Fourteen Months!

Today, New Year's Day, our darling young lad turns 14 months old! That seems so crazy to me.

He is quite the little monkey climber now, as well as a chatterbox. He learned to get up and down on the couch, and can get down from our bed all by himself, too.

He learned to climb out of his high chair if he's not strapped in. I learned this one evening, while he was eating and my back was turned doing dishes. I turned around to check on him and see if he wanted more to eat, and he was on top of the kitchen table!

He can say quite a few words now. Most of them seem to be dog commands, like "go away," "sit down," "no," and "out." He also says "no way!" That sounds pretty funny coming out of his mouth. He is perfecting "Wendell" more every day, too. He can also say "baby," "bath," "girl," "duck," "dog," "hi," "mama," and "dada." There are other noises we catch from time to time, though we're not sure if he is saying actual words.

Lately, his favorite activities seem to be playing with his toy snare drum, carrying around his giant puppy dog that he got from his aunt, uncle, and cousin for Christmas, watching Elmo or Praise Baby DVDs while mom is trying to get housework done, playing balls, and his shape sorter.

He also LOVES playing with glow sticks, especially in the bath tub.

Spencer had a good Christmas. We stayed home because I have been tormented by sciatica, but, fortunately for him, his aunts Samantha and Allison were here for an entire week! He had a ton of fun with them. I'm pretty certain this next week he will be crabby and depressed with them gone! We opened gifts on Christmas morning (he wore his new holiday elephants Mud Butt Diaper (see picture) for the occasion), and spent the day just spending time together. The following day, his Grandpa Lee and Grandma Angela came to visit. Today, he and daddy took his aunts home, and visited Grandma Anita and Papa Web, and then went to Grandma Mindy's house for supper (while I stayed home). So, despite my limitation on travel, Spencer still got to see all of his grandparents for the holidays. :)

I can't wait to see what this year brings for our little boy!

World Record Setting.

Last Saturday, on Spencer's uncle Bryan's 19th birthday, he and I participated in the Great Cloth Diaper Change World Record Setting Attempt, held locally at Elegant Mommy in Sioux Falls.

Here's a news article to explain more:

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=114160

While there, we opted to participate in a Cloth Diaper Mini Shoot, done by Mprints. Click the business name to see the facebook page! He donned an infamous Mud Butt, of course. He loved having his picture taken, and it was a lot of fun for me to watch him have his photo taken by someone else! I can't wait to see more, this is just the facebook preview image she shared.

Anyway, the event was pretty fun. We scored a bag of random goodies, and showed off our super cute Mud Butt diapers. Spencer got a certificate stating he was a part of the local attempt as one of 49 participating babes!

I was really excited to take him to the event, mostly so I could put it in his baby book some day. I mean, I've never been a part of any world record, so it's pretty cool that he is! The official results will be posted in a few weeks, I think.

In other news, Spencer likes baby yogurt, drank from a sippy cup, loves bouncing, ate some pureed tater tot hotdish (which looked DISGUSTING, but Grayson wouldn't eat it, so we gave it to SJ), and was bit twice this week!

Well Baby - 2 Month

SJ had his 2 month Well Baby doctor's visit this morning.

He is a fraction over 24 inches tall. Two feet tall sounds so short, and 24 inches somehow sounds tall. Go figure. That puts him in the 75th percentile for his age. I was a little surprised because he seems so tall to me. Not complaining, of course!

He is 13 pounds exactly. Though, of course, that changes with ever feeding and digestion, seeing as how babies are so small that 4 ounces of fluid fluctuates their actual weight. But anyway, he is in the 75th percentile for that, too! Yay! I was afraid he would be considered "big" for his age, because he seems to be getting so big so fast!

His head is 16 inches circumference. It's in the 50th percentile. The doctor laughed when I told him he had a small head.

Developmentally, she said he's right on track. She was very delighted with the amount of movement he was exhibiting, all of his talking noises, his smiles at her, and his few laughs! He was a jolly good sport, I tell you.

She even said she LOVED his diaper. Hadn't seen a cloth diaper before, and said it was the coolest diaper she has ever seen. That made me smile. She asked how it works and everything, so I gave her a mini lecture. Thought that was fun! He was wearing his kelly green with lime green snaps Mud Butt diaper that he got in the mail on Monday!

