12 Months

Our dear Adam Leighton Mueller is now one year old.  Twelve months ago he came into our lives and made our family complete, and we can't imagine our life without him. Adam continues to delight us every day.  He adores playing with balls and cars, which is novel to me since Davis was never very into those things.  It is so much fun to roll a ball back and forth with him, or to watch him crawl around while pushing a toy car.  He is a good "player" and especially enjoys anytime that he has an opportunity to play with one of his big brother's toys.  He got his first real haircut and did great - no tears, but a lot of squirming around.  We had a hard time adjusting to his new look after his haircut because he really did look different.  Such a  big boy! He got his first bad cold a couple of weeks before his birthday, and then he came down with a high fever (as high as 105.2) for a few days.  I even took him to the pediatrician and got chest x-rays (let me tell you, it is an experience trying to get chest x-rays on a baby) to make sure he didn't have pneumonia, but as turns out, he broke out in a horrible rash on his face and trunk a couple of days later - yep, roseola!  Oh joy.  Our sweet little man was a pretty miserable (exhausted, irritable, demanding) baby for 5 or 6 days between the fever and the rash, which luckily faded just in time to celebrate his birthday.  We are so thankful that he came through his illness okay and is now feeling much better.  It is so hard to see your baby suffering and you can't do anything but cuddle them and try to help them through it. Before haircut: During: After:

From Loving the Life We Live

11 Months (a look back)

So - what did Adam do between ten and eleven months? He started truly hands-and-knees crawling 100% of the time.  No more pulling and dragging!  As soon as he started to do that, man, that baby got FAST!  I love seeing him book it across the room.  Crawling is seriously the cutest thing ever. He continued to hone his stair-climbing skills and one of his favorite activities was to crawl quickly toward the stairs, turn and look to see if you were watching, then smile and start going up the first step, but look back to see if anyone is coming to be behind him. Diaper changes became a real challenge, as Adam did NOT want to lie there and be changed.  It's really hard to diaper a baby who is in the process of rolling over and crawling away. His napping improved a great deal and I have so enjoyed being able to count on nice solid naps in the morning and afternoon.  Now he just needs to work on sleeping all night long (anytime, buddy...Mommy is ready). On the day he turned 11 months old, he stood by himself!  He was standing holding on to me, had a pacifier he was playing with in each hand, then let go and STOOD ALONE for quite awhile.  I was clapping and cheering for him and Adam just smiled and laughed like he did the coolest thing in the world.

From Loving the Life We Live

Our Favorite FOUR Year Old!

Last week we wished a happy fourth birthday to our beloved firstborn, Davis Reid! We're were excited to celebrate this new milestone in his life with him and are hoping that FOUR is going to FABULOUS! Our newly minted four year old is such a smart, silly, resourceful, friendly, absolutely adorable kid. I know this blog has focused on Adam Adam Adam for the past year - time restraints made it hard enough for me to keep up with just the monthly updates on baby's development, as you have seen! - but this precocious preschooler certainly doesn't take a backseat in our hearts.  He's not above using his cuteness to get what he wants, either.  When asking for an ice cream cone before dinner recently, he followed up with "look at my cute doggie eyes." Haha!  Well, he didn't get what he wanted, but he sure knows how to turn up the charm!   Davis has become so much more independent in the past year, for better or worse, as my attention has so often needed to be directed toward the needs of a baby.  I really wanted to make his birthday this year special and give him some special time to do something fun just with Mommy, no babies allowed.  So the two of us went by ourselves to get some Dunkin Donuts and go to this huge indoor playground in our area.  While we have been there before, this time I was able to go into the play structure and actually play with him instead of sitting on a bench with Adam and watching.  We both enjoyed it SO much, although I was feeling my age trying to keep up with him!  After Daddy got home from work, Grammy and Grandad and some friends of ours arrived and we enjoyed pizza, gift opening, and Curious George cake.  Davis was really excited about his birthday this year and had a great time.  He blew out all the candles with one blow and especially enjoyed playing with his new Stomp Rocket out in the driveway, on a beautiful, sunny, warm March day in the 70s - no one could have wished for nicer weather on their birthday. Davis, we love watching you grow!  You always have our hearts!

