Happy 1st Birthday, Brenton!

Happy 1st Birthday, Brenton! Our sweet second born officially turned one at 6:13 p.m. today -- Friday, May 13. He entered the world at 8 lbs 4 oz and 21.5 inches long. He is such a beautiful addition to our family. We are so grateful for the significant impact he's made in our lives. His temperment is definitely similar to how he was in utero -- calm, easy-going and mama's boy all the way!

The birthday boy!

Since Brenton's birthday fell on a workday (Friday) and Tyra had a play later that night, we had a family birthday breakfast on the 13th. Eric made pancakes and eggs. After breakfast, we took the boys outside on our deck to see Brenton's gifts!

We got him a picnic table and a water table. Noah enjoyed the water table just as much as Brenton...and in true Noah fashion, he created a game with the top opening of the table. He took the water balls from the table and tried to shoot them like basketballs into the top of the table.

Noah really got into Brenton's birthday and was so excited for him. He helped him open his cards and gifts and kept wanting to sing Happy Birthday to him. At school yesterday, Brenton's teachers had a yogurt party for him, made a card, gave him a balloon and puffs and ended up having to give him a bath because he got so messy during the yogurt party. He loved it though!

1 Year Check-up: Weight: 23 lbs. (51st percentile); 30 in. (45th percentile). At this time he still has NO teeth, but should be getting them (hopefully) by his 15-month check-up in August. He's hitting all other milestones, so this is only little issue he's having. He gums his food pretty well, but we just need to be better about introducing more table foods into his diet. We're switching him to whole milk now that he's one.

Other than that, he loves bananas, yogurt, apples, pears, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, yogurt melts, puffs and diluted juice. He certainly knows that the green colored food is not as tasty or sweet, so those food items are tougher to convince him to heat sometimes. Sometimes I'll mix applesauce with green beans or peas just to get him to eat them. Earth's Best makes really good soups/bisques that he enjoys as well. He's starting to want to hold the spoon during feedings and wants to put the spoon into his mouth himself. He can certainly have grumpy streaks when he's tired or hungry, but is truly just a great baby!

He's very social, likes to wave, pretend he's talking on the phone, give hugs, pats on the back, looking at himself in the mirror, reading books, singing songs and clapping his hands. He's getting into TV more since Noah watches it. He recognizes characters and dances when he hears a favorite theme song. He loves when you sing to him and his favorite tunes are "If You're Happy and You Know It," "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" and "Patty Cake." He'll even do the motions most of the time and gets a big grin when you start to introduce a song he knows.

Although he doesn't say much -- mainly mama, dada, mama, bah-bah, mama, gah-gah, mama, ah, and mama -- he definitely knows certain words. He loves to hear "bath" and gets so excited when we say, "Do you want to take a bath?" Noah talked more at this age and could say a few more things (even "Elmo"), so he's lucky to get a word in edgewise around here anyway with his daddy and brother who were blessed with the gift of gab! He'll look around when you ask him, "Where's Gabi? Where's Noah?" Then, when we show him and object and say what word is associated with that object, he looks very intently at us like he's filing it away for later use.

He started walking in March at 10 and 1/2 months (Noah walked two weeks later at 11 months). I think it helps that he has his big brother to keep up with. We have really cute video of Noah "helping" Brenton walk. It's such a blessing to see how much Brenton adores his big brother. Noah keeps him laughing and is always concerned about his well being, except when he's playing too rough or in a bad mood :) We have loved watching their relationship grow during the past year and can't wait to see it mature even more as they get older. Whenever Brenton is upset, Noah will go over to him and try and console him by saying things like, "It's okay B, no need to cry," or "Noah's here, mommy's coming."

We also have lots of nicknames for Brenton -- B, B. Russ, Brenton Russell, Baby Russell, BB, Sweet T McB. He answers to all of them, but "B" is the main one he likes.

We can't wait to see what the next year holds for our little Brenton Russell Haag!