Big Boy = Big Changes

Where do I start...I'll start at the birthday party, no, make that Friday:
Brooks didn't really sleep well with all the people and excitement of the weekend. It actually started on Friday when he didn't really nap in the morning and didn't really nap in the afternoon. Poor guy was running on little sleep and 48 hours with no poop. He almost feel asleep during his last swim lesson on Friday night. He went to bed a tad late that night, but he feel right to sleep, only to wake up around 9:30 with a poopy diaper. So I had to get him up to change him, and then convince him to go back to sleep. No good naps on Saturday during the party, either. He was a tad grumpy, but we did our best to keep him happy. One of the things that he loved was eating the cake. We ended up taking it away after he gobbled half of it up. I was worried about him getting a tummy ache. I had every right to be worried. Come bedtime, he was wired and ready to go. He was actually cracking me up! He just laughed and laughed for no reason why I was trying to put him to bed. It was so cute. I went ahead and laid him down and knew that he would fall asleep eventually. He ended up falling asleep about an hour later (8:45pm). About 10:00pm I heard him cry out and then fall back asleep, and again about 11:00pm, and again around 11:30pm. I ended up going in at around 11:30pm to soothe him a bit. (Can you tell this is going to get worse?) And then he cried out again at around midnight. I tried rocking him, nursing him (which he wanted no part in), giving him his paci, giving him milk, taking his temp...NOTHING WAS WORKING!!! I was desperate, so I even tried laying down with him in bed. I have never done this at night, but like I said, I was desperate. Once he feel asleep in bed with me for a while, and then he woke up when I tried to lay him in his crib. Then I thought I was doing too much, so I put him down and let him cry it out for a bit. It was 1:10am, so I thought that surely he was so exhausted that he would cry himself to sleep. 1:35am rolled around and he was still crying. I went in there to find my baby sitting there with puffy red eyes and a tear soaked face. You'd think that that would make me feel sad for him, but I was way beyond that point. Remember that it had now been 2 straight hours of Brooks SCREAMING. Chad tried walking around with him outside to calm him down, and as soon as he came in he screamed. Finally I rocked him a bit and tried putting him down around 2:23am. I listened to him cry for 3 minutes, and then came silence. I thought I had gone deaf! I laid in the chair in the living room for a minute and covered myself with a towel (it's all there was) and slept for about 30 minutes. I thought it might be safe to go bed. My parents were staying with us, so I was sleeping in the bed in Brooks' room. I was absolutely terrified to go in there. I tiptoed in and lay in bed and didn't move until Brooks woke up screaming around 6:45am. NOT a fun night. I got up with him and went to nurse him, and he turned his head. He wanted nothing to do with my boob. So, I guess we are done with that. My mom was nice enough to take him so Chad and I could go back to bed. She said that he was real fussy during breakfast (surprise, surprise), but then he had a huge poop, which seemed to help. Brooks took a nice 2 1/2 hour nap, and probably could've slept all day, only I was worried that if I let him sleep all day then he wouldn't sleep at night again. It was a rough night, followed by a rough day. Here are some pictures of a baby with no sleep trying to make it through the day:



He was not a happy camper. That next night (Sunday night) he slept better; Woke up a couple of times, but went right back to sleep. And he ended up sleeping in until 8:00am. Still wouldn't nurse, so like I said, I guess we are done with that. Now, my sister-in-law, Jill, suggested that maybe one reason he isn't napping so well is because he is ready for one nap. "What the heck", I thought. Everything else is changing so I might as well change his nap schedule, too. My mom and I kept him up all day on Monday and then put him down around 1:00ish. He did pretty well, and he slept about 3 hours. I went to get Chad from work around 4:45 and asked him to take me to have sushi for my birthday dinner. What was I thinking?! Apparently, Brooks didn't know it was my birthday. Now, let me backtrack a minute. Brooks is always really well-behaved when we go out to eat. We feed him lots and lots of food, and he does pretty well 95% of the time. This happened to be the only time he has ever been so fussy that we ended up getting our food to go. It was awful! I was so embarrassed! As soon as we got home he was fine, of course, and he went to bed just fine. Here's the strange part about him going to bed...no paci. I put the paci in his mouth and he took it out and threw it on the ground. Instead, he put his silk blanket in his mouth and closed his eyes. I was nervous so I put the paci in his crib just in case. Now, this morning I was hopeful that this new one nap schedule would mean that B would sleep in a bit and then we'd have a marvelous day at the park and swimming in the lake. I didn't know that the work men were coming at 6:45am to start working on the lower level of the house we are renting. Are you kiddin' me? So, guess who was screaming at 6:45am? Not necessarily what I needed today. So, back to two naps today. We had to get out of the house for Brooks to nap this morning because it was so loud downstairs. It was an awful morning up until that point because he was so tired. I don't think he has caught up on sleep from the weekend, and the forces seem to be working against catching up on any sleep. He did sleep for about an hour as I sweat my tail off walking around the neighborhood. And now, Brooks is sleeping soundly in his crib...1 1/2 hours and counting. The work men left right as I put him down, so there is finally some peace and quiet around here.
To recap, Big Boy = Big Changes:
1. Louder screaming
2. Anything that hasn't happened before is totally possible with a one-year-old
3. No more breastfeeding
4. No more paci
5. One nap (maybe)

4th of July/Brooks' Birthday Bash/Homecoming

We had a little party this weekend, and went ahead and combined some celebrations. But of course, Brooks was the main event. We had lots of family and friends out to the house. It was a hot, HOT day, but we survived. There were lots of babies for Brooks to play with and lots of people to gush all over him - talk about being spoiled! Brooks got lots of great gifts and ate some yummy cake.





