Our Damon is one year old! He’s a delight. Full of smiles and energy. For the longest time he was a totally chill baby, but not anymore. He still has a pretty chill disposition, but he’s found his voice and likes to jabber away, sometimes at the top of his lungs, and he’s always on the move. He does sit still sometimes, to investigate a toy for example, but mostly he wants to keep on moving. At this point, he can keep himself amused for a long time if there are toys around. He does like to take hug breaks pretty frequently though, where he’ll crawl into your lap and give a quick hug, then just as quickly he’s off playing again. It’s kind of like a little check-in. I like it. One of the nicest things about Damon though is how excited he gets when you pick him up. He literally trembles all over. Or if you’re holding him and Riley runs up (for example), he’ll scream and tremble and shake his hands in the air. He definetly knows how to get excited.

Anyone who has visited our house knows there is no shortage of toys, yet somehow Damon’s favorite things to crawl around with are spatulas and toothbrushes. One particular favorite is a blue and purple Dora the explorer tootbrush he got as a hand-me-down from Riley. If he sees us brushing our teeth he will literally go crazy until he gets a toothbrush to chew on as well. I would say it bodes well for his dental hygiene, but given his habit of chewing on the toothbrush, then crawling around with it in his hand, dragging on the floor, I’m not sure there’s really any “hygiene” to speak of.

[Still loves to swing]

A few weeks ago I had a classic working mom episode (or maybe this happens to all moms?). I had a tough week with Damon. We had travled a bit and I was having trouble getting him to eat and nurse and nap, and I felt like I was always making him cry. When we came home I had a couple busy days at work, and by the end of the week I had convinced myself that Damon didn’t like me. We have a wonderful nanny, Yolly, and I told myself, how could I possibly compete with her? She’s been taking care of babies for 20 years, she’s a professional for god’s sake! My dad was visiting at the time. I came home from work early one day, and in response to a simple, “How was your day?” i burst into tears about being a bad mother and Damon not liking me. He just laughed. Then apologized for laughing. Then laughed again. After a while he managed to convince me I was being ridiculous, and he remined me that we had almost the same conversation long ago about Riley when she was this age. That night I ended up being home alone with the kids and had a great night with them, a perfect night really. Nights like that make me feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

[Dinner with Dad]

I do have to admit that I am pretty clearly not number one in Damon’s world though… that position is definitely Sage’s. But I’m a pretty close #2, and I have to say, being second best after an awesome Dad is not so bad.

What else to report about our little guy… Well he’s definitly a good eater (and actually not really a ‘little guy’ as a result). Last summer we traveled with friends of ours, Michael and Jewelin, and we were really impressed by how they could just feed thier daughter (who was maybe 15 months at the time) from their plates, whatever they happened to be eating. So when Damon started taking solid food, we let him sample whatever we happened to be eating… which of course meant he quickly lost interest in the little bottles of baby food. He’ll eat anything… hummus, chicken tikka masala, spinach lasagna, spicy almond noodles… there’s almost nothing he’ll refuse. Except cold straight-from-the-refrigerator food, he doesn’t like that.

A few months ago, when Damon started consistently sleeping though the night, we moved him into Riley’s room. So far it’s worked out really well. Sometimes he’ll wake up and cry for a little bit at night, but most of the time Riley sleeps right through it. We taught her to just come in to our room if he wakes her up. Mostly they both sleep really well though. Damon wakes up some time between 6-6:30, then typically Riley comes to sleep in our room while I nurse Damon in their room. Sage and I switch off days sleeping in…

I went back to read the blog from when Riley turned one, and am kind of amazed at how different the kids seem already. Damon gave up the pacifier months ago. He also started drinking cow milk just recently with no problem, and doesn’t seem to notice the sudden lack of bottles. With Riley this all seemed like a BIG DEAL. The weaning process still feels like a big deal though. I’m down to twice a day (morning and night of course). My pump parts have been slowly falling apart, and a few days ago my last breast shield sprung a leak… so I decided it was time to retire medela. God I hate pumping. But nursing is nice. In the morning, Damon nurses and somehow simultaneously smiles at me and it’s just amazingly cute. In the evening he snuggles in and nurses to sleep. This week I’m planning to stop… I’m sure it will be no big deal… but I am a little sad to lose that connection. It’s a very familiar feeling from 4 years ago with Riley. I’ve learned from watching my friends though that the longer you wait, the harder it is to wean, so this is the week to do it.

