14 Months Old

It's amazing how time flies. I couldn't believe it when Vincent turned one year old, and now he's 14 months old. It's so fast!

So what is different in the second year of Vincent's life? For one thing, he suddenly understands things way more than I would've expected. Like, I don't really know how he picked this up, but this past week, David discovered that he knows the word 'belly button.' He also knows the difference between Daddy's belly button, Mommy's belly button, and Baby/Vincent's belly button.

Around 13 months old, Vincent learned to walk. It took a while to take that plunge, but he's now pretty good at it. Yes, wobbly still, but nonetheless, he's good. No major words yet. I believe he says, "hi," "hello," "bye," "mama," "more," and "no." I think just David and I can really understand him. His version of "more" is very similar to "mama" & has several meanings to it.
He can now play with pully toys & pushes his little cars further and further each day. One major development last week that I LOVE is that he will climb into our laps when having a snack out of his high chair, or when he wants you to read him a book. It is very sweet. I didn't quite get that he was doing that until he climbed into a friend's lap while she had something he wanted to eat in her hands. I guess all that forcing of him to sit in my lap paided off.

What am I like these days? I'd say that I am doing well, but the fact is, I'm not. I've had a cough/conjested sinuses & chest for over a month now. I coughed so hard one week that I've damaged my right ribs. I have to protect them whenever I cough or sneeze. It's a pain in the...ribs! It makes me fuzzy headed as well, and had caused me to feel like an out of shape blob. I am really hoping to feel better soon so that I can catch my breath easier and do some exercising. Thankfully, I married a pretty cool guy, who turned out to be an even cooler dad. Well, okay, I've had to nag here and there a few times, but not much.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided that surely, Vincent must weigh 20 lbs now. We turned his car seat to face forward. I don't think he really liked it the first week. It was a bit too much for him. Whenever we would get in the car, he would immediately start saying and signing "mo, mo, mo" for more/want food or drink. I've started a stash of snacks in the front seat now just for this purpose. I was afraid I'd create a snackin' machine, but it's actually gotten better. It was almost like facing forward was too much to handle that he needed food as a distraction. Ah, so young, and already food plays such an important role outside of actually being hungry.

So, there you have it. Vincent at age 14 months!

ALOHA!

Vincent has been spending all winter talking about how he wants to go someplace warm. We finally gave in and took him to Kauai. He's really taken to it.

But, first stop, LAX to "pick up" A-ma, and spend a little time with A-Gong.

"Welcome to Fantasy Island!" Supposedly, this is the waterfall in the 80's TV show, 'Fantasy Island'.

"Whoah! What is this????" This was our first day at the beach. Poipu Beach park is a short drive from the house we are staying at. They have a great little natural kiddie wading pool.

"I LOVE HAWAII!!"

Gotta have some shaved ice.

How about a little swimming?

Blue Boy

I didn't realize when I took this picture that everything in the background was blue, too. Geez, I must like the color. I just thought Vincent looked so cute in his little BumGenius diaper. Which brings me to the topic of cloth diapers...

I'm not sure if I've talked about my cloth diapering obsession in the past. I'd have to say that my husband is probably glad that obsession is IN THE PAST. Of course, I've replaced it with something else, and something else replaced that obsession. I did finally figure out a system that works for us. The BumGenius 2.0 "one size fits all" as they call it were our most expensive cloth diaper purchase. We only bought 3 to test them out. They're quite great, actually. But, very spendy, at about $17 a pop. They're actually good for overnight use, although we have found that they smell by morning time. We now use them for longer outings.

The next costly ones we chose were the Bumkins All-In-Ones. We only bought 6 of those, and mainly cuz they were on sale. I was testing those out, too. They're convenient because they're not as bulky & as easy to put on as a disposable. They're just not very absorbant. Those are used when I know I'll be changing him again pretty soon, or for shorter outings.

Last, but not least, we bought 30 Indian pre-folds and have about 8 covers to go over those. Those are great! I highly recommend them for simplicity and affordability. In fact, if I were to do it all over again, I would just buy those.

For nighttime, we decided to use 7th Generation chlorine free diapers.

So, there you have it. Diaper crazy lady uses FOUR types of diapers on her ONE child. Let's not mention the swim diaper for the pool! But, as you can see, this is a happy booty baby.

Close to Walking

It looks like Vincent is about to start walking soon. Just this week, he has been taking more and more little steps. Today was the best he has done. He also does this knee scoot thing that is pretty funny. You can catch a small glimpse of it here in this video. It's really exciting, but it also makes me very nervous. He is a really great crawler, and zoom, zoom, fast. I can only imagine what he'll be like walking. Enjoy!

The Browns & The Seahawks

It was a good season, but the Browns didn't make it into the playoffs & the Seahawks lost to Greenbay. Daddy, Vincent & Jon became regulars at Buckley's on Sundays to watch the Browns. We're sad to say "Good-bye" for now to both teams. GO GIANTS!!

More Snow!

This past weekend, we hopped on a plane with 4 friends and one other baby and all headed out to Park City, Utah. It was our first vacation with friends. We stayed in an amazing house. It started to snow right when we exited the airport, and continued for most of the weekend. This made Friday a tough day to go out, but we were still able to get Vincent his first snow crawling experience. He seemed to enjoy crawling around in the snow, threw a snow ball at his dad, and even made his first snow angel. Of course, we helped.


Yes, this is Vincent's snow angel.

December 1 - It's Snowing!!

What a fun way to start off this holiday month! Vincent's first time seeing it snow. He was too small the last time we had snow. Today, he really enjoyed seeing it come down. Luckily, I was able to find this fleece jumper at a consignment store just in the knick of time.