The Kears: 2010

One year ago today, our lives were changed forever by the addition of a little blessing named Crosby George Kear! Crosby, you truly bring so much joy to our lives with your contagious smiles, hilarious quirks (he gets them all from his daddy), and fun personality. You really are a happy baby, and for that we are grateful.

We celebrated Crosby's 1st birthday with a family birthday party last Sunday afternoon at our house. All 4 of his grandparents, along with Uncle Chris, cousin Danner, and John & Cathy (aka: Uncle John and Aunt Cathy) were able to come. We missed the other aunts, uncles and cousins, but it was too long of a trip for them to make. Aunt Sage was so sweet to bake and decorate the Curious George cakes for the party, and Crosby even had his own little smash cake with George's face on it! You'll see in the pictures that Crosby LOVED the chocolate icing and had to be taken straight to the bath tub afterwards. His hands were in the cake before we could even finish singing to him. It was hilarious.

Crosby officially took his first consecutive steps last Friday, 12/3/10, and both Chris and I were able to witness the exciting event. To his daddy's delight, the bait that drew him away from holding onto the kitchen cabinet and toward those first independent steps was daddy's drill. Seriously! The love of power tools starts at a young age, I guess. :) Crosby could have probably taken steps several weeks ago, but he's been very thoughtful and cautious about walking. It was fun for everyone at the birthday party to get to see him take steps on his own, and he made several repeat performances with all of us counting the steps as he took them.

Here's what's going on with our 1 Year Old:
- Crosby is still best friends with George (his Curious George stuffed animal), and has to wave "night-night" to him before going down for naps and at night. Yesterday George was on the kitchen table next to Crosby, and Crosby was trying to feed him cheerios during snack time.
- He is really into pointing at everything
- He takes 2 naps a day and usually goes to bed around 8-8:30pm at night.
- Crosby has 4 bottom teeth. Still no top teeth yet, but you can see the outline of the front 4 uppers in his top gum waiting to make their appearance any day now. I've been trying to teach him to sing, "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth." :)
- When he gets tired, he starts to "waller around," as we call it. He puts his head down on the floor for us to help him do somersaults and rolls around with George or any soft blanket. He'll also get snugly and put his head on our shoulders...it's the best.
- Crosby gets so excited when Chris comes home from work! He will scream and crawl up to him yelling "Da-da!" with a huge smile on his face.
- He does not like being put in his car seat these days, which is no fun. Maybe when we turn that seat around to face forward (probably later today), that will change.
- He can wave "hi" and "bye-bye," and clap his hands now, and he enjoys putting little toys and balls "in" buckets and cups.
- Crosby has started holding toys or food out to us to show us what he has or give it to us.

Here are pictures from his first birthday party, as well as some recent random pics:

Aunt Sage did an amazing jobs on the Curious George cakes...thank you!

Crosby had fun opening his presents, or at least playing with the paper and bows.

John and Cathy got him a really cool "Smart Trike."

Dancing with the silly singing donkey, a gift from Lolly.

Danner was so funny and kept saying, "That's mine," about all of Crosby's gifts. :)

Pops showing Crosby how the to work the controls on his new Mickey Mouse airplane

Crosby wasn't too thrilled about wearing the cute birthday hat.

And here comes the cake...

"Mmmm, this chocolate icing is the best thing I've ever tasted!"

"You should really try some, too!"

"I've had enough"

This is going to take more than a few paper towels...

How about a quick, mid-party bath?!

The "bait" for Crosby's first steps

Crosby just being his normal, smiley self.

Crosby and Andrew swinging at the church play ground.

"Wallerin" and doing somersaults with mama

Crosby trying to feed George a Cheerio. He's such a sweet boy to share his favorite food. :)

Crosby's first taste of cow's milk...he's officially a 1 year old!

We had a great Thanksgiving down at Chris' parents' house in Slidell. Chris' brother, Josh, and his family were there, and Crosby had a blast playing with his cousins, Zion and Glenn. Crosby did not have turkey and dressing, but he thoroughly enjoyed his green beans, sugar snap peas and banana chunks for his 1st Thanksgiving. Here are some pictures from our visit in Slidell, but first I included a few fun pictures from this fall and our visit at Lolly & Pop's during the first part of Thanksgiving week:

Crosby enjoying an apple core

These days we have to bundle up for our walks...I love his striped hat and mittens.

Crosby is now able to do some fun tricks like put things "in"...he really likes his shapes sorter.

Playing in his new jungle gym in the backyard.

Shireen, thanks so much for the precious embroidered helicopter t-shirt!

Bath time is fun at Lolly & Pop's house.

Lolly, Danner & Crosby

All of the Kears in Slidell
Go Saints, Gators & Razorbacks!

Who knew doing the dishes could be so much fun?!

Crosby loves Mrs. Faye

We were able to get together with some good friends, the Whitty girls, and their hubbies and their kiddos. This is Lauren and her precious little girl, Lucy.