Almost One...

Yesterday LD turned almost one. One more month until I have a one year old. It's mind boggling. He's doing amazing. Cruising with speed and efficiency, standing on his own here and there, and making friends wherever he goes. He's a hugger. He doesn't care if you're a stranger or he knows you...he wants to hug you. Again and again. It's heart melting when he puts his little arms around your neck and squeezes.

He went on his 12th flight yesterday. We came home from a longer than usual trip to visit family in Nebraska. As always he did great on the plane. When Mommy let him escape his carseat for a 15 minute break he provided entertainment for all those around him. Such a little ham, despite being woken up at 5am to get on the airplane.

During our trip we had our first visit to the zoo and celebrated LD's first birthday with family. He loved, loved, loved the zoo!! Here he is riding on my shoulders and pulling my hair:


And here he is meeting a goat at the petting zoo:

All in all it was a great trip. Daddy took lots of pictures with his new Father's Day present. LD splurged and got him the dSLR he's been pining for.

As we approach the one year mark I'm starting to wean myself from the pump. Our breastfeeding relationship was nowhere near what I imagined or prepared myself for while I was pregnant, but it worked for us. I struggled with feelings of failure throughout but I do feel a sense of accomplishment for all the pumping I did. I planned to let LD self-wean but since we exclusively pumped that's not possible. I struggle with guilt over stopping now but I've got over 2000 ounces in my freezer, so he'll continue to drink breastmilk until we run out. It should last a few more months. I've been pumping 4 times a day for the last few weeks and I'm doing 3 times as of yesterday. I can't quit cold turkey so I'm slowly cutting back. Pumping certainly wasn't a blast, but I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. However I'm totally excited that I'll have tons more time to spend with this little guy:


(I've been reading everyone's blogs but Blogger hasn't been letting me comment lately. Sorry if it's been a while since I left you some comment love. I'm reading, I promise.)