Twelve months of Dustin

We've made it an entire year!  Dustin has turned one year old!  (And yes, this post has taken me an extra month to get out the door!)  From his first week of life, we took a picture of baby Dustin alongside a large(ish) white teddy bear, with a black sheet as a background.  Below you can see some snapshots of Dustin from each month of the year. Click on the photos to enlarge.

July 30, 2011.  Dustin is 2 weeks old.
A very tiny baby!

August 28th, 2011. Dustin is 1 month and 2 weeks old.
He is getting thicker.  This was a challenging week.

Sept 26th, 2011.  Dustin is 2 months, 1 week old.
The bear is shrinking! 

Oct 31, 2011.  Dustin is 3 months and 2 weeks old.
Toes are good toys that you cannot drop.

Nov 12, 2011. Dustin is almost 4 months old.
He starts to interact with the bear.

Dec 4, 2011. Dustin is 4 months, 3 weeks old.
What a cutie!

Jan 27, 2012.  Dustin is 6 months, 1 week old.
 He is pulling up to standing, but not crawling yet.

Feb 8, 2012. Dustin is 6 months, 3 weeks.
He is starting to crawl away from the scene!

Mar 19, 2012. Dustin is 8 months old.
The table helps him stay put for the photo shoot.

Apr 6, 2012. Dustin is 8 months, 3 weeks old.
Dustin was in constant pursuit of the camera.

May 19, 2012. Dustin is 10 months old.
He stole my bratwurst while I wasn't looking!
(we missed the photo shoot in May.)

June 29, 2012. Dustin is 11 months, 2 weeks old.
Keeping him stationary is nigh impossible. 

Jul 9, 2012. Dustin is 11 months, 3 weeks old. 

July 16, 2012. Dustin is 1 year old!
Daddy is demonstrating proper candle-blowing technique.

Transportation Child

We have a typical little boy. He loves to watch cars drive down the street.  Monday mornings are a treat because the garbage truck, recycling truck, and compost truck provide free entertainment. Dustin makes a bee-line to bicycles parked nearby, attracted to the moving parts and grease. Dad revs the engine for our little guy, acclimating him to high-throttle, break-neck speeds around the living room, swerving around obstacles (see video below).  You might notice that his shoes in the photo below even have little race cars on them.

I'd like to think that we're just following his interest in wheels and things that move.  But the evidence is piling up to indicate that we might be steering him in this direction! 

Getting dirty

Did you ever realize just how fascinating sand and water are?  You can hold it, but you can't hold it.  You can grab it, and pick it up, but then it disappears.  A mouthful of water goes down much more smoothly than a mouthful of sand.  But both are tasty. 

Getting out

Dustin is now a pretty easy-going baby, although I wonder at what point I shall stop calling him a "baby."  At day care he's out of the baby room, and into the "wobbler" room.  It's a staging ground for kids who aren't babies, but aren't toddlers.  I suppose this is akin to a "tween" later on in life.  Who knew there are so many subtly different stages we pass through!
There are times that he is fussy, and if we're lucky, we can quickly remedy the fussiness with the typical mama-combatants: food, milk, nap, or diaper change.  More often, the fussiness stems from boredom with our house, and getting out the door is the obvious, necessary, and immediate remedy!

Last weekend Jeff went up to Seattle to spend some time working on coding with his best friend Hasan. Dustin and I, left to our own devices, got out the door a fantastic amount, and had a very fun weekend, as a couple photos below can attest:

A jubilant Dustin at the petting zoo at the Multnomah County Fair. (May 27th, 2012) While pigs and sheep in confined spaces was a real treat to behold, Dustin prefers chasing the neighborhood cat.  Given Dustin's wobbly speed, the cat has very little concern about ever being caught.  But it's guaranteed entertainment, until the cat gets bored.

Dustin pushing a tricycle at Cafe Au Play here in Portland, OR. (April 29th, 2012)  While it looks like he's pushing the tricycle in the regular fashion, he was generally pushing it sideways around the patio. His joy for pushing things is immense: he will certainly be a terror on a trike once he gets going!

Why do they call it Mother's Day?

I was hearing about this really important day called Mother's Day.  It seemed like everyone was talking about it, and they said it was really special for Mom, because it was her first.  But when it finally came, I thought the day was more about me then Mom, so why do they call it Mother's Day?

Let me go into a little detail about how the day went.  I woke up in the morning and Mom quickly arrived to feed me breakfast in bed.  Then Dad got up shortly after that to fry some eggs.  He knows that I love eating eggs, so he made enough for both him and Mom to feed me.  They took me outside to enjoy my bagel while they both looked at me lovingly.  Then we moved on to the morning play, where I got to try out the new hat and toys that Grandma Jean sent.

The morning was quickly fading, and I was getting sleepy, as Mom and Dad were getting all my stuff ready for the day's hike.  They said that we were going to start a new tradition of hiking to a waterfall on Mother's Day.  Just as I was about to fall asleep they loaded me into the car.  There is something special about the car's rumble that just soothes me to sleep.

When I woke up, we were at the hiking spot, and Mom and Dad suited up, which took way too long.  I got to ride in my favorite position on Mom's tummy in the Ergo, or is my favorite position on Dad's shoulder?  Either way, I got to ride in my favorite place.  Dad also taught me a new game of spinning circles.  This dizzy feeling is going to have to be explored thoroughly.

All in all it was a really good day.  I can't wait for next year's Mother's Day, or should we call it Dustin's Day?

A stroll (er) in the park

Today was a glorious, beautiful, sunny Saturday! Grandpa Goetsch is in town, and we spent the day at the Portland Saturday Market.  Dustin decided to take the helm behind the stroller. A little bit of background information is important here.  Fact One: Dustin loves to walk, but still strongly prefers holding on to something while he's walking.  Fact Two: Dustin has recently started to be more clingy to his mama, showing a preference for that special lady over pretty much anybody else.  At the park today, Dustin's love of walking surpassed his love for being held by his mama!  His little fists held tight to the stroller bars, as he pushed and toddled along behind the stroller.  When I picked him up, he cried and cried, until I set him back down, so he could grasp the stroller, and walk along some more. He continued on for over a half hour, at which point we set him in the stroller seat, and he fell promptly to sleep.

Impromptu Photo Shoot

We found this tree while looking at houses on our bikes, and we thought it was too good to pass up. So, we stopped for our first Dustin photo shoot. Hope you enjoy.