One Year Photo Shoot

As we are all aware, I post nothing of interest on here except a million pictures of my kid.  I'm cool with it if you are.  We got his pictures taken for his birthday and I am obsessed with them.  I am also obsessed with the photographers.  We got them done at Fotofly in Draper.  They have the best setup, they were super cheap, like crazily cheap, and I loved all the pictures.  

We got them taken the Monday after his birthday, which also happened to be the day after Atticus slammed his face on the coffee table.  You can see his bruised lip in only a couple of the pictures and his puffy eye had mostly gone down by his appointment as well.  He was very happy that day.  Not that you can tell in any of his pictures.  When it came to those, he was a very serious man.  Literally the photographer was doing all she could to make him smile, she'd tickle him and use squeaky balls and what not.  He wouldn't break a smile.  He wouldn't even move except to follow whatever toy she was holding with his eyes.  My mother, who was an amazing help that day, (except when she dumped pureed plums on him right as we pulled up to the studio...  It's alright, it came right off.) thought this was especially hysterical.  Every single picture was great.  I bought tons of prints (at 4 bucks a sheet I couldn't help it) even though the insanely inexpensive price I'd paid included the copyright cd.  And now don't know what to do with them all.  But you get to look at them.

Serious Kid.

I was tickling his feet to get the smile.  Had to have one with lamby. 

 You can barely see his lip bruise in the corner.

These ones he was crawling toward the photographer and would always start smiling and laughing right when he moved out of the range of her lighting.  He would also smile as soon as she'd put the camera down.

This is one she was pulling out all the stops for a smile and this is how he looked at her. 

 These two he was looking at me and playing.

I made him this doofy little outfit and I love it.  And yes, he is that skinny.  Second percentile after all.

 Pout.

 I think this is a cool effect.

Props to my mom on this one.  She was sitting over to the side while the photographer was taking the picture above and he was peeking at her like this.  So my mom had the photographer come over.  I think it's perfect. 

He mostly just liked to paint with the frosting. 

 This one doesn't look anything like him but I think his expression is so funny.

 Still serious.  Even with a faceful of sugar

 Painting the floor.  The people at the studio wouldn't hear of my mom cleaning it up (I was in the bathroom cleaning him up) afterward.  They did it all themselves.

 Love it.

In case you hadn't yet picked up on it, I loved these pictures and I will definitely be going back to Fotofly.  Maybe next time he'll be slightly more amused.

Happy Birthday!

Atticus had a birthday.  Love the kid.  He and I were up before seven and hung out together then we finally went and woke up his daddy so he could open his presents.  It was a pretty low key day.  We just played and loved on Atticus.  We went out to dinner that night at Olive Garden and Atticus couldn't get enough of my frozen raspberry lemonade.  He's like his grandmother that way...  And then so sweetly, someone anonymously picked up our tab.  Warm fuzzies. 

We threw him a party the next night at my parent's house.  I wasn't one of those trending crazy moms who go insane over a birthday party for a one year old.  We did it at my parent's so that everyone wouldn't have to trek up here.  Atticus had both sets of grandparents there as well as Grandma and Grandpa Great, Granny and Jenny, and Grandma Stella and Alvin.  My sister Stefanie and her five youngest kids came, Dan's sister Natalie and her family came.  Plus there was Sheri, Sam, and Jimmy.  

The kid had fun and now has more toys than I think I may have ever owned.  He definitely has more cute outfits than me.  He got to stay up way passed his bed time and the sleepier he gets toward bedtime, the more hyper he gets.  On top of that, Granny would not stop feeding him ice cream.  So the kid was wired.  Then to end the night and get rid of all his guests, Atticus attempted to steal some more cake from the coffee table and instead slipped and slammed his mouth and then his eye into the coffee table.  Over-tired/stimulated, sugared-up, baby with a bleeding mouth, produces a lot of screaming.  He screamed until everyone left and then he fell to sleep.  He woke up the next morning with a bruised lip and one eye puffy, but he was happy as could be.

Loving some presents

 So thrilled about clothes

Okay, I love this lawnmower we got him.

He was checking out the balls popping as he pushed. 

Oh, and apparently my kid never wears pants.

 Playing with the gadgets.

He refuses to actually walked with it.  He'll push it on his knees. 

 I love this picture.  Again, not dressed.

 Opening presents at his party

 Love his face.

 His Jenny card

 He's out of focus but I love the way he's looking at his dad.

Cake!

Granny shoveling ice cream in his mouth.

He loves when his cute cousin Eli dances for him

 Showing off his age. 

Tate trying to get him to cooperate and play with his toys. 

 Cute kid.

He adores his baby cousin Lydia. 

 This is what getting some kids to cooperate looks like.

 Playing on Grandpa's tractor the next day.