[Gardening... Damon loves to play with dirt... and sometimes eat it]

[Damon drives the Tesla]

[Finger painting]

Tomorrow is Damon’s birthday and we have some big festivities planned… We took Riley to a toy store to pick out some presents for Damon, and baked him blueberry muffins. We have a birthday table all planned out for him even. Good times… I hope he enjoys it!

(As I am about to write the 1 year post for Damon I realized we never actually posted this entry… oopsie)

Damon learned to crawl when we was about 9 months old. It’s funny watching this video now, he’s gotten so much faster over the last few months.

Not a very tricky question, especially after seeing the pictures below. She’s really into layering. I almost always think her layers should be opposite of what they are before she puts them on, but then she ends up being right… I guess she has more fashion sense then me (which isn’t really saying much).

Here are a few of my favorite creations:

[I couldn't get her to stand still for a picture]

(We’ve been reading a lot of Winnie-the-Pooh recently, and even watching the movies, and when they go on an expedition they call it an “expotition.” When Riley heard she was going to be in an “exposition” she immediately wanted to call it a “expotition” instead… I thought it was funny so the name stuck!)

After the ballet disaster, we decided to try gymnastics (which I was secretly rooting for all along). Two of her boy friends Leo and Noah were in a class that they liked, so we decided to have Riley join them even though they are younger. It’s a class with parent participation, so we figured it would work out well for her. She LOVED it. The teacher suggested we move her to the non-parent-particpation older kids class, but that didn’t work out so well, so we end up taking her twice a week to a transition class with kids her age where the parents are allowed to kind of hang around. As the weeks went by, she needed us less and less, and her confidence even outside of class seemed to grow. Her daycare teacher noticed it as well. Anyone who knows Riley knows she can be very very shy, almost paralyzingly so, but when she warms up she does great. Well, somehow the gymnastics class seems to be helping her move past that. Now she’s back in the no-parents class and she seems to be thriving just fine with us staying on the sidelines.

Recently the gymnastics center had an exposition for all the kids to perform and show what they’ve learned. We signed Riley up, not really knowing how it would work out, but thinking it would be fun. It couldn’t have been more of a success. When we arrived there were kids running around everywhere, and Riley was supposed to go upstairs with one of the older kids while we went to sit down. That obviously didn’t happen, but they let me stay with her. The parents were all sitting in chairs by the floor, and there was an announcer with a microphone and loud music and the kids were supposed to rotate between an obstacle course on the floor, balance beam, and the bars. With all the people and noise and commotion, Riley panicked and wouldn’t go out on the floor. In the last minute, the announcer let me walk out with her. Once she started though, she didn’t even look back, and I went and sat in the audience.

She looks so serious! She barely cracked a smile the whole time. You could tell she was having fun though because she had a hard time standing still… she kept bouncing around and skipping from place to place.

My Dad took a bunch of videos…

The last video is Riley accepting her award (every kid got one of course). I was definitely that dorky mom sitting on the edge of my seat taking a million pictures and beaming. I’m just so proud of her! She says her favorite part was watching the older kids do a tumbling routine at the end.

Anyway, now we know that gymnastics can be a huge help for shyness. She’s already asking when the next show will be…

Back in January we started talking to some of Riley’s friends about doing a dance class or a gymnastics class. The mothers of two of her girl friends wanted to try ballet. Riley and I went to a dance supply store with Sofit and her mother and the girls went crazy running around in their new pink leotards and skirts and ballet shoes. Seemed like a good sign. Unfortunately, when we showed up for the class the next day Riley refused to participate. I think if the teacher had let me stand in the room with them for a little while she would have been okay… but ballet involves strict rules, which include no parents in the class room, you have to watch through the window. So we watched Sofit and Nusia dance until about half way through when Nusia ran out crying and refused to participate further. So Riley and Nusia stood at the window and watched. If nothing else, it made for a good photo op. Needless to say, that was the end of ballet class…

But! A few weeks later Nusia had a birthday party that was dance themed and Riley had a BLAST! It was in a little open dance studio (no observation window) and the teacher was really friendly and fun. Much much better…

This was taken just before heading off to the party…

We’ve been trying to get out and go walking more often…

Riley will often through a huge fit saying she doesn’t want to go, but then invariably she has a great time. Especially if we find her a walking stick and go adventuring off the main path.

