COLLYN JAMES: He's 1!!!!!

Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet baby boy, Mr. Collyn James.

He is such a sweetheart. He has his ornery, stinker side, but he is Momma's little boy. He's my little cuddle bug. Updates and Birthday Party photos are here...

GROWTH: Collyn has his 1 year check-up on Wednesday, so we will see how he measures up then. He is long and skinny.

SLEEP: Ugh! What is it with the second child. I think he thinks if he doesn't sleep through the night we will never consider having a third baby. :) Since... well, forever, he has always woken up at 3:30 AM... ON THE DOT! No exceptions. I have been giving him a bottle and going back to bed. Lately, I have been trying to let him "cry it out". I hate it and never wanted to let my baby cry in bed, but he is 1 and shouldn't be getting up. Last night, he was up all night. We think he is teething. I didn't get any sleep. Err...

EATING: We were backwards for a while. For some reason, he started choking on anything that wasn't a puree, so I went back to strictly baby food for a couple weeks. Then, I added bananas and scrambled eggs into his diet. Now, we are back to eating pretty much anything. He doesn't have teeth yet (I'm hoping they will come soon... I want sleep) so eating is a little tricky still. I have to make sure it is soft foods that he is eating. He can handle cheese crackers because he can mush them. He is still on formula, because we still have it and we are transitioning to whole milk, slowly. We are also switching to a sippy cup which he fought, but he seems to like it now.

CLOTHING: 6-9 Month and 12 month

DIAPERS: Size 4

DEVELOPMENT: He is taking 5-6 steps on his own consistently. He can crawl faster, so he does that more to keep up with brother. He is saying more words Mama, Dada, Hannah, Papa, Bye-Bye. He is a climber. We can't walk, but man can this kid climb. I always have to watch him because he gets into everything and climbs everything. He is a master at climbing stairs on his hands and knees.

BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!

Collyn's birthday party was August 4th in our backyard. We did a huge blow-out party for everyone to meet him and see him before we move. We had a bounce house and a piñata. It was a great time.

The kids really enjoyed the bounce house!

We had about 20 little kids, 10 and under, in our backyard and there was about 40 people who came to celebrate Collyn's birthday! We are so blessed!

The kids loved the piñata. Smarty me added chocolate to the piñata in 95 degree weather. thank goodness it didn't melt too bad. We also gave the kids goodie bags with some candy, bubbles, glow-sticks and toys.

After the piñata, it was cake time. We had a cupcake cake and a smash cake for Collyn. Then, we bought an extra cake, just in case. We used that too. So, good thing we bought it. Collyn didn't dig in to the cake. He took one finger and ate the frosting nicely.

Collyn got lots and lots of presents. Thank goodness we had a yard sale and got rid of a ton of stuff. Because we got a ton more. :) Such great gifts! Everyone was so giving. He also got some money which we will be putting into a savings account when we move.

The rest of the night people talked and kids played. It was down into the 80's when the evening wore on. Perfect weather for a first birthday!