As I sit down to write this, the mom guilt spreads over me like a thick blanket in summer time. I just want to get this written… to feel like I at least have a foot hanging out from under this blanket. To cool that guilt that is a constant burning in my soul. You see, it has been almost a year since I have posted anything on our family blog. I still haven’t even written Archer’s birth story! I do have an outline with the major details written out… I was smart enough to do that right after his birth because I knew that I would forget the little things. But, I haven’t made the time to sit down and actually work on it. I digress. This isn’t about my mom guilt or lack of blogging. This is about our sweet baby somehow turning one today. My sweet little baby is a one year old. How did that happen??
Archer loves:
-His Dada! When Chris gets home from work, he has to immediately pick Archer up or he will cry. He is the first baby of ours who will pick being held by Chris over being held by me! In fact, the other day Chris was holding him and tried to hand him to me because he needed to go work on something and Archer threw a fit. Definitely a Daddy’s boy!
-Food! Blueberries, french fries, and bananas are a few of his favorites, but so far he has a healthy appetite and loves to try everything that we eat. He is also still nursing lots. So much so that he still has that sweet milky baby breath that I wish I could bottle and save forever. The smells of my babies are one of the things I’m going to miss when these days are over.
-Dancing! His favorite song is still Baby Beluga, but any music with a beat makes him bob up and down and move his arms around like crazy. It’s hilarious to watch him dance!
-Adventure! I call him the adventure baby. We recently have let him explore more on his own in our backyard. We are there watching, of course, but we’re giving him more space to do his own thing… and he LOVES it. He plays in the dirt, finds sticks, runs after the big kids and the dog. He is frequently covered in dirt and mud from his adventures. Once we get the garden and coop finished, we are planning on building him a sandbox to dig around in.
-Shaking his head no! Oh yes, he has learned how to say no and it’s his favorite.
-Getting into trouble! He started walking about 2 months ago and hasn’t stopped moving since. He is into absolutely everything. His favorite things to try to get into are the cat box, the toilet, and the cat/dog food and water bowls. I catch him trying to sneak into the bathroom or the cat box room on a daily basis. He is a mess!
-His siblings! He loves playing with the big kids and chasing them around. I’m sure the reason he started walking so soon was so that he would be able to keep up with them.
This evening, I took him out to our wildflower meadow (that’s my fancy way of saying weedy field that needs a mow!) to snap a few pictures of him so I can always remember his sweet little baby face. He wasn’t too excited about me trying to make him sit on a blanket when there were perfectly good flowers to explore. But I was able to get a few good ones. I also noticed as I was uploading them that I edited them way more dark and moody than usual. Hmmmm…. I wonder if that could be because I’m feeling pretty emotional about him being one already?!
This one isn’t as sharp as I prefer, but I don’t even care. Perfectionism move aside. It’s a bit out of focus but it shows off those chompers! These teeth are the reason Chris and I jokingly call him a parrot fish.
He was pretty mad at me for making him sit.
