Mark and his train

Mark's figured out how to climb up on his train and make it go. He sure does enjoy riding it.

Mark's (gulp) One Year Check Up

He had a great one. The pedi is happy with the way he's growing and progressing.

He is 21 lbs 6 oz and is 29.25 inches tall. His head is 18 5/8 in. He was a trooper for his shots as usual. The pedi also said she wants him on 2% milk, that whole isn't necessary because he's growing just fine.

We don't go back until his 18 month check up now!

Happy Birthday Mark!

Wow, it's hard to believe a year ago we were in the hospital with a newborn. We were a few doors down and heard his first cry. We looked at each other and smiled, knowing that our son had just been born. And we spent the whole day just amazed, with our son. And he was such an alert little guy, such a sweet boy. He looked at us the whole time, taking us in, and our hearts melted. Wow, what a year it's been!

Happy Birthday Mark, we love you so much!

First Birthday Photo Shoot

Aunt Holly (Holly Anderson Photography) took some professional first birthday pictures of Mark last weekend.

Here is a sneak peak:

A year ago today

We got the call that our lives were going to change forever in a week or less time.


Wow, what a difference a year makes!

This is why he was meant to be a Texan.

He's so not a fan of snow.

He's only been in snow two other times in his life, Jan 14 and Jan 17. And he didn't like it so much then either ;)





But we couldn't resist. Since it rarely snows here in Houston, we let him stay up late and play in the snow. He liked it when he was being held or was in his little car, he just didn't like having to actually touch the cold stuff.











And while it's melting, there is still a little snow out there this morning. It'll disappear in a few hours though as the sun warms it up.

Family Photo Shoot

Aunt Holly took some pictures for us. More can be found at her website: Holly Anderson Photography, but here are some for your viewing pleasure :)









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Mr Gobble Gobble

Aunt Holly came to visit and took some pictures of Mark at the park. He's wearing his Thanksgiving outfit and some pictures are with his favorite wagon.

Mark says....

Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Wow, what a difference a year makes. We were thankful last year for our friends and family, and now.... even more blessings. We give thanks not only today, but every day for our full life of family and friends. Thank you for being a part of that!

The Croup

Poor kid, it's the croup. With a tad bit of stridor. So the pedi gave him some medicine and hopefully he'll be 100% soon. He is his usual happy self, he's just a tad bit more tired and has that awful sound. He eats normally too. We bought a humidifier too and just set it up in his room.

Since he didn't have a fever he did get his second flu shot today. Now, he's resting and hopefully will feel better soon!

11 months and a month of not so great firsts

Wow, 11 months already!

In just a few short weeks we'll have a birthday boy, a toddler on our hands! His unofficial stats are 20 lbs and 28.75 inches. All we know is that he's growing tall- his clothes don't fit lengthwise as well anymore and he can reach a lot higher and farther than he was able to before!

As for the month of not so great firsts- we are SO ready for November to be over. It's a nice month- it just brought some not so nice or not so fun stuff for our little guy.

His first stomach bug was at the beginning of the month. It lasted almost ten days, poor little guy - with an upset tummy. He took more baths due to containment breaches the first week of this month.... well, almost as many as he'd had in the six months prior to that!

And now, he's got a cold. Poor little guy is all congested and now coughing. We go in for part two of his flu shot today and will mention it to the doctor. It's not the flu, no fever or anything - just congestion and now some coughing. Hopefully we can get the little guy to feeling better soon.

I guess if it took ten/eleven months to get to these firsts, we're doing pretty good. We just hate to see our little guy suffer.

And Mark loves to share. Mommy and Daddy both got the stomach bug too. And now Mommy has her chronic cough and is on cough meds (we're hoping Daddy doesn't get it). Mommy is not contagious, so we're hoping Mark isn't either! We'll find out soon enough.

Anyway, that's the update for now.

Sneak Peak

My sister Holly is a photographer (Holly Anderson Photography). She came over on Sunday and took pictures at a picnic that we had with some other families to celebrate National Adoption Month.

She sent me a sneak peak of pictures of Mark. Enjoy!

Window

One of Mark's favorite things to do is stand by the front window and look out. He tends to do this especially right before Daddy comes home. It's cute, and brings back good memories because Precious used to do the exact same thing sometimes.

Here he is waiting for Daddy to come home from work:


And another that Daddy took one weekend when he was waiting for Mommy:

First birthday save the dates

So, with a Christmas Day birthday, we obviously won't be able to have a kids/friends birthday party on his actual birthday. So, we decided to hold it on Sunday, Jan 4th. We figure most of our (and his) friends will be back from vacation (if they are on vacation) since school and work will start back up on Jan 5th.

Another problem- invites may get lost in the holiday mail. I know we all get TONS of catalogs, Christmas cards, letters and more during late Nov and all of December. We will be sending out invitations in December, but decided to make save the dates and send them out this week. That way it'll be on people's calendars if for some reason they don't get or miss the invitation.

His birthday party theme is going to be Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids. Mark loves Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, he watches it on tv daily. When he hears the theme song he comes scurrying into the room to watch. It's the one thing that can get him totally mesmerized and guarantee to keep him interested for a short while.

One neat and exciting thing is that it also explains adoption. You see, Miss Spider is adopted (her Mom is Betty Beetle). And not only that, several of her kids are as well (Bounce, Dragon and Shimmer). She also has five other spider kids. Occasionally adoption is a show theme, sometimes it's a minor theme. And sometimes it's not mentioned at all. They treat it as they treat kindness, patience, friends, or any other theme to their shows. It's a unique way to explain adoption to children, one that they can relate to in a positive way.

It's the perfect theme for our little guy. So, I made some save the dates and they are going out in the mail this week and next. Here is what they look like:

first sickies

Well, we are going through Mark's first round of sickies. I guess we're pretty lucky because it took ten months. All three of us have had a stomach bug. Mark is doing pretty well, even though he has no clue what is going on.

Even though he knows he's not feeling well, his sweet little personality keeps coming out. Right now he's playing "la la la" with Daddy. He is also about ready to go to bed.

I really do admire those who have had babies that haven't slept through the night, those who get up every night for one or more feedings. And it makes me appreciate it all the more how amazing Mark is. He usually is a self soother in that if he's in bed he'll put himself back to sleep if he wakes (and there are some nights I have heard him and watched him on the monitor- he's back asleep before I can even get out of bed to go check on him). Last night the poor little guy woke up a little after one. And it took me until almost three thirty to get him back to sleep. Fortunately he then proceeded to sleep for a long time after that.

We're keeping him hydrated, giving him lots of hugs and snuggles. And hopefully these sickies will go away soon.

Trip to the zoo

Last week Mark and I went to the zoo with some of our playgroup friends. They all had a wonderful time. Mark fell asleep and had a nap halfway through, but really enjoyed the time he was awake. He didn't want to pet any of the animals in the petting zoo, but rather wanted to stay in the stroller. He did love the aquarium though!