It’s so cliche…but so true. Holy cow, a lot happens in a year…but that year goes SO fast.

I can’t believe this time last year I was cradling this teeny tiny person and wrapping my head around the fact that this sweet thing had been in my belly the whole time and was now a real person and member of our family.

At one year old, you are sleeping through the night consistently (!!!!!) from about 7 at night to 6 or 6:30 (sometimes earlier, but sometimes later!) and taking two naps a day, each lasting anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours. You are super easy to put down and still love to have your pacifier on hand, and blankie to cuddle with.

You are a fairly easy-to-please eater, but definitely have your moments when you suddenly decide that today, no you don’t like applesauce anymore, thank you very much. Only to go back to liking it the next day. In general, you do well and we can always find something that you’ll gobble up. The best advice I’ve gotten in terms of mealtime is to not sweat a meal, but look at the big picture of how balanced you were throughout the week. Good thing — because more than once, a “meal” has consisted of cheddar cow crackers and baby cheetos!

You are getting much better with a sippy cup on your own as opposed to us helping you hold it up (something you never mastered with the bottle, either) and after a couple days of cutting back to only bottles when you first wake up and at night for bedtime, we cut them out altogether and you didn’t flinch. We started a slow switch from formula to whole milk this past month and you didn’t bat an eye. Cold, straight outta the fridge. Low maintenance…love it!

In addition to “dada” and “mama” which you’ve been saying for a while, “bababa” for bottle has become more consistent, and “baw” for ball, and “ah dah” for all done, with which you wave your hands to do the sign. We also SWEAR you say “doh” for door…one of your favorite activities is to open and close every door around the house. You love to give hugs and kisses when asked, and if I saw “aww” when you hug your Babar stuffed animal, you will give him extra hugs for another “aw” reaction ha!

To balance out the lovey side of you…apparently we need to work on sharing a bit! One of your daycare teachers jokingly mentioned that you will go all day not caring about a certain toy, but then once someone else is playing with it, it must be yours instead. Greedy, greedy. Sigh. Goal for year two.

You are starting to fit into some 12-18 month clothing, but pants in general still run a little long on you — short legs like Mom, sorry! 🙂 I’m hoping when you are doing more walking versus crawling, they won’t get in your way so much — all that knee-dragging pulls them down even further. Speaking of, you walk along anything you can grab onto, and do a little standing here and there unsupported. Ultimately though, you know you’re faster if you crawl, so you’ll drop back down to all fours and take off in search of whatever you have your eye on. For the longest time, you would “walk” behind your walking toy but on your knees, we’re finally seeing you walk behind it ON your feet! If we leave a gate open, you BOLT for the stairs and can climb them crazy fast. You are quickly mastering turning around to go feet-first on your belly DOWN them, and slide off the couch, bed, etc in the same way.

Your one-year appointment isn’t for another couple of weeks, but we weighed you at home unofficially the other day and you clocked in at 21 pounds on the dot. Anxious to see how tall you’ve gotten!

You continue to favor cars and balls above all else. Except for the remote. That is your FAVORITE. THING. You actually scoot along the couch and end tables looking for it, yell at it when you spot it (out of reach) and howl like a crazy person if we let you hold it, waving it lasso-style over your head and staring at the TV screen, expecting it to come on. Ri.Dic.U.Lous.

Happiest of birthdays, my one-year-old boy. Since I first learned you were on your way to us, you’ve infinitely changed my world for the better and we couldn’t love someone more. You are such a happy, spunky, strong, and loving soul and I can’t wait to see the life you will lead. I’m so very lucky to be your mama. Thanks for choosing me for the job.

Eleven months…

It’s a tiny miracle I can sit down to write this post…because you are constantly on the move! We laugh at how fast you are – we blink and you’re across the room, pulling up on something. You LOVE to be standing and this new height level perspective you’ve discovered!

You’re aware that you’re missing out on things when you’re down on the floor and we’re standing up or sitting up on the couch or in bed. You  whine until one of us picks you up so you can scan the situation and see what you’ve been left out of.

You LOVE music, in particular the shaker song at Book Babies, the version of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing by Pentatonix, and If You’re Happy and You Know It continues to be a fave. You bop along to tunes that strike your fancy!

This was a month where so many things just seemed to CLICK for you. You suddenly became way more interested in food – a wider range, and a greater quantity. Daycare has started trying things on their menu with you as well, so you’re being exposed to a wide array of things to try. Favorites right now include anything with blueberry, yogurt, puffs, baby “cheetos”, bites of Mom’s veggie pizza, baked potato soup, the Plum Organics “Mighty 4” pouches, and blueberry toaster waffles! As a result, you are taking smaller and fewer bottles – one when you wake up, a couple small ones during the day, and one when you go to bed. We officially started the transition to whole milk this week – no more rushing to Costco for formula!

I’m crediting the increase in food with the increase in sleep. You wake up maybe once a night now, and usually it’s for a brief moment to get that pacifier back – which we still sometimes have to help with, since you still like to throw them out of the crib (?!). You’re going to bed between 7 and 7:30, and sleeping until nearly 7 most mornings.

You are all cars. All the time. Nothing else exists when we’re outside or in a parking lot and a car/truck of any sort goes by — it has your full attention. You will pull acrobatic tricks in our arms to get a glimpse of a passing car. You have a handful of toy cars, all of which seem to be your playthings of choice right now. You push them around the room as you crawl, and recently starting making “vroom” type noises.  You have the need for speed!

