First haircut!

 

After a few minutes of combing and cutting, Attison kind of zoned out.  We thought he might actually fall asleep!

Darth Vadar

The congestion I mentioned earlier can be heard in this clip of Attison breathing in his crib as viewed through the video monitor.  You might call it a snore, but he was just trying to breathe.

Whaaaaaaaat?

I don't know what this situation was, but you should caption this picture in the comments as to what you think he is saying.

Morning ritual

A has had a few subsequent colds for what has felt like forever.  He has a pretty rough cough and gets pretty congested mid-afternoon and night. Usually when he wakes up in the middle of the night he is able to soothe himself back to sleep relatively painlessly (thanks be to sleep training around 6-7 months!) When he is this congested and having coughing fits he can't soothe himself as well and needs a good snuggle and belly rub from his mama or da to get back to sleep. Since we are busy with work and building a house and all, usually no one feels like rocking him back to sleep and then putting him in his crib, so into the family bed he comes.  

During the renovation we've kept a mini-fridge as part of our "camp kitchen" on the 2nd floor.  It was so convenient for getting a bottle of milk before dawn to give to the magically joyful child who wakes up between 5:40-6 am. We also kept a box of Cheerios in the room if that was what he was hankering for. 

Here is a picture of A and Jennythedog hanging out in bed after Tim and I got up to start the day.  This is a pretty typical scene.  A has milk, cheerios and a ton of books he is perusing. JTD is snuggled up under the covers near the foot of the bed, growling at anyone who tries disturb her blissful sleep. 

Haven't found JTD yet?  She is that mound of blankets behind A on the bed.

Mountain Climber

During this home renovation, the majority of our kitchen is boxed up in big plastic bins and is stored in our bedroom.  We have one big pretzel container that I put all of the big, giant serving spoons in (ones that are too big for the boxes without taking up a ridiculous amount of space.)  You've probably noticed that these spoons, spatulas and tongs are making there way into A's pictures lately.  He seems to really enjoy picking a utensil of the day and holding fast. 

This day was laundry day.  We were cooped up on mama and da's bedroom for awhile folding tons of laundry and sorting a giant bag of hand-me-downs from Finley (Thanks again Travis Family!) A decided to conquer the chair and bang on the bins with his spatula-of-the-day.

Then we cheesed it up for some pictures.

Drinking from a cup with Grandpa

Passed Out

Now that A is 1 year old and a squirmy wormy, it is hard for his Great Grandma Raufer to hold him for too long.  On our stop in to say good-bye this last trip to NJ, A paaaaaaaaaaaaaassed out and Grandma was able to hold him for a good long while.  He was a little awake when we carried him in the house and once he snuggled in with G.G. he was out like a light. 

Finley and Attison play kitchen

Finley and Attison are 2nd cousins (-ish). They were born just a few months apart. 

Bday in NJ

Attison and his Aunt Carolyn did a whole lot of playing when we went to visit the Raufers in New Jersey!

playing with Jenny and walking around

12 month appointment

A and I went to his 12 month appointment this month.  He had a blast playing with the paper from the table. 

Here he is throwing some paper on the floor and saying "uh-oh!"

Then he would look at me. 

One of the standard developmental questions at the 12 month appointment is "Does the baby play peek-a-boo and patty-cake?" To which I responded "Well, we don't really do patty-cake, but he high fives."  She laughed and said that she thinks the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) is going to have to change their standards to high-five/pound instead of patty-cake to keep up with the trends. I don't know any babies who patty-cake, but a whole bunch who are high-fivers!

naked playtime

I don't know why babies hate wearing diapers, but sometimes we just don't bother fighting it (usually until it is too late). Here is A playing with his birthday tow-truck from his Great Aunt Sal.

Standing

lentils

I spilled some lentils in the office/laundry room/guest room/kitchen.  As I was picking them up, I decided they would probably be fun for Attison to play with for awhile, because they have a unique texture when they are uncooked.  I thought maybe I'd find a way to keep them contained while he played with them, but then I thought "Our house is completely torn apart and I have to vaccuum anyway, what the hell!" So he just threw them all over the floor for about 30 minutes until they were so scattered and mangled in the carpet he couldn't get a handful anymore. Then he crawled in the hallway and tipped over Jenny's water bowl (which is gigantic because we never remember to fill up the small ones.)

Best distraction of the day.  I don't think there was any other 30 minute period where he did one thing, in one place, that I knew he was safe the whole day. He is an adventurer. 

I plan on making a big rice box for him to play in this winter.  (What is a rice box? See here)

not baby toys

Sometimes we play with things that aren't baby toys. 

Like when he crawls in this basket of work-out dvd's and equipment to bang on the ball and chew on the jumprope.

 Or when he takes the sock basket and dumps it on his head. 

...but then decides to read a book instead of continuing to play with the socks.

looking out the window

He can't see much from his viewpoint, but he sure does like climbing up on this foot stool to look out the window.

Redsinks sweatshirt and a truck

Most of Attison's wardrobe is hand-me-downs or gifts, so we have lots of sports gear that we need to represent for each loving family member.  This day A wore his Redskins hoodie without pants.