Happy 1st Birthday my SWEET SWEET Pierce!

I am tearful and filled with joy all at the same time as I sit down to write this final blog post of the first year of your precious little life sweet Pierce. 

You son, continue to steal my heart. You are first and foremost the happiest most contented little baby I have ever met. Your joy fills up a room and even when you are getting in to every thing under the sun and I come down on you with a firm "Pierce!" you turn and smile at me with that knowing smile and toddle back over as you hug my leg and "give me love" as we like to say here in the Shipman house. You genuinely just love people. I can see even as a baby how the Lord has knit that deeply inside of you. I had been waiting to get this post up until I had your 1 year well check with all your stats. At the appointment you walked right over to the doctor, held your arms up and said "mamma" (which is now what you call everyone). Our favorite doctor quickly melted as she lifted you into her arms. You immediately went limp as she snuggled you, you seriously almost went to sleep on her as she rubbed your sweet little head and for about 10 awkward minutes she did absolutely nothing medical and simply soaked in your love. My heart melted. 

 

Weight: 23lbs 1.5 oz (81%) ....no surprise there!
Height: 29.75 in (46%)
Head: 46.3 cm (57%)

Sleep: You continue to sleep 12+ hours at night and unless you are sick we don’t hear a peep out of you. You seem to be on the cusp of transitioning from two naps to one long afternoon nap, but for now still take an hour nap in the morning from 10-11 and then a long afternoon nap from 1:30-4pm.

Eating: You really love it all (with the exception of birthday cake, but more on that later!)I call you our little disposal because you eat your food and then whatever Will doesn’t eat! You are fully adjusted to whole milk and we will begin to work on cutting out the bottles to just sippy cups. But for now you still take 3-4 bottles a day. You hate the milk cold so until you adjust I will continue to heat it up for your sweet self.

Milestones: You are running, running, running and babbling up a storm with new words added each day. You currently say, "Mamma, Dada, Ball, Dog, Ma (more) and Bye Bye". You wave to absolutely everyone. You love books and will sit through any/all the long books we read to Will. Your latest cute thing is that you toddle over to me or Zak bringing a book and immediately turn around and plop down, as if to say “Will you please read me this book!” It seriously happens 100 times a day and I absolutely love it. You continue to be our little dancing king as you love to hear music . You  have your top four middle teeth, bottom middle two and our currently cutting another on the bottom. You and Will are complete buddies and you imitate everything he does. You also seem to have a mischievous streak (just like your mamma) as you go for the one thing you know Will will care that you take and you take off running with it squealing with delight and it just makes me laugh.

 

                 You love to try to brush your own hair and attempt to brush mine.

You point at absolutely everything and talk and talk and talk! 

 

                   I love this hilarious face you make all the time with your little lips.

Pierce, I've said it once and I'll say it again, if they were all like you I could have 10 kids! We love you to the moon and back and you have completed our family this past year in ways we never knew we had been missing. I can't wait to watch you grow into the little man the Lord has designed you to be. 

Happy 11 Months sweet Pierce!

Pierce... these past 11 months of your life have absolutely flown by! How has this happened!?!? When I think about it, I know the answer. You son have been easy. Plain and simple. You are the sweet, laid back, fun loving, loveable second child that I always hoped for.

Right at 10 1/2 weeks you took your first steps and now you are literally running around the living room. One of your favorite things to do is have one of us chase you and you look back and squeal with delight! I absolutely love this stage. You are becoming increasingly more verbal with each day as you walk around the living room babbling away and pointing. I always try to conversationally respond as though I know what you are trying to tell me.

Your first word was "Mamma!" and you have since added Dada (only a few times), Ma (More), and ByeBye (as you wave). You also have started giving all your stuffed animals Love (Hugs) on command and us as well. It truly is the sweetest thing.

 

Your schedule hasn't changed much, you still go down at 7:30pm and wake up at 8am. You nap one hour in the morning (10-11am) and then go down again at 1:30-4:00 pm for your afternoon nap.  You still take 4 bottles and absolutely love your sippy cup of water. I am hopeful that our transition from the bottle to the sippy cup is a smooth one. I also just bought the last container of formula Praise God Hallelujah as we are just a few short weeks out from transitioning to whole milk !

