Connor seems to be ready to take the next step soon.  He has been able to cruise around the furniture quite fast, push around the walker more readily, and enjoy walking with us holding one hand only.  Suddenly today, he had fun letting go of our hands and stood on his own for like 5-10 seconds at a time.  He raised and moved his hands to the back of his head while he stood up, and he was so proud of himself when he did that.  Once, he even took one step toward me after letting go of a side table, and flopped onto me after that one step.  I guess Connor will be walking on his own a lot faster than Logan did.

     Connor is crawling so fast these days that sometimes the boys would chase each other.  Connor is also very into peekaboo, so he has a blast chasing or being chased by Logan.  He just loves his big brother.

     We got two phone calls from daycare today.  The first one was for Connor in the morning when the teacher told me about his low grade fever of 100.7.  Even though the fever may be the result of the 6 vaccines Connor received yesterday, the teacher still wanted Connor to be picked up just in case he had a contagious cold since he also had a runny nose.  Stuart ended up spending the rest of the day with him at home.  Connor was fine, just a bit whiny.  Connor did not have any high temps, so we are hoping that he can return to school tomorrow.

     The second call I received today was at 3pm.  It was Logan’s teacher.  She told me that we have a very good kid, then she went on to tell me what happened.  During the snack time after nap, she suddenly realized that Logan was not in his seat, and he was actually on the toilet pooping.  The teacher and Logan were both so proud of what Logan did and how he did it all on his own.  Over the weekend, we were able to get Logan pooped 4 out of 4 times in two days.  But we had to watch for signs and convinced Logan to go use the toilet.  It also took a bit more talking by the toilet each time before it actually happened.  So it was amazing to us that he took such initiative today.  Logan was so happy to tell me what he did when I picked him up, and he immediately asked for his reward, ice cream cake.

Connor had his one year doctor appointment yesterday.  We dropped off Logan to school, then went to a store for some shopping before heading to the hospital.  Connor had a bit of runny nose for the past 2 days, so it was a good time to have his check up by the doctor.  Connor did fine during the exam, except he did not like laying down for tummy check.  Everything checked out well, and he did not have any sinus issue or any wheezing.  His growth rate is also leveling off as we expected since now he is more mobile.  Here are his stats:

Wt: 26lbs 7.5oz (91% down from 95.9% at 9th month)

Ht: 2’7.5” (92.5% down from 99%)

HC: 19.25” (97%)

For one year, Connor was due for many vaccines.  Nowadays the nurse comes to the room after the exam to give the injections which is a lot more convenient.  To our surprise, Connor needed so many injections this time, 6 of them, DaPT, measles/Rubella/mumps, Haemophilus, chicken pox, hepatitis A, Pneumovax.  Poor Connor did not like those at all.  He cried so much that he immediately fell asleep during the car ride.  Because of the vaccines, I decided to keep him with me the rest of the day.

     We made no plans for today, so we could devote it toward training.  This morning as Logan was looking for a place to hide, I stopped him and convinced him to come with me to go poo in the toilet instead.  After a bit of hesitation and up and down on the toilet a couple of times, he finally told me that he needed to go. And he actually did it after sitting back up on the toilet !  He saw what he made and then proudly flushed the toilet.  We will celebrate with frozen yogurt later today.

     I decided to now begin weaning breastfeeding as Connor is turning one.  My plan is to stop feeding Connor during the day, and continue feeding only in the morning and at bedtime for a bit longer.  Major milestone: I stopped pumping as of yesterday and today is the first day trying whole milk on Connor.  So far, he does not like either the mixture of breast milk and whole milk nor the whole milk by itself.  We will have to keep trying the rest of the weekend.     Previously to assist in napping, I had been breast-feeding Connor to let him fall asleep.  But now, I have to implement an alternative plan: nap training Connor .  While Stuart and Logan went off to the library, I kissed Connor bye, laid him down in the crib and left the room like I do at night.  Connor immediately stood up and cried.  After 10 minutes of crying and rubbing his eyes, he sat down.  Since he had sat down, I did not go in to check on him.  He continued to cry on and off for another 9 minutes, then he flopped forward and fell asleep while his legs were still tugged under his butts.  I guess this ends the year of mommy and baby napping together.

For bike day at school yesterday, Logan once again did not ride his bicycle.  While I was driving them home, we talked about it.  Logan admitted that everyone rode the bike except him.  I asked him the reason that he did not, he said “I needed help”.  So I suggested that the teacher could help him, but he said “No, I need mommy’s help”.  We then talked about the Parrots show that also happened yesterday.  Logan told me that they all criss-crossed their legs to sit and watch.  When I asked him who he sat with, he said “Miss Jen”.  I talked with Miss Jen today.  She reported that Logan sometimes gets overwhelmed with loud noises.  When Logan was sitting in the middle of the rowdy kids, he did not like it, so he moved to the side to sit with Miss Jen to enjoy the show.  When talking about the water play in the mornings, Miss Jen said that Logan does not like getting wet at all.  When he finds some water activities that do not involve getting wet, he will have a great time playing them.  Logan also does not like having sand in his shoes, so he is not into the sandbox play either.  That’s our Logan Brown!  Very particular!