ONE

One. Our little baby boy is one year old today! Where did the time go? It's flown by, but at the same time, bringing him home from the hospital seems light years away. He's grown so much and learned so many things in this past year. He's fastly becoming a little boy. I know I skipped the 11 month update (but I do have pictures!) so I'll do a long, in-depth update on him at this momentous milestone.

First, basics:

Eat, Sleep, Poop

Well, that's how it was the first couple of months, except he cycled that every 3-4 hours. Now, he gets 2-3 bottles a day (one in the morning, one mid-day, and one right before bed). He's currently on formula now but we'll probably try to ween him off and get him on whole (cow) milk soon. We'd like to get the official ok from his pediatrician before doing that though, and his 12 month check-up isn't till the end of the month. He does love drinking from his sippy cup though. He loves drinking water and is starting to like milk. We've only tried juice (watered down) a few times but he seems completely happy with water so that's fine with us.

Eating - this little guy can eat! He's quite small for his age but the little dude can pack it away. His favorite food continues to be bananas, but give him any fruit and he'll kill it. In fact, we can only give him a few pieces at a time because he'll pick up a handful of the fruit pieces and shove it in his mouth and ask for more, even though his cheeks are packed and he can barely open his mouth to chew. Other fruits he loves are peaches, blueberries, pears and watermelon. He also loves bread, crackers and graham crackers. Loves anything with cheese, especially mac and cheese. He seems to really like things with a lot of flavor, which I guess shouldn't be surprising because that's the way we are too - we like bold flavors. For the most part, we give him whatever we're eating. We just chop it up small for him. Like this week, he had BBQ chicken and roasted potatoes, chicken tikka masala, and last night we had spaghetti with meatballs. He also started on the school lunch this week as well. We're just supplementing some of the things because he can't quite eat everything yet. Like he can't eat carrot sticks, so we pack a small portion of steamed carrots and peas (which he loves!) for him as a vegetable side dish for lunch. Eating has never been a struggle for us and he seems to love almost everything we give him.

Sleeping - Depending on the day, he takes 1 or 2 naps a day. He usually takes 2, but there are some days where he'll only take 1. I imagine that he'll be down to 1 nap in the next month or so. He goes to bed around 7:30 - 8:00pm each night (again, depending on how many naps he gets). Lately, he's been going to bed by himself without any fuss at all. We give him his bath, brush his teeth (which he loves to do!), read books, give him a bottle, kiss him goodnight and lay him down in his crib with his paci and his bear blanket. And that's it! He might play around in his crib for a little while but usually within 20 min, he'll be asleep. It's been SO nice. We found out the trick was to only crack the door so he couldn't see you. That way, we could peek in to check in on him but he couldn't see you. In the past, once he saw you, he'd fuss until we'd pick him up and then we'd end up rocking him to sleep. Now we know it's better to not be seen at all. He wakes up around 6:15-7:00am, which means no sleeping in for us - ever. On the weekends, we've been bringing him into bed with us once he wakes up and he'll sit between us, crawl around and play. It's nice having that quiet time in the morning.

Poop - Won't comment much on this except that since he eats so much fruit, it's never a problem.

Developments

• No walking but cruising. He started cruising on Memorial Day weekend. He doesn't cruise much because we don't have that many long pieces of furniture. He mostly cruises along the coffee table or over by the hall cabinets. He does love to push his little car around that can walk behind. Loves it. He'll push it all around the house and he'll get mad when he hits a wall. He'll bringing it back and keep banging it against the wall/furniture until we come and help him turn it around. Then he's all smiles as he's barreling down the hall at full speed. He also loves walking while you're holding his hands. We've been working on just holding one hand this past week but it really depends on what mood he's in. Sometimes he'll do it, sometimes he won't. He loves when we hold his hands to walk and he kicks a ball around. Loves it! He laughs out loud when the ball goes really far. He is so proud of himself!
• ****I wrote this post on his actual birthday but am only getting around to posting it now. Anderson has begun taking his first steps! He started on Tuesday, July 14 and is practicing a little every day. I know it's only a matter of time until he is running around!
  

• He doesn't stand on his own too much, but can for a short period of time. He used to hold on to something to pull himself up to standing, and then let go. Now he seems to want to just go straight up, stand, hold it, and then come back down when he feels like he's had enough.


• Words - he says mama when he specifically wants mama. He says dada but I'm not sure he's said it directly to Wilson yet. He rambles it a lot though. He says "nana" for banana. In fact, I've shown him a picture of a banana and asked him what it was and he smiled at me and said "nana"! The other morning, he was able to say "beah" for bear, but I haven't heard him say it since.


