My Little Man is One!

It's been a whole year since my little boy came to join our family. I would love to say that "it went by so fast," but honestly, it was kind of a rough year! Ha! But that doesn't mean that I don't love his guts and kiss his face off every day, because I do! It just means that he's a year old and STILL not sleeping through the night, so I am utterly exhausted ... all the time.  Okay, it's not that bad anymore since I've gotten used to it, but I'm still tired most days.

But I digress.

This little guy is now one whole year old and he's cuter than ever! Seriously, so handsome. And he has quite the sense of humor! For not sleeping much he sure is a happy little dude. He is always trying to scare us and we all pretend to be scared. He'll do anything to make us laugh, and when you do laugh at something he did, he gets the biggest grin and starts laughing with you. It's awesome.

He does patty cake, claps all the time, and loves to dance (particularly to any song that Layla is singing). He is cruising around furniture and stands up to everything, and he's still doing his funny bum scoot crawl. He signs "more," "please" and sometimes "thank you" and points to things he wants. He says the word, "Hi!" all the time and waves bye-bye. He pretends to talk on the phone using either a play phone, the TV remote, or his hand on his ear. He loves when I pretend to talk to him on the phone. I'll say, ""Hello?" and he'll say, "Hi!" It's adorable. He knows who "dada," "mama," and "Layla" are, and he'll point to us when we ask, but he rarely uses our names to get our attention. I'm sure that will come with time.

His favorite place to be is in my arms or on my lap. He gets jealous when Layla sits on my lap and cries until she moves so he can take her place. Mamma's boy for sure! His other favorite place to be is on the couch, with his legs spread, holding the remote. It is so funny how much he resembles a grown man! Ha, ha!

He loves to play "chase" with Layla where they take turns chasing each other. He loves to be scared and usually laughs. He sits in his high chair and yells, "Ah!" over and over, but the best part is that each time he yells, he shrugs his shoulders as if he has to get his whole body into it. He's very enthusiastic.

Marcus thinks Layla is the funniest person ever. He laughs at pretty much everything she does. When he wakes up in the morning and I carry him down the hall into the living room, he gets the biggest grin because he knows he'll see Layla and he's just so excited. Once he does see her he usually says, "Hi" and waves.


He is my snuggle baby! Layla was never a snuggler, but Marcus is a cuddle bug and I LOVE it. Every morning we snuggle in my bed and it's one of my favorite parts of the day. He gives great hugs and kisses. He is so sweet!

he loves me ...

He Loves Me ...

HE LOVES ME!

He also gets a kick out of pinching our faces and making us say, "Owie!"

And he loves to pull Layla's hair!

There's probably something else I'm forgetting that I love about this little guy. He seriously melts my heart. He is a ray of sunshine and brings so much laughter and happiness to our family.

At his one year check up he weighed 22 lbs and is 50th percentile for height and 60th for weight. He's a healthy little man. He does seem to get ear infections when he gets a new tooth and that's a bummer. The doctor thinks he may have low serotonin levels, which would explain why he has never really slept through the night despite all our best efforts. We are scheduled to see a pediatric sleep specialist at the end of this month. I don't really want to go that route, so I am praying that he will start sleeping before then! I am weaning him and only nursing at night, so hopefully once I cut that out too it will help. Someday we'll get there!

                                      
I took some pics of Marcus smashing a cake for his birthday. He wasn't that into it?!? I thought he'd love it, but the boy doesn't seem to like sweet things very much. Weird, I know. He won't even eat Cool Whip or ice cream! Anyways, we still got some cute pics even if it wasn't his most favorite thing in the world. Layla did enjoy eating some of the leftover cake though!


We had a fun birthday party for Marcus! Our families came and spoiled him rotten. We had a brunch and ate crepes and Coldstone ice cream cake. We let Marcus smash a cupcake, which he got into a little more than the cake smash episode. He got lots of toys and clothes and some money for his college fund. The new toys have been great. Oh, and my dad made him the coolest toy chest ever! It looks like a pirate's treasure chest. Mitch said he can't wait to see what Marcus will store in there when he's 18. Ha! That should be interesting.

I love you, my little man! Thanks for making me smile every single day!