our boy at 12 months

we've had a busy few weeks following davis's birthday! i've had a couple of photo shoots each weekend, and two weeks ago, we did a family trip to rocky mount to do our friends megan and joel's son isaac's photos. i loved the location so much that once we finished with isaac's session, we went back and took a few more photos with davis!

this bridge was amazing... definitely keeping this in mind when i have rocky mount/wilson families looking for a great location.

sweet boy...

it's also been exciting to see him being more independent. the other night, he climbed up on his four wheeler all by himself and was ready to go for a ride, even though it was parked under the kitchen table  (and he'd hit his head on the way out.)

this past weekend, mom came to visit and we had a good time catching up on some errands and getting a night out. davis is very much in a clingy mood right now, so it was a bit of a struggle getting away.

we're trying to make slow progress with leaving him in the nursery at church.

we also had his 12 month appointment at the pediatrician's today, a couple of weeks late. he had to get 4 vaccines and a flu shot, as well as a finger prick. 

needless to say, it was a bit traumatic for him (and me!) just as he recovered from one part of the visit, the next one was coming up. even as we were checking out (a good 5-10 minutes after getting his shots) he was still sniffling and doing the short little shuddering breaths from crying. he has a flair for the dramatic, this one.

here are his stats for this visit--21 lbs, 13 oz (30th percentile--moved up!), 29 3/4 inches (45th percentile--also moved up), and 19 inch head circumference (90th percentile--moved down!)

the doctor was happy with everything, so we were given the all clear to start the transition off of formula/bottles and adding in whole milk and more solid foods (including ones we hadn't done before for allergy reasons.) 

i'm not looking forward to the whole idea of giving up his bedtime/naptime bottles...any suggestions from moms who have done this? we are so close to having him sleep through the night consistently (he's mainly waking around 4 am and then going back to sleep for the last few hours) and so i'm hesitant to do anything that's going to mess up his sleep again...

we did forgo his regular routine on sunday night and kept him out late for our church's thanksgiving dinner. still one of my most favorite events, getting to listen to everyone say what they're thankful and enjoy some delicious cooking.

and davis had a good time this year, too! king of the world :)

alright, time for bed. hoping to catch up on more photo editing this week and get ready for our short week next week before the holidays!

just hear those sleigh bells ring a ling...

as you can imagine, i'm a huge fan of christmas cards. i love displaying them each year, choosing which photos we'll include in ours, and my pack-rat nature wants to keep them all from year to year. 

one of my favorite places to browse every year is shutterfly! not only do they do an awesome job with prints, photos books, photo cards and other gifts, they offer tons of designs for christmas cards with lots of options to personalize them.

i'm a big fan of multi-photo cards (simply because i usually can't choose just one photo to share) and this one let you customize the background color. (color coordination is also a big factor for me--like i said, i take this seriously.)

ooh, also a great option! the monogrammed letter is a nice touch.

i also liked these cards--a way to combine the holiday letter (anyone get those?) and the holiday card all in one.

and this one offers a spot for every month...might be good for our first year with davis, too!

anyone looking for some santa hats or reindeer antlers? (or snowmen bellies?)

what if your best family photo of the year was from your beach vacation? no problem!

or if you feel obligated to include your favorite four-legged family member....they have that covered, too!

one thing i also love is doing is creating our personalized return address labels. we've gotten so many compliments on the batch we ordered two years ago from vistaprint, and they will run specials every now and then, too, so you get them for free and only pay for shipping.

and if you're a fellow blogger, make sure you link up with faith over at walk with me by faith for her christmas card carousel on december 14th. it's a great way to check out everyone else's cards and meet some new friends!



disclosure: i was provided with free cards from shutterfly for this review, but all opinions are honest and totally mine :) 

it's all about sharing...

our son, especially after his birthday, has a ton of toys, games and other things just for him. what does he want to play with? tupperware, measuring cups, spoons...and pepper's dog bed.

"is that really necessary, davis?" we ask, thinking of all the fur, dirt and other assumed dog-bed dwellers. but that's what he wants.

to bury his head in the pillow, wallowing in the bed of his favorite four-legged creature.

making a comfy little nest so he can peer out the door.

one more quick rearrangement...

ahh, yes. that's it. just perfect.

