Where has the year gone?

A year ago today I was waiting to be discharged from the hospital to go home to be with my family, full of FIVE kids. I think I was mostly grateful to be home, probably a little overwhelmed, completely grateful to be unpregnant, and anxious to see how life as a mom of five kids was going to be. How fast this year has gone! Out of necessity I got my feet under me (although I have had a lot of stumbling this past year) and we've survived. Yay us!

I know I kinda talked about this already, but I am so grateful for Briggs. Just today I was talking to my sister who was solo while our kids had preschool and I thought, "mmm, that could have been me if we hadn't had Briggs last year" since Brock would have been our baby and he's now 3 1/2. But I would have not have it any other way. Briggs is such a light in my life and I'm glad I have a little buddy to pal around with. I notice a lot more of the milestones (like getting to the "pull every book off the shelves" stage) than I did with Brock (who I thought was my last.) I definitely recognize he's our baby and treat him as such. He makes me laugh with the way he plays coy and when he tries to wrestle with his brothers. He is a mover and a shaker . . . likes to be on the go and doesn't sit still.

So, here's a recap of my little man:

1 month

Briggs ate all the time, which left me sore and sleepless. He wasn't very good at the bottle and I spent a small fortune trying to find one he'd be adept at drinking from. Briggs slept better swaddled, but with his arms out around his face.

2 month

Briggs began sleeping long stints in the night earlier than any of my other kids (gratefully.) He found his hands this month, and that pacified him since he did not appreciate the binky. We took him to Montana with us and he was a champ on the trip as much as he was every day while being carted around while I ran my errands. The only time he gets overly cranky was at bedtime and if he had gone too long without a poopy diaper (which was becoming an issue.) When he's not cranky he gives us plenty of smiles.

3 month

Poor Briggs had to travel to Utah 3 times in 3 weeks for trips that the family took and he was awesome. I'd pump milk for him while I was driving (yes, I know, not safe) and Mackenzie would feed him a bottle. He would not drink formula, but I was still having issues with nursing Briggs. I would have stopped in month 3, but Briggs had tears this month and that was too sad to not continue with the boob torture. My niece, Brooklyn, started her love affair with "Baby Briggs" when we did our Provo trip with the kids this month. Briggs really put on some weight this month.

4 month

By this month Briggs had officially became my best baby sleeper. He'd sleep for 8 hours straight, have a little bottle and go back down for another couple hours. Even better was he'd put himself to sleep once he found his fists. Briggs would sit up propped up, but ended up with bubbles and drool all over himself when he was vertical. He's definitely ticklish and loves it when Caylee sits by him in the car because she makes him smile so much. He started to babble a lot more, like he'd discovered his voice.

5 month

Sleeping got better this month when he started going to bed with the other kids and he still slept through the night. He tried really hard to roll over and by the end of the month he finally did it. He would push himself around while on his back and rubbed a gnarly bald spot in the back of his head. I'll find him turned and licking the leather on the couch if we leave him to his own amusement. This month, too, I noticed when we get in the car in the morning Briggs was REALLY vocal, like over the chaos in the car I could hear him babbling. We took Briggs to Swiss Days with us and I was grateful for all the help from everyone so I could enjoy the trip. When Briggs gets really excited he bangs his fists on his sides and I had to stop him so he wouldn't bruise himself.

6 month

I tried rice cereal with Briggs this month. He literally shuttered. Briggs really liked sucking on his blanket tags and likes coughing to get people's attention. When he'd get really tired he'd shake his head from side to side. I started taking Briggs to the gym and he did really well why he was there. He also started reaching out more and playing with the toys that were placed in front of him or grabbing my hair.

7 month

Briggs started eating baby food, but he's not cooperating much with formula, STILL! Briggs started cutting teeth at the end of this month and I kept taking him into the Dr. because I knew he was sick, but nope. He wasn't. With the extra saliva, Briggs has started spitting/making raspberries. He likes: playing in the jumperoo, the activity center, biting the brim of Tyler's caps, and scooting (backwards while on his tummy and forwards while on his back). As the 5th kid, Briggs has learned that screaming gets a quicker reaction than gentle fussing.

8 month
Baby food is helping to supplement the nursing and I'm finally to the pump and dump stage of nursing. Briggs discovered straws, open mouth kisses, a big boy carseat, two teeth, Duck Creek, and the "Polar Express" train ride. This month Briggs had his first real fever. He was pretty miserable and his sleeping suffered, which meant so did ours :) One Sunday Briggs went to give Brock and open-mouth kiss and right at his face, Briggs spit all over Brock's face.

9 month

Yes, weening was hard and traumatic, but I was O-V-E-R it and it wasn't worth the infections and . . . blech. OVER it! In my mind I only nursed for a few months with Briggs, but I guess it's longer. We put Briggs on soy formula to help with his regularity, and who knows if it helps or not, but he seems to be more regular. This month Briggs has began to push himself up on all fours and making the loud raspberries spitting sound for long periods of time (like for 30 min. straight during church.) He says, "dadadadada" and prefers to be off our laps and in the same room with the other kids. He also got a couple more teeth this month.

10 month
Briggs is loving the baby food. Textures make him gag. While he likes a good nap or two a day in his bed, he's also been a great cat-napper. Now that Briggs is crawling, he's finding all sorts of goodies on the floor. He really likes to reach up and touch things and and try to catch up to where the other kids are. In Relief Society we have quite the cadre of little babies crawling all over sharing/taking toys. It's sweet. Probably my favorite thing is watching Briggs kiss the mirror in our bathroom as he watches his reflection. He's bunked his head a good number of times doing that. A couple more bottom teeth this month. And can you tell I don't like to sit still?

11 month
This month Briggs has begun to wave "bye-bye" and point at his nose, well, usually it's at his ears, but we give him credit for the general area. Briggs does not like strangers talking to him and he rarely will smile for people outside of our family. Because his bright blue eyes, people stop and talk to him all the time and he just stares at them. He's getting two more teeth on the top this month and he's started throwing tantrums when we take away something he's playing with (especially remotes or cell phones.) He likes to crawl into the pantry and into the kids' playhouse that's in the living room. He loves playing peek-a-boo and sleeping on his tummy, but NOT loud noises. When Tyler gets home he'll say "DA!" but that's the only thing he seems to say.

12 month

Briggs still likes to get around, but more than usual he likes to make a mess. He pulls out all the plastic-ware lids and the books off my shelf. We moved him from his sisters' room to the boys' room this month and he's got another cold (which we since found out is an ear infection and respiratory virus . . . he was not-so-well at his well check.) This month he has developed a good dose of stranger anxiety, but seems to do okay (so far) at the gym. He has been a good stroller-er which is handy for all Brevin's t-ball games. He gets excited when Tyler gets home from work and seems to recognize his brothers and sisters by name. He's doing better with food textures and he really likes pizza.

It's been a year of joy and happiness with this baby boy. We're blessed to have him in the family. Happy birthday, Briggs!