Our One Year Old!!!

Hopefully you enjoyed the slide show. What a wonderful year it has been. He has changed so much and yet continues to be the sweet boy he was from day one. We have so much fun playing with him now and he is finally able to express a lot of what he has learned this past year, so that is exciting to see. Had I done this update right at 12 months there wouldn't be quite as much to say. It seems like he's learned a ton of stuff just in the past week. Here are some of the many new things he is up to:

*He's getting his top four teeth and because of this been sick since the beginning of August (2 colds, ear infection, and cough). When we finally took him to the doctor he weighed 22 pounds 9 ounces. Once he's completely better we'll go back for the 12 month check-up.

*The big change at the moment is that he is taking steps on his own. He can practically run if pushing something or holding our hands, but just didn't have the courage to take steps on his own. On Tuesday he finally took two steps to get to a toy and now is more willing to try. I know it won't be long until he's running on his own through the house :)

*He loves music and will dance any time he hears it. He will also break out into dance (moving his shoulders back and forth) if you ask him to. He had the kids in the doctors office laughing while he grooved to his own beat I guess.

*He loves to play outside and cries when we have to come in.

*He loves to push things- his car and dump truck that he can walk behind or if they aren't near, toys, baskets, and boxes are suitable substitutes. He tends to be a bit of a maniac driver when walking behind his car. He seems to spend more time turning it than actually pushing it straight ahead.

*He still loves to splash in the toilet and has also found the toilet paper. Whenever I see him make his way to the bathroom because he finds the door open, he crawls into the bathroom and stops to wait for me to come and then crawls super fast to get to the toilet. I guess to him it is a game. The last couple of days I've made him sit on it so he can see what it's really for. I think he gets scared that he's going to fall in!

*Aunt Julia taught him to clap to "If you're happy and you know it." Now he does it most of the time when I sing it to him. Sometimes he'll stomp his feet and we're working on saying "amen" which he has said twice.

*He says "baa baa" and "maa maa" so I'm trying to connect those with sheep and goat. He looks at my mouth whenever I try to get him to repeat something new and tries it out. He's gotten good at "sssss" which I remind him is a snake sound. I'm hoping to take him to a farm sometime soon so he can actually see the animals.

*He knows where his hair and toes are and is working on belly, ears, and nose.

*He loves to eat and more importantly loves our food. I guess turning one has made me less concerned about the 4-day wait rule, so he gets new food pretty regularly now. He loves to chew his food and especially likes fruit and cheese. Now that he has more variety, vegetables aren't as enjoyable to him. I know I'm not going to remember everything, but this month he tried pineapple, mango, oranges, strawberries, green peppers, tomatoes, cheerios with milk, baked ziti, pizza, and goldfish. It is nice being able to just give him a small helping of what we're having!!

*On Monday he showed me that he knows how to sign. He wanted more of the goldfish that Emily has and kept pointing to her. I told him to ask for more and he clapped his hands (which is how I've taught him to do it) and consistently uses it now. He tries to do it when I teach him new ones, so now I'm having to look through the book to figure out what to teach him next.

*He is drinking more and more milk each day. We're down to nursing first thing in the morning and right before bed, although today we skipped the morning feeding. I'm conflicted over how I feel about the whole weaning process. I'm super excited to not have the time commitment that is involved with it, but also sad because I feel like he won't need me anymore (at least not to the degree that he has thus far). Anthony said that if I left him alone for a week it would be obvious that he would still need me. So anyway.