Reyes Family Time: 2014

It has been a while since I've posted, and a lot has happened in the last month. I flew to Germany for 10 days to spend time with my parents, and Mathias started walking! We decorated for Christmas early (before I left for Germany at the end of November) and it has become a full time job to keep Mathias away from the Christmas tree and wrapped presents. He started taking a few steps right after his first birthday, spent about a week taking anywhere between 2-4 steps at a time, and now is cruising all over the place. (That hasn't stopped him from climbing though...yesterday I was trying to help Miriam find a book at the library, and he walked over to a kids' table, climbed up onto it, and was trying to stand up on it...and it took him about 5 seconds.)

We leave for Germany again in 1.5 weeks and we are squeezing in as many Christmas activities as we can here before leave, before enjoying more Christmas activities in Germany. We've decorated cookies, wrapped presents, baked Christmas treats, and gone driving around to look at lights. Miriam is loving the Christmas season and has been very good about helping wrap presents. We've also been focusing on being generous and loving to others, and Miriam has been great about brainstorming ways to be kind to others. She's a generous, loving, little girl.

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from the last month:

Goodness, time flies when you are having fun! Our sweet boy turned 1 on Halloween, and what a busy, crazy, whirlwind of a year it has been. We've changed thousands of diapers, had baby cuddles 9 out of every 10 nights for the past year, bounced and rocked our "boo" for hundreds of hours, and watched him learn to roll over, sit up, smile, laugh, crawl, stand, walk with assistance, feed himself, clap, and many, many more things. After his difficult first 6 months, where he basically never stopped fussing/screaming, he's turned into quite a happy, fun little guy, and we can't imagine our lives without his energy, "crinkle nose" smiles, laughs, and cuddles.

We don't have Mathias' 1 year well baby visit until next week, but we think he's been going through a growth spurt lately. I estimate that he's around 21 lbs and 32" tall. He seems very tall and skinny, much more than Miriam was at this age, so it will be interesting to see if he maintains this "body type" as he gets older.

Mathias is a huge eater and loves pretty much anything that you put in front of him. His favorites include avocados, grapes, watermelon, sweet potatoes, and cheese. He especially loves to be a part of meal time and eat whenever we are eating, and if he sees Miriam drinking from a cup, he immediately wants to drink from a cup as well.

The joy that Mathias brings to our life is hard to put into words. His energy is contagious, and the kisses, snuggles, and hugs he gives us on a daily basis light up our days. He mostly sleeps in his own bed at night, but if he wakes up a bit early, we still like to bring him into bed with us so we can all sleep a bit longer. We still have his softsided co-sleeper bed set up in our bedroom, and even though the "side" closest to me is down and the "side" closest to Mario is up, he usually flops his body over the side closest to Mario to snuggle up close to him. He's a bit of a Daddy's boy these days, but it warms my heart to see how excited he gets to see Mario, how quickly he crawls towards Mario whenever he sees him, and how he'll bounce up and down at Mario's feet until Mario picks him up.

Even though Mathias is constantly on the move, we do get snuggles at night, kisses when he's trying to mimic us, and hugs when he's tired. He likes to lay his head down on our shoulders and wrap his arms around us, which is the sweetest thing.

Usually, as I've said many times, Mathias is always on the move. He isn't walking independently yet, but is cruising around on furniture and holding onto our fingers, and he's a world class sprinter when it comes to crawling. He can get to the cat food, the open dishwasher, or to Miriam's toys in the time it takes us to grab something out of the refrigerator! He's an adventurous little guy and has no fear about climbing (chairs, tables, bookshelves) or falling (off chairs/the couch/toys). He spends the majority of his time crawling from toy to toy, climbing all over us and the furniture/toys, and just generally getting into things. He loves Miriam so, so much, and would be content to follow her around and play with whatever she's playing with. (On the flip side, she wants to play with whatever he's playing with, but not at the same time as he is...so they often go back and forth between the same toys, just playing with them at different times.) He also loves music and loves to dance, and knows exactly which buttons on all of his toys to push so that he can hear music. He dances by bouncing up and down and extending his arms out in front of him, and he pretty much does it anytime any of his music is playing (from one of his toys). It is absolutely precious.

All in all, Mathias is such a sweet, adorable little guy. He loves to be involved in whatever we are doing, and also tries to mimic whatever we are doing. In the mornings, he stands next to Miriam and me while I'm doing her hair, and he alternates between trying to comb his own hair and handing us the comb (he's also a very helpful little guy). He loves to share and pass out whatever he's playing with, and he's always looking to hand you something from the ground or area around him. Every morning, he crawls over to where Mario is putting on his shoes and hands Mario his shoes as he's getting ready. It is pretty cute to watch.

Here are some pictures from Mathias' birthday, his party, and the trick-or-treating we did on the evening of his birthday.