Dear Darling Cedar.
It’s true what they say about baby number two. It’s much harder to keep up with these posts, milestones, and pictures! I am trying not to be too hard on myself. I have less time to sit at my computer because I am spending time enjoying YOU!
You are the sweetest, gentlest, most scrumptious little boy. As of now, you don’t have an aggressive bone in your body. You are cautious, thoughtful, observant, quiet, and calm. I think you picked our family because you knew we needed to slow down. I consider it a huge compliment you picked me to be your mama. Somehow you knew I would celebrate the challenge of parenting two opposite little humans. My strategies in parenting you and Sage are already very different!
Here are some milestones and facts from 6 months to 13 months
- 6-9 months were a difficult stretch for us. You picked up cold after cold so you were snotty, coughy, cranky and waking up every 2 hours all night long. It was brutal! I had to meet with a sleep consultant to help us help you sleep through the night. She was all about gentle, no cry-it-out methods, and it really helped. We adjusted your nap times and your awake windows and you improved!
- At 9 months You take your time with all you do. Even when you are army crawling after Sage as fast as you can you start to cry. I think it stresses you out.
- You are reaching your milestones a little later than your peers but slowly and steadily you are checking them off the list. We started working with an Occupational Therapist to help you with your crawling. She gave me some exercises to do with you and I saw a quick improvement in your strength.
- At 9 months you started to use your arms to drag yourself around the house and luckily your legs soon followed.
- At 9 months you started a fake laugh. When you hear me laughing on the phone with a friend, or when Sage and I are laughing about something, you start laughing to join in on the fun.
- You got your first two teeth at 10 months! One right after the next.
- At 10.5 months you don’t have your belly off the ground yet but you are moving all over the house.
- 10.5 months you have figured out names for each of us, Sage is “Ba” Dad is “Da” and I am “Ma.” You yell my name from across the house when you want to check in. And you crawl past Sage’s room and yell for her. “BAAAAA” Then “MAAAAA,” when you want to find me. It’s the only loud thing you do. Ever.
- At 10.5 months (Monday May 15th) You gazed into my eye and said, “mama” It was the SWEETEST thing.
- At almost 11 months you have started saying “all done” which sounds like “Ahhh Duhhh” you repeat some of the words we say which is startling and funny at the same time. Yesterday you clearly said, “Buh Buh” for “Bye bye”
- At 6 days before 11 months you have started to pull up. the first time you officially pulled up was at Lori’s house. You pulled up on her couch!
- Now a few days later you are pulling up on everything!
- At 11 months, You are good about not putting things in your mouth. You don’t eat sand at the bay or at the playground. And it’s almost like you can sense if something is not for eating. You choose instead to explore it with your hands. Sage hands you all kinds of things… leaves, flowers, rocks… thankfully you mostly keep them in your hands. I am not too nervous about you choking on things you find. For some reason you do like to put lint and stray hairs in your mouth. I pull stuff out sometimes and wonder how long it’s been in there! Maybe I need to vacuum more : )
- At 11 months, You eat pretty well. Bananas are your favorite. You rarely ever turn those down. You also like broccoli, chicken, turkey, scrambled eggs, apple sauce, oatmeal, strawberries, and I am sure I am forgetting a few. Other things are hit or miss.
- There is zero screen time for you nor do you have any toys that make noise or light up. Our house is quiet and I have made it priority to bring toys in our space that are mostly wooden and natural. Our intention is for you to learn, like Sage did, to entertain yourself and use your imagination. Sage can make 30m of playtime out of the seltzer water bottles in the cabinet! You like to knock them all over like bowling pins.
- I love watching you entertain yourself. You love opening and closing doors. You love Daddy’s wireless keyboard, pushing buttons on printer (until we catch you and redirect you), trying to open the drawers in the refrigerator and rearranging the condiments on the inside door of the fridge. I am going to designate a kitchen drawer full of odds and ends for you in our new house.
- At ll months, you have a great attention span.
- People who meet you often comment on how calm you are. They say, “He’s SO mellow!”
- At 11 months you already have a few words. You have added HAAAAA (Hi) and Granny heard you say your own version of “Thank you.”
- At 11.5 months your belly got off the ground and you moved from army crawl to traditional crawl.
- We moved into our new home in Bend one day before your first birthday. I didn’t write much stuff down during month 12! We were too busy living : )
- At 13 months you are not even close to walking. haha. You still prefer to sit back and watch and are very happy crawling around.
- You love the stairs. Up and down, up and down. You figured out how to go down safely at Granny’s at about 11months so you like to slide down the stairs now on your belly feet first. You go pretty fast!
- At 13 months you regularly say Dada. You like to say bird and dog and duck. Bird is like ah ah ah, dog and duck are almost identical. You like seeing ducks when we are out and about in town. There are lots of dogs in Bend so you end up barking quite a bit.
- Even though I have been signing with you since about 6 months you haven’t picked it up. You skipped right over signing and instead just try to say the word. For more you say “Ma-ah!”
- You love drinking out of my big hydroflask water bottle. You take big gulps and spit the rest out.
- You “help” me do the laundry. Which pretty much means you undo everything I do. Folded laundry in the basket gets thrown out back onto the floor. I have to be quick!
- You enjoy riding on the front of the bike with Daddy and in the trailer with me.
- You still suck at sleeping. Sorry, but true. Your naps usually end after about 40m and you are still up about every 3-5 hours at night. ugh. Things got better before we left our condo in Hillcrest but since we moved out and are still transitioning into our new home you regressed. It doesn’t help that we are not on a schedule. Again, we are out having too much fun. I swear I will get better at this when school starts.
- You don’t fall asleep just anywhere. You are too mentally engaged in what’s happening around you to fall asleep on the go. This makes it tricky because you easily get overtired. You will fall asleep in the car but don’t sleep great in the Ergo or in the stroller. So different from Sage.
- You love playing patty cake
- You love to kiss and snuggle. Your kisses are more like a huge open mouth attack but they are sweet nonetheless.
- You generally don’t like it when your sister picks you up and moves you around the house, and you have started telling her how you feel by screeching.
- At 13 months you weigh exactly 17 lbs. Way to hit the 2nd percentile sweet pea!
What we sensed about you in the beginning has so far turned out to be true. You are a gentle, observant soul. You are calm and sweet and can make me laugh with your funny little facial expressions.
I adore you so much it feels like my heart is going to explode. I have treasured this 13 months with you. I was hoping, because I wasn’t working, it would go by slower but unfortunately, time still moves at the speed of light. Regardless, I will treasure this time being “just a Mommy” forever. I have certainly found my calling. Pouring my heart and mind into caring for you, your sister, Daddy, and our home feels like a beautiful privilege. Definitely not a sacrifice. You make my life so much better and I wouldn’t choose to spend it any other way.
Pictures are in rough order starting about 6 months and ending at 13months.
babysedivec.com 
Hi Elizabeth! Thanks you for sharing Cedar! It makes me feel as if I’m right there sitting with him! Hope Oregon turns out to be all that you hoped for! Heading back to California in a few days! XXOO. Susan
Ps. Hugs for Sage too! 😍
Hi
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