That is not dirt, it is cake. After he actually ate half the cake, we took it away and then he just started playing with the icing that was left on his hands. He loved it!

Summer Fun

Watermelon, swim lessons, arctic table, and just being silly around the house. We have been so busy having fun in Lakeway...the summer is flying by!







This is his new thing. I'll say, "Brooks, can you be silly?" and then he'll use his hand on his mouth to make silly sounds. And sometimes he'll just do it all day just for fun. It keeps me smiling.

1 year stats

Brooks had his one year well check today. Since we moved, we obviously saw a new doctor today. And the doctor that is usually there was on vacation, which means next time we'll probably meet another new doctor. But we might be switching insurance companies, so that might also lead us to meet yet another new doctor. wow.
Brooks looked great and right on track. He weighed in right at 20lbs (10-25%), 31 inches (75-90&) and his head was somewhere in the 10-25% range. All that means is that he is longer and still skinny with a slighter larger head compared to our last visit. He is definitely growing. He had 4 pretty painful shots today. This nurse was not near as fast as poking him with the shots...it seemed to drag on forever. He definitely cried harder this time. And the poor kid was already a little grumpy because he was so hungry since we were in there for over an hour!! I took him to Chick-fil-a for lunch as a special treat, which just means that mommy is really the one who got the special treat. We shared.
Let's see...what is Brooks doing these days now that he is one...He totally knows how to say please. It just clicked the other day and now he says it all the time. I try to get him to say it before I give him food or something to drink. But Brooks does it all day to try and get things. He says please when we're doing something that he doesn't like; like changing his diaper or putting him in the carseat. He said please alot today in the doctor's office.
He is "swimming" like a champ. He absolutely LOVES swim class.
He is labeling things. He points to dogs a mile away, "duh", he'll say. He also happens to think that any animal that has four legs might be a dog...squirrel or deer. My favorite is that we have this cow in our kitchen that he has recently noticed. He'll point and say, "duh". And I'll say, "No, Brooks. Cow. COW. C-O-W. Moooooooo." It's located way up high, so he'll go below it and reach up as high as he can (not even getting close to the cow), and he'll point and he's starting to say, "mmm". That's pretty cute.
He doesn't say a lot, other than babble, but he knows things. You can ask him to find things like fan, mom, dad, or ball, and he usually points and says some kind of sound like he's telling you about it. He loves to talk.
He still loves books. I think books could keep him entertained all day. Sometimes I have to hide the books during nap time because otherwise he'll stare at them and not go to sleep.
Here's a recent picture of my little man. I think it's my new favorite. It only took me about 30 shots to get this one. I think I might have to frame it. (Although I just realized that it looks like he has boogers, but really it's just dirt. He was filthy that day. It's still my favorite.)

So, now Brooks is just one and two days...not as exciting. But it's still weird to tell people that he's one. One seems so much bigger than 11 months.

Brooks' Birthday

We had a great day! Brooks and I went for a walk in the morning to the little park down the street. It's fun to explore the neighborhood. We hung out at the house for a bit and then ran some errands: I signed him up for swim lessons and picked up some cupcakes. Brooks decided that since it was his birthday, that an afternoon nap wasn't all that important. So, after sleeping for only 45 minutes or so, we picked up daddy from work. We had to rush home, eat dinner, and get ready for swim lessons. There were only 2 other kids in Brooks' swim class, and he is the youngest. He was SO happy to be in the water. He loved "jumping" off the side and sticking his face in the water to try and blow bubbles. He splashed and talked and smiled the whole time.



After swimming, we came home and opened some cards and presents (is it so bad that we didn't get Brooks anything?).
THEN came the best part of the night...THE CUPCAKE!!! At first Brooks wasn't sure what to do, but once he figured out that it was food, he dug right in. He ate it all up!






So, now my little baby is a big boy and as cute as ever. This has been such a fun first year with Brooks, and I am looking forward to this next year and all the new things he will learn.

Happy Birthday Brooks!

On June 23, 2008 at 12:39am, Brooks Bryan Hoffman entered this world...

...weighing just 4lbs 15oz and 18 inches long.

And now a year has gone by...


(Let me preface this by saying that today Brooks started saying please all by himself. I've only been working on it for 3 months now.) While taking this picture I was saying, "CHEESE! Brooks, say CHEESE!" And he starting saying please...so cute!

What were you doing a year ago?

A year ago...right now...I was laying in a bed at St. Joseph's hospital. By this time almost 24 hours had already gone by since the initial "induction". Nothing was happening. No dilation. No progress. Baby's heart rate dropping.
About this time I think the doctor was coming in and talking to us about our options. She recommended a c-section since Brooks was experiencing stress and I was still only dilated to a 1. She left and Chad and I talked and prayed for a minute...it didn't take long to make a decision.






But the best part didn't come until 12:39am on June 23, 2008...