13 Months Old!

Now that Rocco is over a year old, we are ditching the monthly photos of him laying on the desk calendar. He's just too mobile and too big to keep that up. However, we are not done with the monthly photos! The new plan is to continue to take a monthly photo of him but with a 'theme' that goes with that calendar month. Some months the theme might just have to be 'cute photo of Rocco' ;)

This month's theme is "Fall Leaves":

Milestones for this month:
- Pulls himself up to a standing position on his own (requiring us to lower his crib mattress)
- Started walking while holding on to furniture (also known as 'cruising')
- Got two teeth at the same time! He finally has teeth!
- Started drinking cow's milk (which was a bigger deal to me than it was to him - I finally put my pump away!)

Someone To Look Up To

Rocco just loves his Cousin Kieran!

Happy Halloween!

Before we get to what costume Rocco wore for Halloween, I first wanted to show off his outfit that he wore to daycare today:

His onesie says 'Teething Bites', which it does. Literally and figuratively. Ouch for mommy. But anyways - his onesie couldn't be more appropriate since he is finally(!) getting some teeth in. Two to be exact.

Getting back to his costume - last year after Halloween, Scott and I saw a cute cow costume on clearance and bought it for Rocco to wear this year. It turns out the costume is even cuter on him than we thought it would be!

Rocco makes a very cute little cow I must say. However, he wasn't the biggest fan of the hoodie part of the costume at first:

I'm pretty sure he was thinking "Get this THING off me. Now!", but after a couple of minutes he got used to it. To get into the spirit, Scott and I also dressed up as dairy farmers. We had a silver pail/bucket (like a farmer would use to milk a cow - and yes I realize that with Rocco obviously being a boy cow, that doesn't work out, but whatever) to hold candy to give out to the neighborhood kids. It was a really nice night and we enjoyed meeting a lot of neighbors for the first time, some of which have kids near Rocco's age.  Dressing up this year as a family was a lot of fun, so we're already trying to figure out what we're going to be next year!

Happy Halloween!!

Footie Pajamas

It's finally cold enough to warrant putting Rocco back into footie pajamas and these Halloween ones are perfect for Halloween Eve.

My Favorite Fall Photo

It's that time of year - where everyone finds a pumpkin patch, not to buy a pumpkin, but to use it as a fun fall backdrop to take a photo of their child(ren). I had every intention of joining the masses for the very first time this year (Rocco was only a couple of weeks old this time last year), but then we got busy, and all of a sudden it was almost Halloween. Lucky for me, Rocco's daycare had a little fall display set up outside their front door, so I used that!  So here is Rocco's official 'pumpkin patch' photo (minus the patch). It's just about my most favorite photo I have taken. Ever.

Sea World Halloween Spooktacular

We have annual passes to Sea World, so we had to go while they still had their Halloween Spooktacular going on at the park.

That's steam coming out of the shell, not just a blurry photo for the record.

Next year, we need to remember to bring him in his costume! All the other kids were so cute dressed up - I wish I could have taken some photos of them, but I didn't want to look like a creeper.

You Are My Sunshine - Birthday Party!

The past year has had a lot of ups and downs, but through it all, Rocco really has been our "sunshine" when "skies are gray". I also sing him "You are my sunshine" on a rather regular basis, so it was fitting to use that as the theme for his first birthday party. We didn't go all out - just some decorations, ordered food from Sonny's BBQ (sunny, sonny, get it?), and had family and just a few friends come over (thanks Lindsay and Andrew for making the drive!). It was a great time - Rocco loved all his presents. He did not love his smash cake though, for the record. Here's some photos!

Decorations:

Guests:

It's my party...

...and I can cry if I want to!