 

 

 

Sweet baby Pierce, we are so incredibly in love with you and are so excited to see you grow into a little man! Your laugh is infectious and everyone who meets you loves you as you seal the deal by reaching out for them to hold you. I can't wait to celebrate your first birthday next month. We love you more than words could adequately express!

Happy 10 months baby Pierce!

Well... if you asked me how I would characterize this past month of life with you sweet Pierce, I would have to say challenging. You have been sick, sick, sick. You got sick Christmas Eve with a 104.6 fever followed by a cold  and now sick again. You have had an awful cold for the last 2 weeks that spiked into a fever last Sunday of 104 again. All to say posting your 10 months update has been low priority right now because snotty noses, coughing and crying aren't really the memories I was going for when documenting the first year of your life. But it certainly would have been a truer picture. You are still growing great and have been ear infection free for several months now but man are you busy. You are on the cusp of walking and with that you seem frustrated. You absolutely do not want to be contained or held and absolutely have a gift for finding the thing in the room that could cause immediate pain to your little body. You love cords, computers, remotes, eating paper that you have just found and of course whatever your big brother is playing with. I daily barricade you into the living room to maintain some sanity and you fly across the room to the gate and just lean over crying because I am in the kitchen and you WANT IN! All to say, I am exhausted and ready to move on to a new stage of your sweet life. 

Eating: Because of the bad cold you currently have you have been hit or miss with the solids. You still take about 5-6 oz in your bottles every 4 hours. You absolutely LOVE feeding yourself and try to knock the spoon away if we try to feed you. I basically give you whatever we are eating and you are super laid back about it. You have however started slinging food off your high chair and smashing it with your hand which is certainly a joy and opportunity for some early disciplining. Will's job in the afternoon is to take the hand held vacuum and clean up all your mess! He loves it and I appreciate it. Your favorite food currently is Tomatoes. You absolutely love them!

Sleeping: Honestly, you have always been a great sleeper with the exception of when you are sick. Your cough has been waking you up throughout the night, but in a well season you sleep like a champ so I cant complain. When I asked the pediatrician earlier this week why you kept getting sick she said preschool (all the germs Will is bringing home) combined with being mobile in the winter months. I am hopeful you are just building that immune system with each virus and will be a healthy little toddler here in a few months. Naps have been cut back to 1 hour in the morning and 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon because when I would let you take a long morning nap you seemed to want no part of the afternoon nap and that was just not going to work. I imagine you will be ready to drop that nap all together by 1 year.

 

Personality: You are the happiest little guy and continue to love everyone and everyone we meet LOVES you! You even reach for strangers to hold you! My sweet friendly baby boy. You are persistent and determined. All traits that I love in you. You wave to everyone but still no recognizable word just lots of baby talk and mimicking. Largely my fault as I always have you plugged up with your paci because otherwise you try to eat/chew everything (Like Will's shoes!). I am going to work on trying to leave it out this month so we can encourage talking more as you are not a loud little guy at all, but then again neither was your big brother. Oh, and I almost forgot you LOVE to dance. Anytime music comes on you just start dancing it absolutely melts my heart. I simply must get a video. You also calm right down anytime I sing to you. Such sweet memories.

You have 4 top teeth and two bottom teeth and seem to be in the never ending teething stage. It will be two more months before I know all your stats but I do know that as of Monday you weighed 21 lbs 10 oz which is honestly not much more than last month. 

I love you beyond words and even though you are in what I call a challenging stage you are still the perfect baby brother and we ALL love you more than you could possibly ever know!

Happy 9 months baby Pierce!

Sweet baby Pierce, with all the sickness we have had in the last month in this house it's no wonder your mamma is FINALLY getting your post up! Happy Happy 9 months sweet boy! You are changing developmentally at such a rapid pace that I simply don't know where the time has gone!

We had your 9 month appointment last week and finally an update on your stats! ( I have currently misplaced your charts so I'll have to go back and write in the exact numbers, but I remembered the percentiles.)

