Rylan 12 Month Summary

Rylan is 1! I honestly can’t believe it. Although he is acting older, he still has his precious little baby face, leaving me in a slight bit of denial over the whole year-old thing. I pretty much refuse to take him for his first haircut. I mean, look at that hair! You only get those crazy baby hair pictures for so long, and I plan on dragging it out as much as my husband will feasibly let me. It doesn’t help that he’s pretty much grown out of all his baby clothes (although I am more than happy to say farewell to onesies – those snaps are the bane of my existence). Thankfully, he seems to fully grasp his role as “baby of the family,” and is constantly laying his head down on my shoulder and smiling sweetly, or doing a little fake crying just to get your attention. He knows just the way to melt your heart and seems in constant pursuit of eliciting an “awww” from all those in his presence.

As for typical milestones around this age, Rylan still isn’t walking. He’s excellent at pushing a walking toy around and pulls to stand any chance he gets, but hasn’t shown a real interest in walking on his own. We also still don’t have any real words. Lots of babble and he certainly has found ways to make his preferences known through gestures and sounds. Brandon seems to totally understand him, and will let us know when he thinks Rylan wants something else to eat, a new toy, or needs to be put down for a nap (although, this seems to ironically coincide with the times when Rylan is going godzilla all over Brandon’s train set). The boys continue to communicate via screaming at each other. It’s pretty cute as long as we are at home or outside, but not so fabulous when we are in a restaurant or store. Imitating is his specialty, and he loves to copy noises you make with your mouth or hand gestures. And he adores watching the baby in the mirror, which was one of his birthday present additions to our new playroom.

Rylan, although totally laid back 90% of the time, has become a bit picky this past month. When we will read him a story before nap or bed time he will swat away books until presented with one he approves of. He’s gotten the hang of nodding “no” and “yes,” which definitely helps, but nothing riles Rylan up more than food. The kid loses his cool when he isn’t fed fast enough or isn’t offered everything that everyone else is eating. Eating is serious business for him, and it’s actually nice not to have to coax every last bite into him. We are starting to replace formula with whole milk in a sippy (can’t wait for those bottles to go away!), but he seems way more into food than milk lately. I just try to make sure he gets a few good servings of milk along with some cheese and yogurt during the day. He’s still sleeping great, but has taken to throwing his lovey out of the crib and crying for it until someone caves to going in to get it for him. Not sure how I’m going to handle this going forward, but if it continues with more frequency I’m thinking we will have to do some tough love and just have a few tear filled naps until he gets the point.

One of the biggest changes this past month was that we moved out of the only home that Brandon and Rylan have ever known. Although we stayed in the same apartment building, I was nervous about how the boys would handle this kind of disruption. They both did beautifully and we are all really enjoying our new space.

Happy Birthday my sweet little guy!!

Rylan’s Schedule at 12 Months:

• 7:30 am – wake-up, get dressed and bottle
• 7:45 – breakfast w/ Brandon
• 8:15 – Outside!
• 9:30-11 – nap #1
• 11:30 – play with Brandon
• 12 – bottle & lunch
• 1:30-3:30/4 – nap #2
• 4 – bottle
• 4:15-5 – “play” with Brandon or Outing
• 5 – independent play in play pen
• 5:30 – watch tv with Brandon
• 6 – dinner with family
• 6:40 – bath
• 7 – bottle
• 7:30 – bedtime!