• He's able to point at a few things when we ask him "where is _____". He's able to do "Where's your head?" "Where's the fan?" "Where's the tree?" He'll also point and go "eh, eh, eh, eh" (that whiny voice) when he's trying to communicate what he wants. We're currently working on "Where's your belly?"


• He'll only kiss inanimate objects now. When he was younger, he'd readily give you all the kisses you wanted. Now, he'll only kiss toys or books. Not people :( He'll only kiss people when he kisses a toy first. When you do ask for a kiss before giving him a toy to kiss first, he'll just lean in and hit you with his forehead.


• He's been really into books lately. He'll pick out a book and hold it out to you as if he's asking you to read it. One time, he got a book from the bookshelf, crawled all the way to the kitchen and brought it to me to read. And he'll (most of the time), sit in your lap and listen to the whole story. He still loves turning the pages and almost seems to know when it's time to do so. His favorite book by far is currently "Engine, Engine Number Nine." And every night we read "The Crunching, Munching Caterpillar" and once we get it out, he immediately reaches for it and gives the Caterpillar on the cover a kiss.
  


• He just learned how to turn on and off the lights/fan with the light switch. Now he wants to do it all the time. The first thing he does when he wakes up and we pick him up out of his crib is point to the light switch.

Personality

Anderson is a happy, funny, cuddly little guy. He loves to laugh and play. He loves playing with water. At school, they have water day every Wednesday and he loves it. He splashes in the little pool they have out and is fearless in the water. He's made the other babies cry when he splashed them. But he doesn't care if you splash him. He might rub his eyes a little to get the water away but he'll splash you right back - harder! Anderson's a little ham too. He loves going "phwwtt!" with his tongue and "blow bubbles" (aka spit). He does this a school and makes the other babies laugh and laugh. If he finds out something makes you laugh, he'll keep doing it over and over. Sometimes, he'll share his snack with you, but sometimes it's only a tease. For example, he'll be eating a cracker and he'll hold out a piece as if to say "you want some mommy?" I would say 70% of the time he'll hold it out, let me take a bite, smile and then take his bite. But sometimes, he'll hold it out, wait till my mouth is wide open and I'm inches away and he'll pull it back towards him and squeal with laughter.

He is starting to show a little temper though. If you take something away from him that he really wants, he'll sit there a cry and cry. We usually try to distract him with something else since we don't want to give in and let him think he can get his way all the time. But for the most time, he is such a happy child. We've been really blessed with what we think is the most perfect child and we both love every second of being a parent. I don't think either of us could imagine how much we'd absolutely love being a parent and we couldn't love Anderson more. This past year has definitely been a whirlwind. It's been the most challenging thing we've ever done but the most rewarding as well. Anderson is such a wonderful, beautiful child and I couldn't imagine loving him anymore than I already do. But I know that more he grows, learns, and his personality develops, I'm going to love him more and more each day.

I haven't gotten around to taking his official 12 month picture yet, but here are a few pics of his First Birthday party we had at our house this past weekend. Unfortunately, there aren't that many since both Wilson and I were busy hosting, taking care of Anderson, or visiting with our guests. It was a nice little party and it was really fun seeing all the kids play together. No one cried and it seemed as though all the little kids got along really well.

The birthday banner I made especially for the occasion

Trenton, Gabby, Anderson and Xavier playing around the cooler.

We're all singing Happy Birthday to Anderson and he's looking around not knowing what is going on. I have to hold it out for him because he'll grab it as soon as it hits the tray.

Anderson sticking his finger in frosting for the first time

Mmmm......yummy. Me like!

This cupcake is pretty good mama!

Here is Anderson trying to "share" his cupcake with me. Such a sweet guy.

Playing with the cupcake topper I made (with Wilson's help). Don't worry, I only let him play with it for picture purposes and promptly took it away once I got a good picture. I wanted a picture with "1" in it so I could remember it was his 1st birthday.

With the few people remaining, we tried to take a group picture of the kids, but they weren't having it. They are all so mobile now, none of them wanted to sit still. But you can see Anderson's birthday present from us in this picture - his own little chair. He loves it and climbs in and out of it. Sometimes he'll even sit and look at a book in his chair. (In the picture with Anderson is Collin (Left - who just turned 1 yesterday) and Matthew (Right - Wilson's cousin's son who is 15 months)