Baby Boy

Yesterday my baby boy turned one ... we celebrate God giving us a whole year with him already! As much as I was so nervous about having a boy, I say with no hesitations that I LOVE him so much and I LOVE all his boyish ways. I tell Chad that I wouldn't mind having six more just like him. Breck truly has been a gift of grace in my life this past year. This poor baby has been pushed to the limits in many ways ... he is living in his third house in his first year of life, he moved across the country when he was only 5 weeks old, he had no bed of his own for a whole month while we waited on our house here in Colorado, and he lives with two older, very spunky and very motherly big sisters. I must say, though, I am enjoying this phase with Breck right now. With both Juliana and Adeline, I was very pregnant when they were this age, and with Addie we were packing and moving our entire household. So, I really feel like I am soaking him in right now, because I know how fast the time goes. He is a big boy, weighing around 23 pounds and wears either 12-18 months or 18 months clothes (SUCH a difference from my girls). Here are some of his highlights right now:

• SUCH a mama's boy! I am definitely still his favorite, but I have the feeling that very soon he will become best buds with his dad. (Although I'm not rushing that along ... it's nice to be so needed)
• LOVES to eat and will eat anything. (A trend that has continued since birth - weighed 7.2 at birth, dropped to 6 something, but then weighed over 9 pounds at just 3 weeks!) No more baby food for this guy! Really prefers anything that he can feed himself, but still eats some things from a spoon (yogurt, applesauce, refried beans). This kid can easily pack away two scrambled eggs in one sitting.
  
• Completely off of a bottle and formula now. Drinks almond milk from a cup and LOVES it. Except we're still working on dropping his early morning bottle. He's been waking around 6-6:30 for an early bottle, but would go back to sleep for 1-2 more hours. So now we're dropping that feeding and moving his wake time to earlier ... he is NOT a fan. Cried from 5-6:45 am this morning (on and off).
• Can walk across a room unassisted, but doesn't prefer to do it all the time.
• Finally knows how to clap!
• Has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom.
• Naps twice a day (sometimes 3) and sleeps 11 hours at night.
  
• Loves his big sisters, but has a special fondness for Juliana ... he adores her (with good cause, too).
• Already loves to wrestle and wallow around.
  
• Doesn't really say any words (except mama of course), but still babbles and *talks* a lot.
• Is REALLY fascinated with outlets. He has an uncanny ability to find them anywhere we go.
  
• Loves to be held.

Things we're working through:

• Loves to be held (yep, it's both).
• Manners. Definitely working hard on manners instead of grunting.
• Sleep. For the most part, he's settled into a great sleeping routine, but every time he gets sick or starts teething things go awry.
• Gentleness. Even though he has a very gentle spirit, he needs to learn gentle touches. He scares the other babies in the nursery right now!

This little boy has captured all of our hearts! Breck, your mom and dad love you so much, but not as much as the love of our Father. We pray fervently that you will love Jesus more than anything and would be a man of God in a world that desperately needs to see real men love Jesus.