One-Year-Old Edwin James

Mr Edwin's first year of life flew by. (And even another month has flown by since his birthday)

 
The whole time I was pregnant with Edwin I thought of how crazy we were to be adding to our wild circus. Since his birth, we couldn't imagine it any other way, he brings a much needed peace and balance into our home.

 Edwin is a busy and active kid. He likes to squirm and wiggle mostly to take in all his surroundings. He loves going up the stairs and exploring the bathrooms. He gets so proud when he climbs up into Miles' bed.

  He has really been the best baby. I don't know if there's ever been a night that I had to get up with him more than twice. Usually it's 0-1 times. 

This face though....

 He is not one to snuggle. (So far, only Miles is my snuggler) Sometimes we hope he'll lie in bed with us but he has too much to explore and can't be still.

"hi guys!"

 Edwin wasn't walking until about 2 weeks after his birthday...but now he is getting better at it everyday and prefers it to crawling.

 Sometimes he has sounds that resemble words... like dada, mama, uh oh, ba (bath or ball), ba ba (bottle), Boo (balloon)

 This boy is the definition of a Daddy's boy! If Daddy is home Edwin must keep him in his sights, follows him around, and clings to his leg. When Max comes home from work, Edwin is usually in his high chair eating dinner. He will hear Max's voice but not be able to see him and he starts to do a panicky whine until he see's daddy, then gives him a big grin.

Nearly everything goes straight into his mouth and sometimes I think he purposely throws food from his high chair so he can have a snack later.

 Speaking of eating...He is my best eater! He never loved baby food...he's starting to tolerate the baby food pouches. He LOVES eggs, chicken, turkey, hot dogs, ground beef and pretty much every meat. He loves any fruit and is okay with some vegetables. He transitioned to cows milk better than my big boys too. At his 1 year checkup he was around 50% for weight, 20% for height and 80% for head circumference.

On the day before Edwin's birthday we had a birthday celebration for two of my brothers (Dan-January 29th and James-February 3rd) and for Edwin-February 5th we met at my mom's house for Sunday dinner and a party. There was a yummy Chili dinner, muddy buddy treats, and birthday cupcakes. And we of course brought a pinata! It turned out perfect and simple, just how I wanted! And my boy's best friends are their cousins so it was great that they were able to celebrate together.

So I made the same cupcakes with blue frosting that I had made with Charlie and Miles. And we got to see Edwin try it out. We didn't really give him any sugar up to this point so we didn't know how he'd react. Big brothers were more excited them him. 

Haha...that look!

 I'm just putting the whole sequence on here. He was curious but then unimpressed and eventually pushed it off his tray. haha!

We eventually made our way to the garage to attack the pinata....

Matchy matchy cousins

 Charlie knocked the chain off the ceiling

 After making a makeshift pinata holder with a ladder and broom handle...it was eventually bust open.

We stayed later than we should have but we just didn't want the fun to end. We got our sleepy boys in bed then before going to sleep, I ended up blowing the balloons up myself since I didn't want to keep my big boys up any later. They had been excited about filling Edwin's crib with balloons for months. So I had to get them up extra early on a school day to make that happen. They jumped right out of bed when they remembered. Edwin was a bit confused at first but then he really enjoyed it!

After dropping Charlie off at school, we were hoping for an exciting trip to the Library but Edwin wanted an early nap...so that's what he did...then he slept for 3 hours and we didn't really have much time to go to the library before picking Charlie up. When Max got home we had dinner, let Edwin open his birthday gift, (bath toys) offered the boys cupcakes again and then had bath and bedtime. It was such a simple and zero-stress celebration and Miles and Charlie loved making Edwin feel special all day. We sure do love having this baby boy in our family!

Children's Museum

And we also ended up having a Children's museum membership so we've been having some winter fun there. 

 Doing all the Science!

And Miles would play in the water area for hours if I let him!

Zoo Day

We decided to get good use out of our zoo pass and made our way while Charlie was in school. We went around lunch time on a somewhat cold day and it was pretty much desserted/ Quite the contrast to Zoolights!

We like to start with the otters. We were hoping to see the new rescued baby named Lincoln but she wasn't out yet. This guy was still cute though. 

It just cracks me up when kids are completely entertained by things like this...or the Elevator at OMSI...or the drinking fountains....We came to see the animals KID!!

 Monkeying around

Entertained once again by something that isn't an animal...Notice he has his own (free) binoculars around his neck...do you think that stopped ihm from asking for some quarters...no, no it did not!

We arrived in teh elephnat land in time to see them up close and perform some tricks!

haha...rough life!

  And we ended with the giraffes before we needed to go pick up Charlie from school. They seemed to be synchronized in all their movements...walking everywhere together...I didn't take a video but maybe you can tell by this photo sequence.

And there is the beginning of our many zoo trips! Also, we can get guests in if anyone wants to go...

Fire Station Field Trip

I was in charge of arranging Miles' preschool field trip to the fire station. I picked a fire station that was next to a park and a library in case the fire fighters had a call. Little did I know it was pouring down rain and the library didn't open until noon. As soon as we were parking we saw the firefighters leave on a call. We went up and knocked on the door anyway and miraculously, Firefighter Eric had come in on his day off to do some work and was more than willing to give us a tour! We were so grateful!

 

 Our tour was somewhat condensed since the firefighters were gone with one of the trucks...but 3 cheers for Firefighter Eric for working on his day off...because the other guys never came back the whole time we were there!