to tear myself away from your cuteness!

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We have a pretty good routine going now. You get up around 7:30 in the morning, which is early enough that Mommy doesn’t feel like she’s wasted the day sleeping, but late enough that I can survive it! You eat a good meal and then you usually have an animated conversation with Mommy for a few minutes. Are you telling me about all the things you dreamed about during the night? If you are, then all your dreams must be good. Which is awesome because Mommy and Daddy don’t want you to have any nightmares. When we first brought you home Mommy used to have horrible nightmares every night about bad things happening to you, and I can tell you nightmares are not a fun experience! Mommy and Daddy are going to do our best to make sure your life is happy and free of any troubles or fears, so that hopefully you will always be able to sleep as well as you do now.

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Here you are sleeping in your playpen during the afternoon. You looked so relaxed, content and PERFECT that Mommy had to take pictures. This is Mommy’s favorite photo of you right now!

After our morning conversation, you usually go back to sleep till around 11 AM. Then you get up and eat again, just before Mommy has her own lunch (nice timing!) and we visit again while Mommy eats. We usually play a little bit after this, sometimes by putting you on the floor for Tummy Time and sometimes just by cuddling and playing games with your hands and feet. I should mention that you HATE Tummy Time… they say to put you down for 20 minutes each day, but you spend the first five minutes grunting and then you usually get really mad! Mommy doesn’t see a point in leaving you on your tummy if you’re laying there screaming, so you get picked up as soon as you decide you’re done. I know once you can hold your head steady and lift up on your arms, you will LOVE tummy time! Mommy looks forward to that day and fears it a little, all at the same time.

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Most days you are up till almost 3 PM after your second feeding. Around 3 you’ll eat again, and then you’ll have a nap. Sometimes you sleep right up until your suppertime feeding, and some days you sleep for an hour or two and then get up for a little while again. This is okay though, because if Mommy’s trying to get things done, you just hang out happily for the most part. As long as you aren’t bored, you’re pretty content, and as long as you’re with Mommy you’re always happy. (This fact, and also the way you look at me with complete and utter adoration when I hold you, makes me feel 10 feet tall and like the most important thing in the world to you.) You should know, mini-man, that you are the most important thing in the world to me, too (although you share that honor equally with Daddy).

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Here you are sleeping beside Daddy. You always go to bed with him at night and then Mommy comes in later and puts you in your cradle. This time Mommy had to take pictures first because you guys looked so cute!

You eat again around 5 PM, and then you’re usually up for the rest of the evening, which is perfect because Daddy likes to spend a little time with you when he gets home from work. You have been (for the most part) going to bed around 9 PM, although the last little bit of this month we’ve been having trouble getting you to sleep at night. You go right to sleep for your morning and afternoon naps, but at bedtime it seems like you just want to feed, fuss, feed, fuss, feed, fuss, and fuss some more! Mommy and Daddy are hoping this is just a stage because it’s pretty exhausting! BUT whether you go down easily at 8:30 or 9, or with great effort at 10 PM, you ALWAYS sleep through the night now. You sleep 8-10 hours a night and Mommy and Daddy LOVE it!!! We spend a lot of time laughing at all the people who told us “sleep while you can because there’s no sleeping once the baby comes!” but we also know that we might not be so lucky with your next sibling!

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Here you are having an animated discussion with Auntie Melina. You don’t care who it is, you’ll talk to anyone who will give you a second glance (which is everyone)!

You’ve gone through a lot of changes this month. Your conversations are much more animated now, and instead of making just “Oh” noises you can make all the vowels now! When we talk to you, you stare at our mouths and we can tell you’re really trying to learn how to imitate us. Don’t get too impatient little man, it’s going to take awhile yet! Sometimes when we come to get you up from a nap or pick you up for a diaper change, it really sounds like you say HI… one night when we were playing WoW, we put you on Ventrilo (that’s how we talk to the people we play with) and THEY all thought you said HI too! You have so much expression in your voice now, too… you put a lot of effort into your words. Sometimes you sound serious, sometimes you sound super excited, and sometimes you talk with a big grin on your face and sound downright PLEASED with the world. I can’t wait until you’re really talking so I can understand what you’re saying with SO MUCH emotion!

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You have hit other milestones this month too. You really seem to show emotion now… I don’t think we’ve seen you sad yet, since you don’t know there’s anything bad in the world (I wish it could stay that way) but you are happy a lot! Mommy’s favorite thing is when I come to get you from your nap and even though you just woke up and you are wet and hungry, you break out in a giant face-splitting grin as soon as you see Mommy’s face. That’s another one of those things you do that makes me feel ten feet tall and SO loved. I think you’re too young to know what love is yet, but you certainly seem to be able to show it. This month, you even GIGGLED for the first time… Mommy wrote it down… it was on June 14. Mommy was strapping you into your car seat and you LAUGHED right out loud. Zane, that noise almost knocked Mommy right over. It was so cute and wonderful that all I want to do is make you laugh over and over and over. Daddy was jealous that Mommy got to hear your laugh first, but now he makes you giggle all the time so he gets his share!

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The day after you laughed for the first time, we had to go have your two-month immunizations done. This was a horrible day for Mommy… not great for you either, but I think it was worse for me! Mommy had to hold you while the nurse gave you two shots in your left thigh and one in your right. At first, you were just looking up adoringly at Mommy and smiling and cooing. Then Mommy made the mistake of watching your face… when the first needle went in, your eyes went big and your mouth opened in complete surprise and then half a second later, you started SCREAMING. There were still two more needles and you screamed the whole time. Mommy was crying before the third needle… the nurse said a lot of mommies cry and I don’t doubt it! I just felt so terrible holding you for those shots because I am the one who’s supposed to keep you safe from all kinds of pain and there I was helping to inflict it on you! We have to go back in August for your four-month shots and Mommy is NOT looking forward to it. It is for your good though… the pain you feel that day will protect you from being exposed to much worse things. Knowing that is what gets Mommy through the experience!

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Your hands are like toys attached right to your body. You get so into playing with them that your whole body gets involved, right down to your toes!

Probably the most noticeable thing this month is how good you are with your hands now. You grab everything… Mommy’s hair, the skin on Mommy’s neck (ouch) and sometimes, handfuls of Mommy’s boob or side while you’re eating (double ouch!). You can now get either hand into your mouth whenever you want to, although sometimes you still just hold them up and stare at them. Mommy and Daddy are going to miss it when you stop doing that because it’s SO FUNNY. You forget everything going on around you and just focus all your attention on THOSE HANDS. You always have a handful of whatever you’re wearing, or your blanket or car seat strap. And a couple of times now you have even picked up toys that are within your reach. I know it’s just a “grab reflex” right now, but someday soon you will learn that you can actually reach out and pick things up, and then Mommy and Daddy better look out!

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This is just the perfect example of how easy you are. You had thrush and we were treating you with the gross purple stuff (hence the purple mustache). Even in times like that you are in a great mood most of the time!

All in all, this has been a big month for you, and for Mommy and Daddy. Other than your evening fussy times, you are still an AMAZING baby… happy most of the time, sleeping through the night, eating well, and generally easy to get along with. Maybe Mommy is asking for it by saying this, but we didn’t think it would be this EASY to be parents! Even when you’re giving us a hard time, we love you SO MUCH and we would not change a thing about you or the last three months.

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Your measurements at the end of this month:

• Height 26.5 inches
• Weight 15 lb