Our Big One-Year-Old,
The day has come and passed and now you are an entire year old (plus 12 days)! We had a great birthday celebration that spanned half a week. Daddy only worked on Monday during your Birthday Week and we spent the whole time together having fun, celebrating, and planning and putting together parties. You had a great time and everything went perfectly!
A birthday is a time of celebration, yet it is also a time of reflection and we have done a great deal of that lately around here. We have so very much to be grateful for. Our little family of three is perfect. As we look forward to expanding our little group of three, I try to take time to bask in our tiny family and enjoy this time where we only have you, our first born, our only child. We hope that by your next birthday a little brother or sister will be on the way. We cannot wait to give you that gift. Your Mommy and Daddy love each other and love you more than words can express. Not much more is needed beyond that, though we find ourselves blessed beyond measure. Family, friends, jobs, security, happiness, and health -- life is in a very good place.
At 12 months old you are as happy as ever. You are becoming much more sure on your feet but have not yet given up crawling. Sometimes you walk right across the room like it's nothing and sometimes you don't even feel like taking a step. Normally you reserve the latter for when we are trying to show someone your new skills :o). Climbing is another story. You are our little monkey for sure! You can make it up the stairs, you can navigate your slide on your own, you climb on and off of your riding toys with ease, you'll climb anything to get onto the couch .. and you are steady with all of it!
You had your one year appointment on August 10th and you maintained your percentiles this time :o). You are 19 lbs 14 oz (10th percentile) and 30 inches (55th percentile). You gained 2 lbs and 10 ounces and grew 2 inches since you were 9 months old! I guess we know where all that food is going. You are in 12 month clothes, though the waists are still big on you. You need the length for pants, but for shorts 6-9 or 3-6 months sometimes work better. You still only have your bottom two teeth ... yet I think the top ones will be making their appearance soon. Even with only two little chompers you are doing great with eating. We have started letting you feed yourself by biting bit of food off on your own and you are doing so well for not really having teeth. You eat toast, waffles, pizza, wraps, pretzel sticks, crackers, and fruit on your own. Big boy!
You say Mama, Dada, Boom Boom, and Ya Ya Ya. You shake your head yes and no , though you have been doing this for a while now. You love the Bingo song now (I think it may have replaced your love for Thumbkin) and you love our counting song. While you don't have many new words this month, we do see many cognitive changes. You are very into figuring out what goes where, opening and closing things, putting things in and out, and stacking. You are deliberate in your actions in a way we have not seen before. The other day we watched you walk by the radiator, turn around and look at a block on the floor, go back to get the block and pick it up and place it on a movie that was sitting on the radiator. Pleased with yourself, you went back to playing. We couldn't help but laugh! What were you thinking?!? There are lots of little moments like that now. You are very aware of where things in your room are supposed to go and like to put things back where they belong .. hopefully that continues :o). On the animal front you do puppy and monkey sounds (though they admittedly sound very similar .. ha). It is clear you know what you are trying to do, you just cannot yet articulate very well.
One of the sweetest moments I have ever experienced happened this month. You were snuggling with me on the couch, sooo tired, and fading off to sleep. Your eyes were closed but you were fighting letting go like usual. Whatever was playing on the t.v. mentioned a puppy dog and you clearly and loudly made your little puppy dog sound without even opening your little baby eyes. I couldnt' believe it, it was so precious! You are such a sweet sweet thing.
