Aaron: 1 year old!!!

Aaron turned 1 a few weeks ago, but I couldn't get him in for his one year check up at the doctor until today, so I held off on this post until I had his "stats" to share!

We started off Aaron's birthday as a normal day. I had been working with him for a while on showing one finger when asked how old he is. This was the best picture I could get, but you can clearly see one finger! (And yes, he only does it with his left hand - however, this is the only thing he does with his left hand, so I'm not sure what that means!)

"One!"

"My picture too Mommy!"

 We had a pretty calm day, I know Caleb and I ran some errands while Grandma watched Aaron (it was her normal Wednesday to stay with the boys), but I really don't remember what else we did that day. We played it pretty low key : )

That evening we went to dinner as a family before heading to church.

Waiting for food!

Mommy and Aaron (love his silly little grin!)

Daddy and Caleb

This is truly one of my favorite stages! I love watching him walk around all over the house. Sometimes I pause in amazement of how steady he is. My favorite is when he walks to me and says "Momma"....ugh, melt my heart little man! 

Aaron also has a sense of humor. His laugh is contagious : ) He loves running from us when we try to grab him and just laughs at he goes. He also thinks it's funny to shake his head "no"! He shakes it back and forth over and over again and just keeps giggling! 

I also love the way our boys play together. Aaron is finally old enough to interact more with Caleb, they both tackle each other and tickle each other. There's lots of laughter in our home. 

While Aunt Laura was watching the boys last weekend, she taught Aaron how to go up the steps to the slide. (We've moved it inside for the summer since the heat, humidity and mosquitos are so bad) He can play by himself on it - of course, Jonathan and I stay close just in case! 

Some of his one year stats:

Height: 29" (14th percentile)

Weight: 19 lbs 5.5 oz (17th percentile)

Aaron has given up his morning bottle but still takes a lunch time and before bed bottle (both are 1/2 milk and 1/2 formula). We're trying to wean off of those, but someone is a little stubborn : )

I guess his favorite food is yogurt. He gets a LARGE helping every morning at breakfast and gets mad when it's gone. Everything else is touch and go. He'll eat a ton of something one day and then not touch it the next. I never really know how he's going to eat at a given meal. 

When we're home, Aaron still naps twice a day, but if we're out he does one longer nap after lunch. He's slowly transitioning, but it doesn't hurt anything for him to nap twice when he can, so I'm not pushing him to change that! 

Aaron is slowly saying a few words. Right now we here Dadda, Momma, Bubba, and occasionally No and Up. He babbles non stop though and often times his rhythm and tone mimics what Jonathan and I say. 

(Enjoying his lasagna a few nights ago - such a happy boy! 

There's so much I could say about our little monster. Truly, I could go on forever, but no one would be reading to the end : ) He is such a gift and joy. With him there is more laughter, more silliness and more cuddles than we had before! 

Balloons

There are few things better to little kids than balloons! Caleb and Aaron hit the jackpot the day after Aaron's birthday party when all the balloons stopped floating and they were in prime shape to play with. We literally spent hours kicking them, knocking them in the air, and pretty much going crazy! Jonathan even rigged a balloon coral to have even more fun! 

Caleb was walking in circles forever while kicking the balloons! 

Aaron decided to escape

Later we decided to make it a smaller coral

(Disclaimer - No kids were harmed in the making of this video - it just looks like he was!) 

Too fun! 

With all the rain we've had lately, I seriously considered buying a bag of balloons to blow up for something different to do inside! The rain seems to have gone away for now, but I think I'll stock up for a day that needs a little excitement : )

Serious Toddler

Aaron started walking a little over a month ago, but took his time really taking off. I posted a video several weeks ago of his wobbly steps, but hadn't captured any other walking video until now.

Here's proof that he's definitely a toddler! And check out his mischievous smile : ) He sure is a cute troublemaker!

Aaron's 1st Birthday Party!

Prepare for picture/video overload! 

Aaron's 1st birthday party was yesterday and we had a blast celebrating with all the local family! We had a pretty calm day as we prepared for everyone to come over and were really lucky that Aaron took two really solid naps (here lately he's been taking one nap) so that he would be in a good mood for the afternoon/evening. 