Weight: 76% (No shocker there my little chunk!)
Height: 34% (You majorly dipped in your height this month and the doctor even rechecked but thinks you are on the verge of a growth spurt and said your 1 year apt. would be a better indicator...but it would shock NO ONE in this family if you are short!)
Head: 70%

 

Eating: Well little man, you are completely over baby food! You only want the real stuff now and seem to be enjoying it all. You have tried eggs, avocados, black beans, chicken, french fries, sweet potatoes, bananas (are your favorite), fresh mozarella cheese, cooked carrots, apples, peas and many more things! It is an absolutely MESS! You truly need to go straight to the bathtub after every meal but because you are the second child it only happens every other day! You take in about 25 oz of formula a day which is surprisingly on the low end... You eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and the occasional snack of your favorite "lil crunchies".

Sleeping: You still sleep 12 hours at night and take an 1.5 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon because right now that what works best for everyone. You would prefer a longer morning nap but you roll with it. On Sundays, it has become no morning nap and you do quite well. I think we all will be ready though to drop this morning nap so we have all morning to get out of the house and do some fun things so I imagine by one I will start to transition you to one nap!

Milestones: This is probably where there is the most to report. You are my active little tank! You bulldoze any where you want to go. You are finally more efficiently crawling on all fours instead of your super fast army crawl and you are scaling the furniture. Your favorite thing to do is climb from thing to thing in the living room and we often find you standing in your crib when you are suppose to be sleeping. It honestly makes me laugh. Zak and I think you will be walking before 11 months just like your big brother. I for one am looking forward to that because you are getting far too heavy for me to lug around anymore.

You are babbling more and more each day, but no words yet. You belly laugh all the time! You also have started waving to everyone which I love!  I can't wait til you can say "hey!" as we walk by people at the store.

Likes: You love being down on the floor and honestly get upset if we try to contain you. You also love to crawl up our leg and hold one arm up as if to say "will you hold me?", but just as soon as we pick you up you want back down. You love music and particularly love when I sing to you. It makes you stop crying immediately! You continue to adore your big brother and try to keep up with him. You also love climbing through the coffee table and out the other side. You constantly have this look of pride in your current accomplishment on your face. I think you are going to be my social boy because you love all people and seem to study their faces as they pick you up. You rarely ever cry out of discontent and every comments on how handsome you are, but also how happy you are. I am so so thankful for your easy disposition. It makes having two seem like a dream.

Dislikes: Mamma or Daddy leaving the room. When your brother intentionally knocks your down and any sort of containment. Other than that you are easy breezy.

 

 

 

...And you now have FOUR teeth! I miss that toothless smile but your current grin makes us all laugh so keep those chompers coming! We love you to the moon and back baby boy and it brings a tear to my eye to think that the next time I document your stats you will be one... you have been a slice of heaven in every single way!

Happy 8 Months Pierce!

My sweet baby Pierce! You are 3/4 of a year old. The time with you my handsome little monkey is flying by. You are changing so much each and every day. You are crawling fast as lightning. You are babbling up a storm (finally!) with lots of "baabaabaa" and "dadada" and I just love it! You are on the cusp of pulling up all by yourself and your big brother tries to "wrestle" you every chance he gets and you squeal with delight.

While you definitely have your own look I can still see the baby resemblence between you and Will. Your hair and eye color is constantly changing. Sometimes it looks like its leaning blonde and other times it has a red tint, but I am guessing it will be a light brown like your big brother. As for eyes, I think they will been greenish brown.

 

You are coming into your own for sure and the one thing I would say right now is that you won't be stopped. You are a bulldozer. You climb straight through the coffee table and over anything in your path. You hate when I leave the room and get so upset when left alone. That lip goes down and you just lose it!

You have finally gotten two teeth (your bottom middle) so you seem less fussy. But I know there will be more coming soon. Your naps and eating are still great. We have started table food and you are doing great, You love whole bananas, avocados, peaches and pizza crust :).

I am guessing you are about 21 pounds which means it's time to ditch your car seat for a bigger one very soon! You have also started wanting to be held any chance you get, but once we pick you up you immediately want to get back down. It makes me laugh. You continue to love everyone you meet. You definitely aren't scared of men like your brother has always been and you have started majorly reaching for everyone. When anyone holds you, you look up in amazement and grab a hold of their faces as if to study it. I predict you will be quite the extrovert which of course delights me!  

Capturing pictures of each stage is getting more and more challenging as you can see below... Each month I wind up sweating by the end of the whole shindig.

Here's to another month of loving on my sweet baby Pierce. We love you to pieces and you, big boy have been the greatest addition to our family!