I know I have posted several Pierscen posts celebrating the big first birthday... but here is one more. :)
P had a successful 1-year check up. He is still on the small side, but the doctor says it's in line with how he has been all along, so he is not worried. The stats:
Weight: 18 lbs 5.5 oz - 2nd percentile. Oh tiny, tiny child.
Length: 28.5 in - 12th percentile
Head Circ: 46 cm - 38th percentile
I posted one of these pictures on Instagram and my friend's comment was, "Part nudist, part Eskimo?" Haha pretty much. They had me strip him down for all the measurements, but he was so cold, his little chin started quivering. So I put on his jacket while we waited.
He is not walking, but does just fine when you hold his hands. Like the doctor said, he has the movement down. Now he just needs the balance and the confidence.
Here are a few fun things about our 1-year-old boy.
He has now had 3 "real" haircuts. The last one was not one I was very proud of. He went into melt down the moment the clippers touched his head. He would not hold still and sobbed the whole time. Poor kiddo. It turned out okay, but it wasn't as even as some of the others. His hair grows crazy fast so it will be ready for another chop soon.
This is his "kissy" face. It is hilarious. I think he started doing it this way because when I make kissy noises at him from a distance, I always jut my chin up at the last second. So now when we make kissy noises at him, he will put his chin up, purse his lips, and squint his eyes. It's so funny! He knows we think it's hilarious, so he will do it just to make us laugh. If we get close enough to actually kiss him, he will burst into giggles. Either that or he will keep his chin up and let me nibble his neck which makes him laugh super hard.
He is goofy with his eating. He is doing better with eating whatever food we are eating, but it is still a hit and miss process. He seems to either like the plain baby food - no chunks, or chunks of real food he can pick up. If you give him baby food with chunks - no dice.
P has this funny little bum dance he does when he is excited or happy. He will come cruising along on all fours and then will stop and wiggle his bum like a puppy.
I just love the picture above. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. This was at Five Guys Burgers and Fries. He looks pretty chill to me!
Speaking of puppy, P has picked up quite a few habits from Dodger. He loves to pick up items off the floor with mouth and carry them around - primarily his socks. I cannot keep them on his feet. The other day he brought me his sock in his mouth and offered it to me in a way that said he wanted me to take it with my mouth. I did so, and then he backed away and tried to start a tug-of-war. Funny little guy!
The little man loves to point and now can point at your nose, the clock, and lights if you ask him where they are.
He has never been much of a cuddler, unless it is his brown bear. He sure loves that guy. Lately he has started something that I find irresistible, and he knows it. When I go to lay him down for naps, he will wait until just before I put him in the crib, and then he will throw himself against me in a big hug and just cuddle. I will wait until he starts getting restless before I try to lay him down again. But the moment he feels me shift my weight or move my hand to better lay him down, he will curl up against my chest again. He knows I am a sucker for cuddling and this usually buys him 5 more minutes of wakefulness before I finally put him down.
He loves his pacifier, but we only let him have it at night. Doesn't he look like a little bird waiting for his dinner in that picture?
Pierscen loves the dishwasher. I think he is especially excited about it because we only just recently started to use it. He could be across the room and if he hears me open it, he comes crawling as fast as he can.
Bath time is always an adventure. I feel like the last two baths or so that he has had have been the most successful. Normally he just stands there, won't sit down much. He still likes his baths and will play with his toys, but he has finally started to really sit and play. It's pretty cute.
Dodger does not like baths, but he will invite himself in from time to time if it gives him a chance of recovering some of Pierscen's bath toys.
