Hunter and Zanders World: Happy Birthday Zander

Is it possible that one year ago we were still in the hospital for 4 days after you arrived? Wow what a difference a year makes.

In one year you.....

Gained 20+ lbs. (at your dr. appt. last week you were 26.2 lbs.).

The hard time I had trying to nurse you and in fact I think I was actually starving you. You dropped almost a full pound in those first couple of weeks and it broke our hearts to see you so teeny tiny. Once we made the decision to switch you to formula you didn't look back. You started drinking 6 oz. at 1 month of age. You were holding your bottle at about 3-4 months probably because I starved you for that first month so you wanted to make sure that nobody was going to take your food away from you. You had a horrible time with reflux; you threw up so much, it's a wonder you were able to gain so much weight so fast. You were put on medicine early on and still take it. When I notice that I have forgotten to give it to you, you sometimes grab your chest and cry, so I am thinking that the reflux still hurts you (by the way, you get this from your daddy.)

8 teeth

Your first tooth to come in was your bottom tooth followed by a top tooth. By time your two top teeth came in they were so much bigger than the rest and it looks so cute when you smile to have these 2 big teeth in such a little mouth.
You have a heck of a time when teething. You don't sleep well, you get very cranking and you gnaw on everything even people.

A few words

Mama, Dadda and I think there are a few others in there somewhere but I can't distinguish them yet. Although Mama usually comes when you want something or when you are mad about something; you are very good at saying it.

A love for your older brother, Hunter

Nobody can make you laugh like Hunter. You have always watched him carefully and when you just hear his voice you usually get a smile on your face and get so excited. Lets hope that this love stays even when you two are older and arguing.

A shining personality

oh how you can make us laugh! How does somebody so little develop such a strong and unique personality? Well you did!

A devilish temper

O' boy do you have a temper! It started showing up at about 7 months when you would tense up and put your hands into fists and grunt. By 10 months you were throwing tantrums by throwing yourself on the ground and pounding your head against the floor. Thank God you have yet to hurt yourself doing this even though you did try once to do this on cement which I managed to stop you beforehand. If you don't get your way or what you want, WATCH OUT!

A fondness for real people food.

You didn't stay on baby food too long, once we started giving you real food (you had ice cream at 3 months, a cheese puff at 4 months, we are really health nuts, haha) you never wanted to go back to the bland, blended baby food in a jar. You do such a good job feeding yourself, you can pick up the tiniest piece of food and get it into your mouth (ex. you were picking all the sprinkles off your cake first and eating those).

A fearless attitude.

I don't know if it's because you have a dare devil older brother and you want to do everything that he does, but boy you don't stop at anything. We were swimming at an indoor pool when you were 10 months and you would crawl around the pool and then proceed to climb backwards into the pool not even caring if anybody was there, thank God we were there to catch you. You started going down a big slide at 9-10 months all by yourself, once you are at the top you turn around backwards and go down feet first on your belly, although you have gone down head first a couple of times. You also learned to crawl up and down stairs at 8-9 months of age. We showed you a couple of times how to go downstairs backwards very carefully and you caught on and do great at it.

Almost walking:

You started crawling at about 7 months and by 9 months you were standing up and holding on to things while you walked around. At 11 months you were taking a step here and a step there. By 12 months you are taking about 3-4 steps and up to 6 steps at a time before you topple over. We can't wait to see you waddling around everywhere, or can we?

Have already been to Disney World:

It took me almost 33 years to get to Disney World and you were able to go at 7 months. Even though you had no clue what was going on and you won't remember anything, atleast we have lots of pictures for proof that you were there and had a great time!

Most of all, you have gained, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of LOVE from family, friends and neighbors. Happy 1st Birthday Zander!!