[Sharing a walking stick with grandad]

This video is from back in february when Damon was about 8 months old, but he still loves playing with sticks. We figure giving him really long ones isn’t really that dangerous because he can’t actually poke himself… it’s a little treacherous for whomever is carrying him or walking by though…

Damon is 9 months old!! Time flies. He’s a total sweetie pie. Very happy and easy going, and still a good sleeper (thank god). I think he is becoming the victim of second-baby-syndrome (i.e. we’re not keeping up with the photographs and blog posts like we did for Riley), and we’ve gotten lazy and are mostly using our phones to take pictures… the upside is more cute spontaneous shots… the downside is the quality is pretty crappy in comparison.

Anyway. Damon has just started crawling! It’s a whole new world. He’s not too quick yet, but he’s already getting into things he shouldn’t (like pulling on wires and trying to grab things off tables over his head) so we need to think about baby-proofing a bit more. Like Riley, he much prefers walking holding our hands to crawling. He’s actually pretty quick! In the evening after dinner we go walking in the neighborhood. There’s a cute video of Damon walking holding my hand on one side and Riley’s hand on the other side.

He’s getting super chatty, but no definitive words yet. We’re letting him eat just about everything now… like his sister he’s a big pasta fan. We’ve started feeding him bits of whatever we’re eating in hopes that he won’t end up picky like Riley. So far he likes pretty much everything we put in front of him. Every weekend for the last year or so we’ve gone out for sushi at a restaurant down the street from our house (walking distance). Riley loves it because she can order edamame, plain tofu, rice and milk (same thing every time). For a brief period we could take Damon and he would fall asleep on the way there and stay asleep while we ate, but that doesn’t work anymore. We thought about giving up the tradition, but instead decided we’d just be the first ones there (we’re talking 5:30) and feed Damon at the restaurant. It was a little hectic the first few times, but now it’s actually pretty smooth. Like his sister, Damon eats tofu and rice, and chews on the edamame shells (and eats whatever else we remember to bring for him). It’s kind of a fancy restaurant, and we do make a bit of a mess, but they seem to like us anyway… I guess that’s the bonus of being a regular!

With day light savings it’s really light outside after dinner (especially since we’re usually done with dinner by 6:30 latest… that’s what happens when you have 2 kids!) so we’ve been hanging out in the yard more. Damon LOVES to be outside. He pretty much wants to be outside all the time, and actually will cry sometimes when you try to bring him back in.

[Hanging out in the front yard]

His doting big sister still likes to give him lots of big, tight hugs all the time, which is very sweet, except it turns out babies don’t really like big, tight hugs. This is hard for Riley to understand (since there’s not much she likes more than a big, tight hug), but she’s getting better.

As always, Damon loves to swing. Yolly, his babysitter, takes him to the park everyday and sometimes sends me pictures to my phone. She’s amazing, we are very very lucky.

[Damon and his buddy Max in the swing together]

I think I’ve mentioned previously that Damon loves the water, and it’s still true. On the weekends when it’s warm enough we take him to the pool and he has a blast. He doesn’t mind going under water and loves to splash around, it’s pretty cute.

Just some random pictures to end on:

[Damon and his buddy Maddox playing with princesses and a pink cellphone]

[Both kids passed out asleep in the car (it's a beautiful thing)]

Sage and Riley and Stella the bear…

(This is an old post that for some reason stayed in draft status and never got published, oops)

In the car on the way home from daycare the other day I asked Riley what her favorite song is. She seemed to like thinking about it, so we went for second favorite then third… She would close her eyes and say “I’m looking at all my songs and trying to choose” and wave her fingers around in the air, them suddenly open her eyes and burst into song. Pretty awesome. Here’s her list:

1. The Aisha song (a really sad song from a story about a little girl who learns how to be happy again after her mother dies. Riley is obsessed with the story and the song)

2. Puff the magic dragon (she still listens to this on repeat sometimes while falling asleep)

3. All the Curious George songs (from the movie soundtrack, see previous post)

4. Twinkle twinkle little star (a classic)

5. Abcd’s

6. The elephant marching song from the jungle book

7. Bare necessities (jungle book)

8. King Louie’s song, I wanna be like you (from the jungle book. King Louie is a jazz singing orangatan)

9. Ka’s song, trust in me. (continuing in the Jungle Book theme)

10. The vultures song, we’re your friend. (JB)

11. “The song at the end of the movie with the girl in the pink dress” (JB)

Yes, she loves the jungle book. LOVES it. I have to say of all the Disney movies I’ve seen, it’s certainly the least offensive, and the music is pretty good. Since we don’t let her actually watch the movie that often, we end up listening to the soundtrack a lot… and the songs seem to be in all our heads even when not listening to the soundtrack,