I continued to work summer school during some of these past four weeks and you can definitely tell B has gotten comfortable hanging with his daddy. They enjoy music time daily when Brian grabs his guitar and Breck finds his and sings along to the music. Everybody that sees those two together continues to comment how much they look like twins and now Brian's "mini me" has taken on some of his mannerisms too!
We have started to plan Breck's first birthday party - we are very excited about it! It will have a Mickey Mouse theme - of course - since this is Breck's absolute favorite thing. I have started trying out new cupcake recipes for the party and I think our friends and family who have been around the past few weeks have enjoyed the trials so far. As summer school wrapped up halfway through July, I have been able to enjoy tons of fun little outings with B as well. Of course, with this ridiculously hot summer, our options are rather limited. We have discovered Breck's love of people watching at the mall - perfect since it is air conditioned and has a cute little play place for kids. Breck had so much fun when we went there. I think he has missed his interaction with kids since being away from school this summer. He just sat and watched the kids around him having fun and smiled and giggled at them all. Eventually, he joined in the fun too!
As part of a mini-vacation (something to look forward to at the end of summer school), we went to San Antonio for an overnight stay. We shopped a little in San Marcos at the outlets, toured the Riverwalk and then enjoyed a full day at Sea World. Breck seemed to really enjoy seeing animals and water combined! I think his favorite part was the water park though. He played for the longest time and didn't want to leave at all. It was great because the little kid place had soft foam to crawl around on and tons of little toys to climb all over in the very shallow water. Breck got to feel independent without me worrying about him every second in the water. We have gotten into a routine in the evenings of going outside around 7pm and playing in his splash pool and on his swing set. We also have enjoyed an early birthday present from his Grandparents Boydstun in the form of a pirate ship water table. He loves that thing and plays for hours with it. It is at the perfect height so he holds onto it happily and splashes around with water and toys while we just hang out nearby and watch.
As far as mobility goes, we are still at the cruiser phase. He is more confident barely holding onto anything and has even stood by himself a couple of times before he realized he wasn't holding onto anything and squatted down. He has a little toy that pops up and looks kind of like a walker - he walks independently everywhere with that. With food he has definitely started to assert the fact he has favorites. He has moved away from the "try everything" phase and now wants chicken nuggets the most. He happily eats pizza and ravioli and mashed potatoes, bread and pancakes but just about anything else he will only pick at. We have tried yogurt with fruit add-ins and cottage cheese but neither are in his "must have" category. As we near his first birthday, we are slowly making the transition away from breastfeeding. It has been such a wonderful thing that I truly believe has been the best thing for Breck. It hasn't always been easy or convenient but knowing it was the best for him gave me the motivation to keep going and live life for two years now without caffeine or much of any medicine. I am still pumping for a few more weeks but last week I stopped nursing him and he went to straight bottles during the day. I thought he might have a hard time with the change but he didn't seem to notice at all. I have to say that having to pump instead multiple times a day has brought me to the point I'm ready to be done altogether! It is annoying!!
Breck has struggled with a regular sleep pattern this summer. We don't know if it is the change in his naps - at school with the lights on and kids all around, he never slept soundly during nap time and now in his room where it is dark and quiet, he can sleep up to hours at a time twice daily. This means he doesn't always want to sleep all night long and we've had a few times where we didn't get to sleep either - though we stand firm at not going in there and getting him just because he is crying. We have a 20 minute rule - mostly because he usually goes back to sleep well before then - but perhaps lately he has clued into that! I think he might have been going through some growth spurts too because he has gained 4 pounds since last month (though you couldn't tell from looking at him since he must have shot up a few inches as well). There were a few nights he was starving and sucked down another bottle happily at midnight. Then, this last week, he has barely wanted to eat anything all day long. It's crazy! Thankfully, he hasn't been sick or had any more ear infections this past month. We are hoping that means we won't have to get tubes after all.
He regularly says Momma and Daddy but has added door to his list. We bought a screen door with a dog door - finally! - and since we have been training the dogs to use it by repeating dog door quite often when they go to the other one, B has picked up the phrase too. He also happily says Bye-Bye! He has learned the art of fake coughing and fake laughing as well - it's pretty funny. You can tell he is a little too smart for his own good sometimes because he knows boundaries and tests them regularly. One day he just made a circuit from one thing to another that he knows he gets in trouble for messing with. I think he was going for a record. He has a good heart but we've seen a strong will emerge as well. We've had more instances of "active ignoring" as he flops down on the floor and throws his little tantrum over being told no. We've also experienced a few more bumps and bruises as he gets into more things. Thankfully, even when hurt, Breck has a pretty quick recovery time.
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