Brian's 1 year and 2 months report.

   At one year and two months, Brian is a very happy, active, serious, yet foolish, well-coordinated little boy.

   He enjoys sitting on his little couch, flipping through his little books; pushing his cars around the house; and watching Kiddie Viddies. He loves helping me with different chores around the house, and especially enjoys dusting his book shelf and wiping up spills. He loves his bath time and water play. He also still loves dancing to music with a good beat and loves to play his musical instruments.

   He’s finally getting the hang of drinking from a bottle. Before, he’d just shake the water out, or suck up water and spit it out. Now he’ll actually drink it, most likely because he’s thirstier. I give him water, watered down apple juice, or vegetable juice.

   I still nurse him on demand whenever he’s hungry, thirsty, or needs comfort. He doesn’t eat much solid foods, but occasionally he’ll treat himself to a large portion of fruits or other tasty treats.

   I’m hoping to get my drivers license soon, so I’ll have to start working on lessening the time on the breast, and spend more time feeding him solids.

   He loves driving with Daddy in his car seat, which he’s very possessive over. When Josh puts his hand on the seat, Brian will move Josh’s hand away. He has no problem with saying “Good bye” to me if he’s going driving with Daddy.

   He recently discovered how to climb onto things, so, once again, I have to child proof different areas of the house. He even drags the couch or sink stool to different places so he can stand on it and reach higher. Dangerous!

   Mid July he was run down and had a continuous cold and cough. He then suddenly had a strange swollen (left) foot and a few bright red spots on his elbows and a few on his legs. He couldn’t walk or crawl the first day because of his swollen painful foot. I took him to the hospital and they couldn’t figure out what it was. I, personally, thought it was some sort of bug bite. The doctor tested his blood and urine and both were fine. Poor Brian remembered the painful experience even three days afterwards when we entered the hospital again. He didn’t want to be touched by the doctor and felt very uncomfortable being there. Bad first time at the hospital!

   During all of this, I had my first breast infection. I believe it was because I fed him tons of juice and water in the hospital to try and get him to urine normally so they wouldn’t have to put a tube up his penis. Sadly, it didn’t work, and Brian cried like a newborn baby while I sat in the waiting room praying. That night my breast was swollen, and the next day I had a terribly painful breast infection. Ouch!

   On to a happier topic: Brian does a lot of baby talk. First thing he does when he wakes up is talk, and the last thing he does before he falls asleep is…well, talk. He may learn to talk quickly, and once he learns to talk, I fear there’s no stopping him! I’ll be struggling to keep him quiet! Ha!

   His first words are “Mama” and “Up” (used after a diaper change and he wants to be pulled up). Next he started saying “Please”, “Boobie” (for nurse), and “Dada”. While watching a Baby Einstein video, he pointed and said “baby”. He did this again at another time for “hippo”. He says the words very clearly as if he’s been saying it for months.

   He can also say “Mary” and “Me” (as he points to himself). His baby gibberish is so adorable! I’ve been trying to capture it on camera, but I haven’t been able to. I hope I can before he learns more and more words, and speaks less and less baby gibberish. 

   He understands a lot more than what I expect him to understand. He obeys simple commands, for example, “Gomi shite. Throw in gomi”, “Mama ni dozo. Give to Mommy (or some other person)”. “Pe shite. Spit it out!” etc. These are just a few that I use often.

   Out of habit, I say things in both English and Japanese for him to learn. I’ve seen the benefits to this, as he understands when either an English or Japanese person is speaking to him.

   I noticed that recently he’s gotten shy and doesn’t obey simple commands in front of new people. Before, if I told him to say “Konichiwa”, or “Give a kiss” to someone, he’d do it willingly and with a smile. But now he’ll just stare at the person and disregard everything I’m saying. So, maybe he’s going through a little shy or insecure faze or something. I’m not sure.

   He naps once in the middle of the day around 12:30 or 1:00, and will sleep for a good 2 hours. If his nap is short, then he’ll get really tired around 5pm or 6pm. So, I do my best to keep him awake till around 7:30pm or 8pm, when he’ll actually go down for the night. If he ends up napping earlier than that, he’ll wake up in 30 to 40 minutes and will stay awake till 10pm or later which is too late for me.

   Sometimes, if he wakes up early or is extra tired or run down, I’ll give him two shorter naps: 12:00, and 3pm.

   And…that’s it for now. Tateyama is the happening place during summer vacation, and next week Gabe and Mia, Mike and Joanie, and maybe a few more friends will be dropping by! Yay! Beach and Barbeque!   

  

 Just a few photos from July...don't have time right now to pick out the good ones from different folders. 

  PS. If you want to see recent photos from a recent wedding, then look at my FB page. :)