A Year In the Life of Davis

Happy birthday Davis!!  I know Davis turned one almost an entire month ago but this has been such a busy month that I haven't had time to really sit down and write about where he right now.  We took him to his 12 month appointment a few weeks ago and he weighed 21 lbs (25%) and was 30 1/4" tall (75%).  I looked at Harrison's growth charts and he weighed 19.8 lbs and was also 30 1/4", so they are almost exactly the same in terms of height and weight!  They each have their own look, but it will be fun to see if they continue to stay in the growth patterns. 

I know every mother says this, but I just can't believe how fast time flies by, especially with the second child!  I am just not ready to not have a baby in the house anymore, but I think my days are numbered.  Davis is picking up new skills everyday, the most recent is walking!  He has taken a step here and there for about a month or two now, but in the past few weeks, I have seen him really try.  I think its only a matter of a few days before he is really off!  He is so funny, because for a while now, he has preferred to "walk" on his knees.  He will stand up on his knees and inch across the room to what he wants. 

 I love that each child always finds his/her own way of getting to where they need to go!
A few things that Davis is into lately:

*ANYTHING that his big brother is doing.  This is nice sometimes when they will play nicely together, but can also be hard because Harrison doesn't want his brother invading his space all of the time

*Cabinets, cabinets, cabinets!  My counters have been a mess lately because he pulls out everything that he sees from all of the cabinets that are within his reach.  I only have 2 cabinets in the house that are baby-proofed, so I am having to rearrange everything that could either break, suffocate him, cut him, etc.
*When he is not getting into cabinets, he is trying to climb the stairs!  He is actually quite good at them, but it still scares me.  I have a gate at the bottom of the stairs but Harrison knows how to take it down.  This is nice when Harrison needs to get upstairs and I am busy in another room.  This is bad when I'm busy in another room and Harrison takes it down quietly enough that I can't hear him, so that he and Davis can play on the stairs.
*  Imitating - Davis loves to imitate what we are doing now, which I love.  He tries to put sunglasses on, tries to talk on my phone, tries to play peek-a-boo, etc.  Its fun to watch him because you can tell he really studies Harrison when he is playing.  He tries to drive his cars on his race track just like Harrison, etc.  He is usually awake for about an hour before Harrison wakes up from his afternoon nap.  This is nice because he has a little bit of time to play with ANY toy that he wants without someone taking it away from him.  Its always fun to me to see what he goes for when is brother isn't around!
*  Drumming - I think he gets this from Lance.  He loves to pat things as if he is playing the drums.  Anything he touches he likes to pat.  Lance has always wanted to play the drums and would be very good if he had the chance, so maybe Davis can fulfill his dream.
*  "Bububububu" - he loves to make that noise where he moves his lips up and down with his fingers to make that funny sound (I cannot for the life of me think of how else to explain this).  He learned this cool trick from his friend James.  He does this all the time now - so cute.
*  He is turning out to be a great sleeper which is nice - he takes a 2 hr + morning nap, about a 1.5 hr afternoon nap and sleeps about 12 hrs at night which is so nice!  He is still a light sleeper, but he is such a happy little guy.  I have to attribute some of this to how well he sleeps.
*  He is funny because he is either very serious, especially around new people - he likes to scope everyone out, or he can be very smiley.  His happy, silly personality really comes out when we are just hanging out at home.  He gets tickled at a lot of things - mostly things that involve his brother.

I also was behind on planning his birthday party but we finally celebrated this weekend with some family.  We just had a small family party at our house and it was nice because it wasn't quite so overwhelming.  My parents, my sister Julie's family, Lance's parents and his cousin Hunter came with his girlfriend Ellen.  In the past, Lance has made all of Harrison's birthday cakes, so he kept up the tradition and made a beautiful cake for Davis.  Since his birthday was on the fourth of July, we did a red, white and blue theme and Lance put together a flag cake.  I seriously think he missed his calling!

 

Harrison was such a big helper and showed Davis how to blow out his candle...

I think its safe to say that he liked it...

Grandmommy and Granddaddy Koeppe were so excited to get to help celebrate...

and so were Grandma and Granddaddy Randolph

Harrison was so excited to get to hang out with his cousins, it was all he talked about all week.  Say cheese!!!!

I wish I would have thought to take a few more pictures of the group, but we thank everyone who was able to help us celebrate Davis' big day!  Happy birthday to our sweet boy, we love you and can't wait to see what this next year has in store for you!!