TWELVE MONTHS. ONE YEAR.

Life with a one year old is not much different from life with an eleven month old. At nine months old, Brother started cruising everywhere, and I thought for sure we'd have an early walker. But here we are three months later, and he's still cruising along. As long as he has something to hold onto, he'll move on his feet. But nothing steady in sight and he'll drop like a fly and crawl right on to where ever it was he was going.

I refuse to think of him as a toddler until he starts walking, which I am sure is not too far away.

Here's what else he's up to at twelve months....one year...which reminds me, when do I stop referring to his age in months?!?

*He points to everything. I'm loving his new form of communication as he is able to tell us exactly what he wants.

*Has eight teeth (four on top, four on bottom), and is getting his top molars. They have been a real beast, and we haven't even seen them peek through yet. Just lots of swollen gums and a little boy who is refusing to eat solid food. Poor thing.

*Stands on his own quite often, but if you call attention to what he's doing, again, he'll drop like a fly.

*Took his first steps (three or so, to be exact) to Nugget about two weeks ago. Hasn't had a lot of interest since.

*Is a dancing machine. He even has some pretty sweet moves, which I have no idea where he got them from. He can bop up and down while simultaneously shaking his head, which is really hard to do. I've tried. It's kinda like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. He also does this thing where he throws his arms back, leans forward, and bops his upper body. Told ya he had some sweet moves.

*Has recently been pretending to talk on the phone. He'll put one to his ear, then make a series of high pitched noises, which I presume is his 'talking' voice.

*Nugget had a doll brush lying out on the floor the other day, and he crawled over to it, picked it up and started brushing his hair. So smart, I tell ya.

***See Nugget in the background? She has lived, and I mean truly LIVED in either her Snow White or Ariel dress for the past two weeks. What gives?

*Waves bye-bye more consistently now. But instead of a subtle open and close of the hand, its a full on back and forth wave of his whole arm.

*He signs 'all done', which is similar to his wave, but uses both arms.

*Loves sister's baby dolls. He will snuggle them and 'pat pat' them on their heads. I have no shame in a boy who likes dolls. Just sayin'.

*LOVES his Daddy. When he hears him come home from work, he bolts to the kitchen to greet him. Of course he loves me too, but he has to as he's still on the boob :)

*Sleeping has been all over the place, and who can blame him with all the yucky stuff he's had going on lately? He's a good little napper, two a day, averaging two hours a piece or so. He also wakes up about once a night. I don't know if he's truly hungry (probably not) but it's just easiest to nurse him and everyone gets back to sleep quickly.



*We introduced whole milk, but were advised to back off when he got sick with the flu bug. We can reintroduce in a few days, at which point I hope to wean him from nursing during the day. He shows no signs of stopping, so we shall see how that goes.

Wearing Daddy's glasses

That's about all that's new with the happy man for this month. 'Till next time, folks...