From Loving the Life We Live

10 Months

Wow, Adam's first birthday will be here before you know it!  He is now TEN wonderful months old. His major developmental milestone over the past month was pulling up, which is now one of his favorite activities.  He likes to let go with one hand and look around and smile at you, so proud of himself!  He's also working those leg muscles doing of squats - pulling up, crouching down, repeat.  He has recently tackled climbing stairs and (with Mommy hovering right behind him anxiously) was able to crawl all the way to the top of the stairs.  Although I was beginning to think he never would, he finally started getting up on all fours with his stomach off the floor and rocking back and forth on his hands and knees, and is now doing "real" crawling on hands and needs for up to a few paces at a time before he reverts to his tummy position. He'll also do kind of a hybrid where he is crawling on hands and knees with his stomach off the floor, then lifts his right leg and puts his right foot on the floor to push himself off - so crawling with his left knee and right foot, if you can picture that. Adam is bright and curious and enjoying his ever-increasing opportunities for exploration.  I call him a "Danger Baby," though, because sometimes this gets him in a pickle - like when he was opening and closing a kitchen drawer and ended up with a blood blister on his poor little fingertip.  He definitely is requiring a closer eye these days, but I'm enjoying every moment of this age. He is also at an age where he is becoming more expressive in terms of his thoughts and feelings.  He will give me a "help me, Mommy" look if big brother just took away a toy that he wanted to play with, and he is very expressive with his face and vocal grunts when he wants whatever food or drink someone else has.  He can drink from a straw.  He recently had his first sips of cow's milk and seemed intrigued and willing to try more.  He continues to have a ravenous appetite for table foods and is a skilled eater.  I took him to the pediatrician recently for a suspected ear infection (he didn't have one) and he weighed in at exactly 26 pounds. What else can I say?  He continues to be a light in our lives, but that's nothing new.  :)

From Loving the Life We Live

9 Months

Our sweet, precious Adam is now, astoundingly, nine months old. Adam can now get himself from prone to sitting and enjoys the increased ability to interact with his world.  I love to watch him on the baby monitor when he awakens and sits up in his crib looking around.  One night he woke up and just sat in the corner of his crib crying and then said "mama" (which, again, I'm not counting on him actually meaning to say my name) -- aww, one mama coming right up, sweetie!! He is working very, very hard to pull himself up and is so very close.  He gets up on his knees now and he also gets onto his toes and wants to pull up, but the poor child just has a lot of poundage to try to heave up. He's starting to look so much older!  His hair has grown in a lot more on the back and sides - shaggy enough that he's likely in for a real haircut before his first birthday. There are now FOUR teeth in his little smile - two top and two bottom.  He is a great eater and is now almost completely on table foods. His curiosity continues to emerge as his abilities develop.  He can now use handles to open drawers. He loves to play with little balls, grabbing one tightly and expertly in each hand and then banging them together. He is fascinated by the (motionless) vacuum cleaner, Davis' toy broom, and grabbing on the bottom of a chair and pulling it around.  His greatest desire is to play with the "big boy toys."  It won't be long and he WILL be one of the big boys, he is growing up so fast! Here are his stats from his 9 month well baby visit: Weight: 25 lbs. 4 oz. (98th percentile) Height: 30.5 in. (99th percentile) Head circumference: 18.25 in. (85th percentile)

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Togetherness

(Disclaimer: I wrote this post at the beginning of January, I swear.  I just now got around to adding the pictures so I could post it.  Oops!  Life happens.) As I type my first post of 2015 - the first post of the first full year in which we are a complete family of four, I am still on the high of 2.5 weeks of family togetherness.  Greg has been on vacation and we have just been basking in lots and lots of TIME.  Time to just be is a true gift.  I have to give massive props to my husband for giving the entire house a rigorous cleaning before Christmas, and along with just the luxury of having someone else around to tag-team with the kids, these past weeks I really feel like I have begun to feel like myself again.  Those hazy, foggy, sleep-deprived days of infancy have given way to a new normal and many hopes and dreams for a happy and well-balanced 2015. We had a good Christmas the year - everyone was healthy (fingers crossed that this continues) and Davis was enthusiastic about Christmas festivities.  We enjoyed fun times with family and friends and Davis is already asking when it will be Christmas again - haha!

From Loving the Life We Live