Kingston: 1 Year

Okay, so I know I promised party posts, but I can't just bypass the biggest monthly milestone ever! I need to share what Kingston has accomplished this past month. There is so many exciting things that it definitely warrants a post!

12 Month Stats: 

Height and Weight - 22 lbs and 30 inches!
Clothing size - 12-18 months fits him pretty great and he is also wearing 18 months, but I have to cuff his pants. I love him in cuffed pants though!
Shoe Size - 4
Teeth - 4! He got his two top teeth this month. They weren't much worse than the bottom two, but he was a bit of a crank. 
Favorite Song - Old McDonald (always) and ABCs
Favorite Book - Anything Mickey much to my disdain. I despise books about characters. He has also been really into Penguins ABC. 
Favorite Toy - He is OBSESSED with his Little Tikes Cozy Truck and any other truck or car for that matter!

Favorite Activities - Riding in his truck, bouncing on his bouncy horse, reading books, walking, and giving hugs!

Favorite Food - Cheese, pasta, pineapple, watermelon

For our events this month, Kingston went to a couple of birthday parties - his girlfriend Olivia turned 1 and his buddy Chloe turned 3! He had a ton of fun playing at both parties. He started going to toddler storytime instead of infant storytime. This storytime is much more interactive with a lot of singing, dancing, and instrument playing and is an hour long instead of 20 minutes or so. We have connected with a lot of new friends there! Kingston went to gym class a billion more times and loves it, and he also went to another Home Depot Workshop with Daddy. They made a football ring toss game (it's kind of lame), but they had fun! A big thing that happened this month was that I left Kingston for the first time in his entire life to attend my sister's bachelorette party overnight. K stayed with Daddy and I pumped a billion ounces of milk for him. He did really well. I missed him like crazy of course and couldn't wait to wrap him in my arms when I came home! BUT the biggest event out of all was little buddy's birthday and birthday party of course!! For his actual birthday Saturday the 21st, we took Kingston to the aquarium. He loved it! He was in love with the penguins, captivated by the giant ocean tank, and amused by the sea lions. It was a very fun family day! Then he had his party the next day, which I will be talking about so much in the next few posts that you will be SICK of it. :) It was a seriously amazing weekend. It couldn't have gone any better than it did!

As usual, Kingston's communication skills have improved insanely over this past month. I can now honestly say that K tells me what he wants about 85% of the time. In the past month, he has learned to sign milk, eat, sleep, and "I love you", along with the signs he already knew. He tells me exactly what he wants when he wants it, and it makes things so much easier! This sign language this is pretty amazing. He tells me when he wants to nurse, when he is hungry, when he is tired, etc. Not to mention that his signs are the cutest thing ever. When he signs his version of "I love you" I just about melt into a puddle on the floor! He can point almost every toy he owns, is starting to pick up on his colors a little bit, and can point to some of his body parts and the people around him. When you say "PEW!", he grabs his nose and pinches it while laughing. Adorable! I always tell the story that Kingston has said "Mama" since birth. He used to cry my name when he was a newborn, he started saying the sound of Mama super early, and he said it in context ridiculously early too. Now, my big toddler boy calls to me questioningly "Mama?" The voice he uses when he says it is so clear and precise. He knows who he wants and he is calling for me. It is precious. He wakes up from his naps now and stands up calling "Mama?" He knows that I am on the other side of the baby monitor too because he will go up to it and call "Mama?" If I don't answer, sometimes he says "Dada?" It's the sweetest thing. When we are in the car, he will say "Mama. Mama. Ma. Mama. Ma. Mama." When I asked him "What baby?" He says, "Hi!" or he laughs, much like Stewie from Family Guy! He says a large amount of words regularly: mama, dada, auntie, adah (Glam*Ma), ball, puppup, bubble, more, this, wow, and rawr (everytime he sees a lion or bear). He also says a few other words infrequently: banana, water, etc. My favorite word he says his balloon. It sounds more like "Bablahblah" .. but he will specifically point to the balloon and he only says that when he is in the presence of a balloon. I love it! He loves balloons so much. 

We found out this month that Kingston is allergic to strawberries. I gave him strawberries for the first time this month. He had them every day or so for about a week. During that time, he broke out in three red hives on his forehead. They stayed for the entire week, and I assumed they were bug bites. Once the strawberries ran out, I stopped giving them to him. The hives went away. At the time, I didn't put two and two together. When we gave him strawberries again a week or so later, he immediately broke out in another couple hives near the same spot. That's when I realized that it must be an allergy. Then, at a birthday party this month he had a piece of pineapple that had been touching a strawberry in an arrangement and had a little bit of strawberry juice on it. He immediately broke out in a small hive on his forehead. So, no strawberries for this boy for awhile. He can eat strawberry flavored things with no problem such as puffs or cereal, but we will hold off on the actual berries for awhile!! 

Remember how Kingston's sleeping was amazing last month? Well, this month it sucked. Between cutting his two top teeth, congestion, and a handful of other things, he has been getting up multiple times a night and super early in the morning. I am considering trying a super gentle form of sleep training - either the No Cry Sleep Solution or just a very drawn out method of teaching him to fall asleep on his own. He hardly ever puts himself back to sleep. It is very rare. I really want him to learn how to. Until then though, I will be up snuggling, rocking, and nursing him. Most nights I don't mind it one bit. It is the nights that I am up for an hour rocking him only to have him wake up an hour later that I am not the most thrilled!

Speaking of nursing, we are still going strong! I'm so psyched to have made it to a year of nursing. He has barely even had any bottles of breastmilk in that entire year .. probably just ten or so if you don't count the trip I just took. It is definitely huge to me to reach that big milestone, but we aren't stopping just because he is one. We will continue nursing until we decide he is ready to stop! He is still my baby and breastmilk is the best thing he can possibly have. We won't be introducing cows milk for quite awhile. 

The biggest news of all this month is probably the biggest news ever! Kingston took his first STEPS!!! The day after his birthday party, September 23, K walked! It was so momentous. Todd and I both got to witness his first steps together and we got a great video of him walking to me. Since then, he has taken 3-4 steps a few times a day each day. He is getting more and more stable on his feet. I have a feeling that he will be actually walking by 13 months! :) 

This upcoming month is another big one for our family! My sister is getting married to the love of her life, and we are so excited to celebrate them. Kingston will be the ring bearer, I am the matron of honor, and Todd is one of the groomsmen!  Also, Kingston will celebrate Halloween and dress up and go trick or treating for the first time. We have a couple Halloween parties and events to attend. It should be another super fun month!