Here are just a few shots of the decorations...I didn't want to do too much, but did want to be festive : )

His presents and the snack table. 

I saw the idea on pinterest to just write notes on plastic table cloths - so easy! So I labeled which fruit/veggie dips we had and wrote that more drinks were down below! I'm never making signs to label things again! 

M&Ms in the bowls holding down the balloons! I loved the bright colors : )

While everyone arrived the adults hung out and talked while the kids played. Caleb and Eli were inseparable from the moment Eli arrived. (Caleb had been waiting a little impatiently for Eli to get here) The "babies" had fun staying in the living room and playing with toys. 

Checking on everyone else

GG and Aaron practicing the stairs

"Hi!"

Derrill gave Aaron and Hannah Joy some paper plates to play with...

...Aaron wanted them both!

Aaron and Aunt Kristen relaxing

GG finally got to hold Hannah Joy without her screaming! 

Jonathan grilled up some hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner! We were lucky that our 30% chance of rain never amounted to much and he was able to follow through with his grilling plan. The food turned out yummy, thanks babe! 

Two grandpas eating

The Terrible Two : ) 

Everyone else eating....we set up the table in the dining room, but no one ever goes in there during gatherings. I'll have to figure out a way to entice them in their next time...

After eating, we all gathered in the living room for present time! Aaron did so well sitting in my lap and pulling out tissue paper. I was impressed with his focus...Caleb never would have sat that still when he was one! 

I asked Aunt Katy to take pictures for me and then these two goobers got in her lap!  Luckily Jonathan was able to get some for us instead!

Opening presents, you can see how interested Aaron was! 

One of my favorite pictures of the day....this shows how NOT calm the room was!  Grandpa was throwing Aaron in the air, Derrill was putting Eli in the trash bag, Hannah Joy was trying to sneak over to get the presents and Aaron was helping me open gifts! Gone are the days of calm in the Lutz house! 

Aaron LOVES his ride on car from Grandma and Pops! 

Pulling out the tissue paper

Aaron let Hannah Joy borrow his car for a few minutes, but was waiting for Uncle Thomas to let him have it back!

Checking out his gifts when he was done 

Aaron finally got his bank from Aunt Laura! 

Learning how to use a hammer with Grandpa Ron! 

Trying so hard to hammer in those pegs! 

 After presents it was time for cake and ice cream! Well, we had the cake....the ice cream is still in the freezer! My waking thought this morning was that we forgot the ice cream! Haha, oh well, I guess we'll enjoy it this week : )

Aaron wasn't so sure about us singing to him

Poking his cake 

Here's a video of Aaron with his cake. He never tried any of it and really wasn't sure he liked touching it! Again, SO different than Caleb!

After cake everyone started to slowly leave. We had some calm time with Laura, Drew and Mal before they headed out. Drew had fun pushing Aaron on his little car for a while and Aaron LOVED it! He had such a big smile on his face : )

We had a great time celebrating Aaron's birthday. We'll do a little something on Wednesday to celebrate on his real birthday, but we're so glad the family could get together to have fun yesterday. Thanks everyone for making the day special! And if you've made it to the end of this post...I warned you about the picture overload!

****On a completely unrelated note, this is my 300th blog post! Thanks to those that keep up with us! Hard to believe I started this blog when Caleb was 3 months old...look how much our family has changed since then! ***

4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! (just a few days late!) 

On Wednesday, we enjoyed a mid week vacation to Palm Beach! Jonathan had the day off and we decided to brave the crowds and enjoy the day together. We got there as they were opening and grabbed an umbrella and chairs before they were all taken.

We enjoyed playing all over the park in the lazy river (not so lazy when you have kids by the way!), the wave pool, the water slides and the splash pad. We took several snack breaks through the morning and had fun digging in the sand too.

Eating a snack

This monster tried to drink pool water all day, this cup tasted better!

Taking a break

Resting in the stroller (and keeping him away from the sand!)

We had fun playing all morning and even ate lunch at Palm Beach before heading home. We had a calm afternoon playing around the house as we were all pretty tired from our morning out.

After the boys went to bed, Jonathan and I watched East coast fireworks on tv and then watched the Kemah fireworks from the upstairs playroom window!

We had a great 4th of July! Hope everyone else did too!