Carson - 12 Months

This year has gone by so fast. It has brought many challenges, but with the challenges came much love.  A love so fierce that I can't imagine not ever knowing the feeling.  I understand all that is said about the bond between a mother and her child.  Carson, I love you so much honey.  Your daddy and I are enamored with your sweet little self.  Happy Birthday!

I cannot take credit for these photos.  His Aunt Gina took them and I am forever in her debt for capturing Carson at this age so perfectly.

Carson, you are no longer an infant.  You are a toddler!  And every day I see more and more "little boy" in your features.

You love all animals still, this past week you have even been making animal sounds.  Specifically for the tiger.  when I ask you what the tiger says, you growl.  It is so freaking adorable!

It has been amazing to watch you communicate this past week.  It was like a switch just was turned on while we were back at my parents for Thanksgiving.  You started pointing and making noises, letting us know what you wanted to eat, where you wanted to go, etc.

Your favorite foods are anything made with rice, but we limit that because of your eczema.  Next, you love apples, chicken, turkey, all natural french fries and sweet potatoes.  You are still a very picky eater although you started to try more things this past week, like bananas and peas, which I haven't been able to get you to eat previously.

Your allergies are still keeping us guessing.  Out of the blue you get this terrible red face and then have a meltdown, which we feel might be some kind of allergic reaction to something and benedryl seems to be the only thing that helps.

You have started to love reading books, and you definitely have your favorites!  You now pick out the books you want to read and bring them to us and if we are halfway through a book and you don't want to read it anymore, you jump off our laps and get a different book.

You are so close to sleeping through the night!  But alas, you still wake up around 4:30-5am to nurse and then go back to sleep.  I figure you must actually be hungry because we cannot break this feeding.

At your 12 month appointment, you had not gained any weight and had not grown a whole lot, which concerned your doctor a little bit.  This is also why mommy is not cutting out that feeding.  I have been instructed to either keep nursing you as much as I am, or supplement with formula since you cannot move onto milk due to your allergy.  You are 19.25 pounds and 29 inches tall.  But your head circumference is average!  And you are very smart and right on track/advanced development-wise so the doctor just wants to see if you gain any weight in the next three months.  You have had a lot of milestones this last three months and become so active.

You seem to be staying blonde haired and blue eyed.  Doesn't look like red hair is in your future.  Which is so funny because you daddy has red hair and so do your cousins.

Your favorite toys are balls, by far.  You LOVE them.  Whenever we drop you off at a church nursery, if you don't want to stay, we just tell the helper to get you a ball, then you are fine.

You know words now.  So much so that I have to spell certain words, like nurse and outside.  If you hear either of those you go crazy! And then you know tiger, puppy, elephant, ball, hungry, eat, apple, drink, bath, mom, and dad.  There might be a couple I am forgetting.

And speaking of outside and balls, soccer is in your future little man.  He already kicks balls around the house and he is only 1 year old!  We never taught him how to do that, he learned all on his own.

You are getting pretty good at walking, but you still aren't proficient from moving from a crawl or sit to a walk.  You have to pull up on something first.  Crawling (bear crawl) is still your preferred mode of transportation.

Mommy and Daddy had to set a rule of no screens for you because you are obsessed.

You love going outside.  You don't love having your shoes on, but you will allow them to be put on if you get to go outside.

You love older kids, like age 2-4.  You just follow them around and try to get them to interact with you.  You loved your cousin Sutton.

We are in the process of learning the word, No.  You are starting to get it but boy do you like to push the limits!!

You enjoy playing with other kids.  You do really well with a lot of kids around, I think all the activity keeps you a little distracted so you are not quite so mommy-focused. :-)

You love you daddy and you look for him now whenever you wake up from a bedtime or from a nap.  You don't quite understand yet when I say "daddy is bye-bye."

We love you buddy!  Happy first birthday, we are so excited you are our little boy.