He had three shots this morning, and an oral vaccination. He did very well and guzzled the oral one right down. I had to sit down and not watch when they gave him the three in his thighs though, so Jake held his hand. Poor baby! I didn't like that. I didn't cry, I was strong, but he wailed and of course turned bright red. It took a few minutes to calm him down, but now he's sleeping soundly. He was a good boy. :)

Interesting fact for those out there who will deal with infant vaccinations: our doctor informed us that studies are being performed that are pointing to the fact that giving an infant Tylenol before they get their shots may in fact hamper the effectiveness of the vaccination. They recommend only giving Tylenol if a fever occurs after the injections, and you should let it get to 101 degrees before you administer the Tylenol anyway.

Flesners and Fenders.

Yesterday, Jake, Spencer, and I traveled to rural southwest Minnesota for my mother's family's Christmas gathering. We were joined by my cousin's twins, who were quite a delight to chauffeur. They sat in back on either side of Spencer, playing peek-a-boo with him... as he slept. They didn't care. They had a grand ol' time! They decorated his car seat with the bright orange Schwan's stickers. I wanted to take a picture, but by the time we arrived at our destination, they had been transfered from the car seat to the suburban windows, and then to their faces, hands, and arms. Ah, well.

The gathering was a great time. My mom, Spencer's Grandma Anita, was there when we arrived, so she took him immediately, and he was full of smiles for her! I was very happy. I had been telling her for weeks now that he is super smiley, and she would ask for pictures, but every time I would get my phone out, he'd get all serious on me. Go figure.

As usual, he was passed around from Great-Aunt to Great-Aunt, mostly with the help of his Auntie Allie (who is 11). She's a hoot. She even changes diapers, happily at that.

Everyone got to see his super cute diapers, including his new Charlie Banana style, "Under Construction."

Papa Web (my dad) showed up a little later than we expected, but Spencer was able to spend quality time on the couch with him as he snuggled up and slept against his chest, and then had a bottle. Everyone commented on how much he's grown, and how beautiful his blue eyes are, and how cute he is. I love hearing it. I wasn't sure I'd ever hear them talking about my baby, after all!

Too bad, I'm a slacker mommy and didn't take ANY pictures of him.

Anyway. When we go to church on Sundays, he goes to the nursery, and for the first time, he was awake in the nursery! The lady who was volunteering (who is pretty regular) was telling us how she was so excited to see him awake and be able to play with him. Though, he was sleeping by the time we picked him up.

And in other news, for the second time in his short life, Spencer was involved in a fender-bender (we should probably stop letting him drive, eh?) this afternoon. Some schmuck was not paying attention as he was going around a curve in a residential area and smushed his puny car into our beefy ol' suburban. Got a few scratches and bent parts on the monster of a truck, but we're all well. Barely woke Spencer up, actually, he just grunted and cried a little, then went back to sleep. The first time he was in one was a few weeks ago (he didn't have a blog then), and he and I were leaving Starbucks and someone in a dark car wasn't paying attention at a stop light and decided he/she should go forward while everyone else was noticing that the light was red. Barely affected the car but made a nice noise as it pushed us forward, and the driver sped off into the darkness. Ergh. I was so mad.

That's all for now.

Happy Growing Boy

Tonight is bittersweet. Spencer is wearing newborn pajamas for the last time. He is actually wearing the pjs he wore his first night home- pajamas that his daddy wore as a newborn. I think I might have to hang them on the wall. He has been on the brink of being too tall for the newborns for a few days now. The reason tonight marks the last night is because we are down to the last few newborn disposable diapers, and his adorable Fuzzi Bunz give his tushy a little poofiness so the pjs won't snap completely closed. We are very excited to start with the cloth though! I am sure I will take photos of his cute cloth covered bottom! Today, I am almost certain Spencer laughed in his sleep! It was adorable. I can't wait for it to be a regular event. He had a very happy day today. He smiled very often and was super playful, with me and with his toys. He played under his toy gym happily for 20 minutes! That is the longest so far!