This little guy is the best thing that has ever happened to us. He has five teeth and is working on one more. He has a silly little chipmunk laugh that he does when he is fake laughing or crying. He adds a little quiver to the end and that's why we call it his chipmunk laugh. Lately all he seems to want to do is cuddle with Dodger if Dodge will give him a chance. If the pooch is laying down, P will crawl up to him, lower his head until it makes contact with the puppy, and then lay down or roll over on top of him. Dodger does not love this, but he is pretty patient for the most part. Pierscen loves getting others attention and is quite the show off if given the chance. This makes for entertaining, but disruptive Sacrament meetings. There is a cashier at Wal-mart that knows and loves him and P is quite the flirt when he sees her. He has not had a bottle in a week or so and doesn't seem to care. The tough thing is that he is not very good with sippy cups. He understands them and can get a drink from them, but he won't hold the cup on his own. No, that's not true. He will hold it, but he doesn't quite seem to get the tipping it up and back part. We are working on that. He loves oranges. Cutties are the best thing in the world and he will devour one without a second thought. That and string cheese. He also likes to strike a pose while crawling around. He will stop mid-crawl, extend his back right leg, point his toe, wait for a moment, and then keep crawling. He is learning to nod (he has had the "no" shake down for a while). He seems to contract and extend his spine more than bob his head, but it's coming along. He loves to mimic noises we make, especially siren, owl, or cow noises. He will also mimic laughs if they are big hearty Santa Claus laughs - Ho Ho Ho! He is a total delight and we are so lucky to have him. I could go on and on, but these are just a few of the things I really want to remember. :) So glad you are ours, Pierscen. Love you big guy!
The Friday after Christmas, the 28th, Pierscen and I picked up Ryan from work around 1 pm and headed out of town. We told our families that we were planning on coming for New Years, but that it would all depend on the weather. Thankfully that weekend looked clear weather wise, but there are still no guarantees when it comes to I-80. Often it gets shut down not because of snow, but because of the wind. Thankfully we made it through just fine and arrived Friday evening around 8ish. We stopped by my parents to say hello, and then headed to Ryan's parent's for the evening.
We had a fantastic weekend. I was able to go to lunch with some of my dance friends Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening I went to see Les Miserables with Necia, Bill, my mom, and Ryan's mom. It. Was. AMAZING! I have always loved the music and have been wondering what has taken them so long to turn it into a full scale movie production. They did that with Phantom years ago, which was incredible, so I was surprised it took them ages to do Les Mis. Seriously, it was so, so good. I don't think anyone made it through with dry eyes. As we were leaving and discussing it, I realized that we were all crying for different reasons. It all hit us in different ways. For me, even though I know the story and the music, now that I am a mother, I was seeing it in a whole new light. Everything Fantine puts herself through to help Cosette - wow. Is there anything a mother wouldn't do for their child? Is there anything I wouldn't do? I don't think so. That boy means everything to me.
Sunday Ryan and I went to my parent's ward to listen to my mom give a talk. She is an incredible speaker and did a great job. A lot about news years resolutions and being our better selves.
Monday I spent a little bit of time with my dancer pals again. It was my friend's Allie's birthday so we had to celebrate. :) That evening was New Years Eve so the big party was at my parents. We doubled up on the celebration and had another birthday party for the little man. The really cool thing about this party cake was that I got it at Macey's... for free. That's right. Any of you moms out there in Utah, Macey's gives out free 8" round cakes for your baby's 1st birthday. No need to preorder. Just go in, pick it out, have them write on it and that is that. It's pretty huge for a baby cake - but it's butter cream frosting which is a big plus and a negative. Plus - super messy fun. Negative - super messy fun. Hahaha. It is so hard to clean off!
Anyway, whereas his birthday was only a few days before this, Pierscen didn't hesitate at all with this cake. He was still a little dainty with the frosting, but he knew what it was for, and before long, he was covered in it.
Pierscen wasn't shy about handing out kisses during the cake fun. Messy, but sweet. :)
P made good work of his cake before we finally called it done as he started to toss chunks of it overboard. He really only did damage to half of the cake, so that left the other half for us to eat. I scooped him up and carried him with my arms outstretched and ran him upstairs to the tub. It took a luffa sponge with some exfoliating body wash to scrub that frosting off of him. It's not easy! But he had a lot of fun.
My mom and niece Samantha made a delicious Texas sheet cake for everyone else. It says "Happy 1st Bday Pierscen" It was awesome.