1 Year Old!

So Atticus turned one.  He's adorable and more fun every day.  He's very happy and super active.  But he is also very attentive and he likes to sit and study anything interesting or new.  He's always been very alert.  We've gotten all sorts of comments from people about it since the day he was born.  I call him my studious boy and I'm always asking him what he's working on or figuring out.  My dad and I teased recently that he definitely does not have ADD.

He's sweet and loves to cuddle.  He loves to climb up on us and lay his face on our faces.  Often this is accompanied by a squeeze, pats, and him saying "Ahh".  He also loves to cuddle with with his stuffed animals or anything soft really.  I found him the other day squeezing and saying "Ahh" to a fur-trimmed hood zipped off a vest.  His two favorite things to cuddle right now are his lion and his Yankee Blankie.

He no longer does after bath cuddles with me like he used to.  After he gets out he'll let me hold him while I read him a story.  As soon as I say "the end" he fights his way out of the towel and onto the seat behind me buck-naked to cuddle with his Yankee Blankie.  He hugs it and burrows into it and kisses it and hides behind it.  Squealing with happiness the entire time while I try to lotion and dress him.  Then we read another story and go say goodnight to daddy.  He goes down to bed like a champ.  Once he's said goodnight to his daddy I can't even get through a verse of a song before he wants me to put him down and then he's down until morning.

Some not so cute things are his screams, hits, and pinches when told no.  He's done it less more recently but he's just frustrated and will even hit himself if there's not anything closer to hit.  Other times when we tell him not to do something, like push buttons on the printer or go up the stairs, he'll shake his head no and then sneak a bit at a time toward it, or check to see if we're not looking and then bolt.

He loves the stairs.  We go up and down all day.  And there are many fits that stem from not being allowed to play on the stairs.  He also has a weird obsession with the microwave.  He points to it from clear across the room and even found one at a house we were at the other day and got excited.  He also has learned to push the buttons on my front-loading washer.  Gone are the days that I can let him watch the washer go while I get some things done.  He has too often cancelled the load halfway through.  He can also get down from any chair, bench etc the same way he goes down stairs.

He finally learned to shake his head yes and thinks it's hilarious.  He knows it goes hand in hand with shaking his head no, but I'm not entirely convinced he understands its meaning.

He loves to jump in his jumper or while I hold his hands.  He still dances to everything.  The best is when he's standing and bounces on his knees.  But really, he dances to everything.  The dryer, dishwasher, humming, clapping, the slowest hymns at church, anything.  He also loves to be outside.  He's figured out where our front door is and cries anytime he sees it and we don't go out.  Being outside will cause him to not care about eating either.

He still only says mom and dad.  Though dad has changed to mostly "Da" and mom is no longer bum.  Mom has become more of a "bla-bla" which pretty much only I recognize as a word when he says it.  He often also attempts to yell "Jerry!" in a growly voice out the window.  Some Seinfeldish thing his dad taught him. He loves to babble at us and I always wonder what he's telling me.

He's too fast of a crawler to be bothered with learning to walk or even stand on his own.  As of his first birthday, he had three teeth.  Though a fourth (on the top) finally popped through 2 days after his birthday.  Also as of his first birthday, I'm done nursing him, he's completely on regular milk and we got rid of all our binkies and bottles.  Which went without notice on his part.


Since his birthday he's become an expert mimicker.  He loves to mimic all our actions, and tones of voice.  He's learned to do "So big!", he can tell you what a bunny and a fish say, and we're working on lion.  He's discovered the swings and goes down the slide all by himself.

Oh and my most favorite thing he does is bring me books for me to read to him.  He'll be busy playing with a car (obsessed) or his Batcave, then he'll spot one and immediately bring it to me and say "Uh" until I pick him up and read it to him.

My tiny kid's one year stats:
Head Circumference: 17.9 inches--24th percentile
Height: 28 3/4 inches--17th percentile.  Way down from his last check in the 48th percentile.  He's only grown a quarter of an inch since his early January appointment.
Weight: 18 lbs 4 oz--2nd percentile.  Same % as he was last time.
The doctor's not worried about his weight as he's staying in his growth curve and the kid eats so much.  He's just super active.  The doctor said it was odd that his height keeps jumping around but wasn't too concerned.  Neither Dan nor I are short people so I figure he'll shoot up at some point.

49 Weeks-So sick of lamby pictures

 50 Weeks

 51 Weeks

He's got soul

 Silly kid

Tongue always out. 

 Love him

Loves Yankee Blankie-Can you see Atticus? 

 Cuddles

Snuggling daddy 

Grover snuggling daddy

Bedtime stories 

A favorite place to play 

 Loves my camera

First cowboy soup 

Tasty 

He thought this was the greatest thing ever 

Puffy eye and fat lip the morning after my parent's coffee table beat him up. 

Yelling "Jerry" out the window.