A Year of Decisions

It's amazing to think that Jericho is almost one year old. Holy cow. Fifteen days and counting. It's hard to believe, since it feels like he just joined the family a few months ago. Of course, with his first birthday comes lots of decision making.

First and foremost- when to start plain old milk. With Jakob, we started him on cows milk full steam ahead, and got a rude awakening when we found out the severity of his allergy to cows milk. The poor kid suffered for days :(. Interestingly, he outgrew the allergy quickly and now can slam it down with the best of them.

With Jericho, since breastfeeding and I just don't work out, he's been on formula. The problem with the formula is that it makes him really constipated. To try to combat this, a few days ago we decided to start giving him regular milk, in tiny doses at a time to monitor for any allergies. He has done unexpectedly well with it, although at first he balked a bit. We've been mixing a scoop of his old formula with it so he's not totally shocked at the change. He's been doing great with it though. He's been steadily drinking less and less as he eats more and more. I'm happy to note that he no longer refuses to eat anything but avocado, in fact, he eats pretty much EVERYTHING.

Another big decision to be made is when to turn his car seat around. With Jakob, we couldn't wait to turn him, and actually did it a few days before his first birthday. With Jericho, we're a bit older, and I've done a LOT more research on the subject. We've decided we're going to go with extended rear facing for him. Basically, what this means is that he will stay rear facing until he reaches the height/weight limit of the rearfacing seat he's in. At which point we will turn him around until he hits the 60lb forward facing limit (Jakob is just barely 40lbs now, so we're figuring his seat will last him until he's at least six or seven).

Most people ask why we chose this route when it's a lot more convenient to have them forward facing. It's simple really, in all of the many hours of reading and talking to certified car seat specialists, I learned how unsafe it is to have such a small child forward facing. The 20lbs/one year rule is the governmental minimum. In actuality, babies that age still have a disproportionately large head, so in an accident, they are unable to hold their own heads steady the way an older child or adult does.

There's a great video HERE that shows crash test footage of a test dummy rear facing vs forward facing.

So yeah, there are the big decisions we've been thinking about the past few weeks with little mans birthday coming up, which brings me to the final big decision.

BIRTHDAY PARTY!

For Jakob's first birthday, we went CRAZY. I mean, really, we did. We got a pavilion, a Fun Jump, and ended up having well over 50 guests. This year we have decided that both boys will get a small immediate-family-only party on their actual birthday, but this summer when Kay and Kyle get to come home for a while, we're going to throw a big bash for all the family and friends. Not really a 'birthday' party exactly, just a big get together/BBQ type event for everyone to celebrate all the birthdays/graduations/new jobs/new houses/anniversaries/new babies/etc/etc/etc. As it happens, our birthday season starts in April with Kyle's birthday, then we've got Jericho in May, Jakob and Bill in June, Me, Kayleah AND our brother in July, plus Kay and Kyle and my parents have their anniversaries around those times. It'll be a jack of all trades sort of party. Once we get the dates K&K are coming home, we'll get some invitations out. If you're going to be in or around the Syracuse area, consider yourself invited!

Jakob has put in a request for the Apple Ponies, so we're probably going to have a repeat of his 4th birthday. Oneida Shores pavilion, Apple Ponies, Fun Jump, Swimming, BBQ, fun for grown ups and kids alike.

(Just an important side note for any friends and family that are drinkers- since 1. We don't drink and 2. it's a family party, we won't be providing any drinks harder than Sprite and ask that you leave the alcohol at home)