After the party, Ryan and I stopped by my friend Lisa's in-laws to say hello for a second. Lisa and her hubby Andy are living in Texas right now while Andy gets his masters. I wish we could have stayed longer, but Pierscen was exhausted. We excused ourselves, went back to Ryan's parents, put P down for bed and then hung out with Tallon and Karma Sue until midnight. We all felt like old fogies. Getting to midnight was quite the task. In fact, we almost called it a night before that, but it was so close to midnight we figured we might as well wait a little longer. Ryan and Clair went to find some fireworks from the garage and we went outside in the snow and lit of lots of bottle rockets and some ones Ryan had given his dad from Wyoming for his birthday. It was actually a lot of fun. Ryan and Tallon are such goofy boys together. They revert right back to teenagers. Especially if there is fire, guns, or fireworks involved. Haha. It was pretty entertaining. No fingers, eyes, or limbs were lost. It was a fantastic evening.
Tuesday morning we packed up and said our goodbyes. The pictures below are of P and Uncle Asa. You would never know Asa is adopted. They look a lot alike!
We stopped by the hospital to see some coworkers and then hit the road. Pierscen was utterly exhausted and passed out not far up Provo Canyon. He traveled really well and we made it home safely even though we did drive through horizontal snow for the last 45 minutes of the drive.
It was a great weekend. I am grateful that Ryan has holidays off. It sure is nice not to have to worry about that any more! I am also grateful that the weather was so well behaved to give us the chance to make it home for a while. We sure love our family!
The night before Pierscen's 1st birthday, Ryan and I decorated the kitchen with streamers and balloons. We also hung a few streamers in front of his bedroom doorway. When he woke up and we carried him into the kitchen, he literally jumped in surprise as he saw the balloons and streamers. He didn't know what to make of it. It was so cute! We helped him bat around some of the balloons and gave him one to play with.
Pierscen thought the balloons were great fun. He didn't pop a single one and they remained for a good two weeks afterwards. Now Dodger is a different story. He managed to pop several.
I decided to make Pierscen a special chocolate chip pancake. He loves pancakes, and he loves chocolate chips - so it seemed like a natural fit.
Little man wasn't so sure at first. He just stared and it, picked it up, and let it flop back onto the tray. It wasn't until I tore it up that he decided it was at least worth a try.
And boy was it a success!!! He was so happy and so goofy. I would say chocolate chip pancakes are now a favorite.
The rest of the day was pretty normal. We played, read books, napped, etc. That evening we invited our friends Lauriel and Casey, and Melody, David and Lyric over for the cake (in this case donut) eating festivities. I made brownies for everyone else.
Pierscen has definitely seen fire before with our wood burning stove being used almost daily (a downside of which is I often smell like a campfire) but he had never had it so close. He didn't know what to do. He took a few swipes at it, which we tried to deter, but he ended up extinguishing it with his fingers. It didn't hurt him at all. He seemed surprised when it suddenly wasn't there any more.
With the candle out of the way, we told him to dig in, but he seemed to have no idea what to do. He would reach for it, then pull away. Reach, and pull away. It was so funny!
We gave him a little bit of help as you can see in the video, and the rest was history!
Yum, yum, yum, yum, YUM!
He even decided hands weren't doing the job fast enough so he dug in face first.
He had plenty of personality and funny faces to go around. This kid is a crack up!
You can tell when he is getting tired or full when he starts poking his food with his thumb. It's his way of saying I'm done.
I would say the donut was a total success. He sure loved it! After dessert came presents. Lyric and P had a great time playing and opening presents, taste testing each one, and passing each item back and forth. I think they are going to be great friends. :)
This farm toy pictured above was from "Aunt" Nicia. It was a major success. Noise, lights, and motion. What more could a 1-year-old want?
Lyric gave him his first football. Go Pierscen!
Our gift was a Noah's Ark play set. I got it off of Ebay, so there are a couple of animals that don't have "partners" but it still is a full boat!
It was a really fun evening. Obviously P didn't understand why we were partying, but I think he sure had a fun time. I am so glad our friends were able to come over and party with us. It made it easier being away from family. Sure wish they could have been there with us!
Pierscen is an amazing boy. He is learning and growing every day. He is my hero, my miracle, and my friend. It's hard to see him grow so fast, but I look forward to each day and stage and treasure the time I have with this precious boy - especially while he still lets me love and kiss him and returns it without being embarrassed. :) Life really is a gift and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the life he has blessed me to have keeping over. Happy Birthday Pierscen!