"davis, we got you your own pillow for the living room, away from the dog food and tempting water bowls and other things. we got you a bean bag! look at the cool soccer ball bean bag. don't you want to play with that?"

nope...he wants the dog bed. with the dog close by (and in mid chew.) i guess it'll be their first experience in learning how to share. 

necessities

it was a cold miserable walk to campus on friday. we woke up to the rain coming down, and i tried to dress accordingly. just the day before, i had shared a link to a pair of pirate rain boots they were advertising at the student store on campus, thinking about checking them out sometime next week. but friday--i had no boots. i couldn't find my flip flops, so i decided to wear a pair of flats and risk it. they soaked up the rain water within a minute or two of walking, and oddly enough, one of them started having soap suds foaming out of the sides. i arrived to the office drenched from the thighs down, clutching my umbrella and shaking my head at the weather. i did that walk 3 more times (i go off campus at lunch on fridays to get my allergy shot) and each time, i got more and more on edge. the inside of the umbrella started grabbing my hair. the wind would whip the umbrella around almost out of my hands. my shoes/feet stayed damp all day long, with no hope of drying out or warming up. all i wanted was to get home, put on comfy pajama pants and a sweatshirt and curl up with my boys. after the fourth walk--that's what i did.



oh yeah--and order these bad boys that came today. no more wet feet for me!

halloween

so for halloween, we had another little puppy dog in our house. i ordered it off of the carter's website a while back, and it was just perfect for him!

our first outing with him was our church's trunk or treat on sunday night. this event was the first time we took him out last year, and it's amazing to think about how little was back then (at three days old.)

this year--he was able to enjoy it a little more fully :)

here he is with a friend, guyson--also dressed up as a dog--who is a couple of weeks older than davis. they were both reeeeally interested in the soccer ball and cones at this sports themed car.

and here he just made himself at home with molly and lily and their friends. seriously, he did this on his own. lily was very concerned about him putting his hand in the candy bucket, but allowed him to hang out for a little while.

me and the boy :)

we had a seat on the lawn and checked out the candy (and got a few more pictures)

already good at sharing :)

it has been great to see how much he enjoys socializing and spending time with our friends at events like these. makes me want to take him out more often!

on monday, we put him in a halloween shirt (he has several)--this one said "i love my mummy"--but he loved that new truck, too.

after eating dinner, we headed out to a few special houses, starting first at justin's mom and step-dad's house.

he loved the pumpkin!

then we stopped at jennifer and corey's house, where davis met another dog (dressed up as a shark.) he was in love.

we did one more stop....

over at our neighbors' house, tony and nelly. and again, another dog. there is a theme here...

for his first real halloween (and for an incredibly rainy, gross one) he did incredibly well. we were home and in bed by a typical hour, with our candy bowl sitting out the porch so pepper didn't bark at everyone coming by. it was cleaned out by the time i left to go volunteer on campus for the student union halloween events at around 8:15.

so...happy belated halloween from us!

birthday weekend, part 2

after crashing saturday morning following the parade, we got home and let davis enjoy the rest of the afternoon with us. he is in love with all things balloon-related now (this makes a trip to harris teeter a treat, simply for the balloon to entertain him around the store.)

we also opened his presents and let him play with them. he loved his soft tool set and mega blox dump truck...


and these cars were so much fun. they made lots of cool noises and he really likes playing with them.



he also has gotten a couple of puzzles and has enjoyed playing with the pieces. not quite to the point where he can put them together yet, but we'll work towards it.


this was his big gift, though. a little power wheels from justin's dad and stepmom. he was all set to help putting it together with his tool set.

of course, the box ended up being more entertaining for him in the moment.


that night, my mom and grandma came in and baby-sat davis while justin and i got a night out. those are precious to us these days :) we got up sunday morning and davis opened his presents from his grandma and gigi. this dog was one of his favorites--he laughed and smiled as we showed him how to pull it around on its string.

then we got the house ready for all of our other family members coming in for davis's family birthday party. not the easiest task, but by lunchtime and after running out to get a few things, we were ready!

davis actually went down for a nap just as most people were getting there. we visited and ate lunch while he slept--and of course, because we just wanted him to get a quick nap, he slept longer than he normally does at home. we had to open the door and hope he'd wake up on his own from the noise of the party and his cousins playing. almost an hour and a half later, he woke up and was ready to go!


we sang happy birthday to him and let him at the cake. my grandma made it for him, and though it was delicious, he just wasn't that into it. i think he might not have gotten my sweet tooth and instead be more interested in salty things like justin....

he still had a good time, though :)

one last attempt at a photo with the party hat....

and then cake for the rest of us!

then it was present time again--he got some great gifts from our family, like a monkey pillow pet, a little basketball goal and a fun tractor.

then he headed outside to ride his four-wheeler with his cousins. big fan :)

before we knew it, it was time for family to head out and for us to move on to the next big event (our church trunk or treat.) it was a full weekend, but perfect for celebrating the very full first year of our little guy. happy birthday, davis!