Physically, you seem to have gone through a recent growth spurt – you feel heavier, you’ve moved up a pants size, and you have a little more belly now, too – perhaps all that new food? 🙂 You also just seem more SOLID – it must be all that constant muscle work of crawling, pulling up, and walking along things. It’s true — you really are “Sooooo big!” as you like to show us! Your hair is going a bit curlier now that you really have some – we scheduled your first haircut for this weekend to trim up a little for Christmas and the big O-N-E.

(On another developmental note, this was the first month you hit a point where you were “over” your monthly photo sesh with Mom…#notamused #arewedoneyet #mamarazzi.)

…I’m crying (happy-ish) tears that the next post will be about celebrating your sweet soul on this planet for one. whole. year. Time flies when you’re having fun. 

Ten months…

You are quickly morphing into an older baby boy. And heavy emphasis on the boy. When I learned we were having a son, so many boy mamas told me “ah! you’ll love this — boys LOVE their mamas”…and it is so true. I love that you are a cuddler, want to be held, get into my lap to read a book, and give full-on slobbery kisses when asked. 🙂

You are a repeat of your daddy, and in more than just the looks department! It’s incredible to me how, at ten months, you can already have such a tuned-in interest to motors, things that go, anything on wheels…you get the idea. The following three pics taken on Halloween were in the span of a couple seconds as you broke into a bouncing dance and grinned as a random car went by. This happens EVERY time you see one.

You are ob.sessed. with the dancing matches commercial from the Ad Council! It comes on a lot in the morning when the news is on and we’re getting ready…you will bolt back into the room to watch it, or whip around if you’re turned from the TV when it comes on. It just might be your favorite jam, followed closely by “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. You are definitely a fan of music! You are starting to bop along to certain songs that strike your fancy. You still love to clap and the waving is hit-or-miss but you’re getting the hang of it. We’re working on “SOOOO big” — but you still just give us your “you’re so weird, guys” look when we try this one with you.

Month ten was another sicky month for you – we went from a healthy nine month check to back in the office the following week with double pinkeye, then a couple days later to confirm hand/foot/mouth. It all came with a nasty phlegmy cough, just to keep it fun and interesting. I wouldn’t wish hand/foot/mouth on anyone — there was a 24 hour period in there that was by far my hardest 24 hours of parenting yet (including labor!). You had a fever for days on end, wouldn’t eat or drink, and I had to give you syringes of pedialyte just to keep hydrated. Poor buddy. Thankfully you have bounced back 100% – I missed my happy, spunky baby!

So corny 😉 but I love these two! #iowaboys

A photo posted by Liz Smith (@lizblogphotog) on Oct 18, 2015 at 8:00pm PDT

You are investigating tons of new foods – depending on what we’re eating, you try little nibbles of our meals, are obsessed with puffs and yogurt melts, yogurt, applesauce, mango, and most recently teething biscuits. You strongly prefer things you can feed yourself over me pointing a spoon at you, so we’ve been experimenting with the Num Num spoons that let you (try!) and feed yourself a little. Otherwise, it’s mostly just finger foods. I picked up our latest round of formula just today at Costco and found myself wondering how much of this I have left to buy…soon enough, we can start cutting it with real milk, and phasing it out!

Picasso in the making. #bathnight #thisisgoodfordadscomfortzone #creativemess A photo posted by Liz Smith (@lizblogphotog) on Oct 29, 2015 at 5:28pm PDT

Your vocab rotates around your three favorite things…”mama”, “dada”, and “baba”. 🙂 Sometimes when you’re annoyed I hear a “nah nah nahhhh” out of you…is it possible you already know the word “no”?! Yikes. You love to crawl into spaces, including the tent and tunnel your dad and I got you from IKEA.

Being sick isn’t all bad. Your parents feel bad for you and buy you toys 🙂

A photo posted by Liz Smith (@lizblogphotog) on Oct 26, 2015 at 6:52am PDT

You love to bang any two hard objects together to make clanking noises, and especially like to put objects inside containers.

Get well gift from Mimi and Papa Rosie 😜. #nothingbutnet #firsttry @prosenberg A video posted by Liz Smith (@lizblogphotog) on Oct 28, 2015 at 7:00pm PDT

You love your elephant walking toy, although you don’t walk with it yet, you scoot alongside it on your knees, or sit on it and bounce to the tunes. It arrived during a visit from your Aunt Blake – you had so much fun when she came to play with you for a weekend!

Someone got a new fun thing! @gqueenb #bouncin 😊

A video posted by Liz Smith (@lizblogphotog) on Oct 10, 2015 at 7:55am PDT

You roasted your first Halloween as Albert Einstein! I wasn’t sure if you’d allow me to put on a knit baby hat that I glued some hair to, nor did I think you’d stand for the white makeup I used to paint on eyebrows and a mustache…but you pretty much took it all in stride. Less-than-ten-dollars, less-than-ten-minutes-worn costumes for the win. 😉 You loved watching the trick-or-treaters come to the door…you were fascinated by the costumes and quickly put it together that the doorbell sound meant more new faces to check out. I’m in total denial that we are into the double-digits of month counts! In some ways it’s gone so fast, and in others it seems we’ve ALWAYS been a fam of three. Eagerly looking forward to the holiday season with you, and some slower, cozy winter months to soak up this awesome stage that you’re in. Love to you pieces, buddy. Muah!!

Obnoxious plaid times three. ☺️ A photo posted by Liz Smith (@lizblogphotog) on Oct 17, 2015 at 8:08pm PDT

XOXOXOXOXOXO,
Mom