This year has seemed very long but when I think about it, it also seems to have gone by so quickly. I don't remember much about him being a little baby. It seems like he's always been this little boy just playing with Lucy.
ALL CLEAN AND GETTING READY FOR BED!
He had his one year old check up yesterday, and here are his stats:
Weight: 21 lbs., 1 oz.
Height: 29"
Head Circumference: 18 1/2"
Eating:
We've come a long way, baby! I really started to notice it when we were at a friend's mountain cabin a few weekends ago. When I tried to feed him baby food, he would push it away, but when we fed him table food, he would eagerly accept it. I had bought him some Baby Mum Mum crackers a few days before to try it out, and I really think that helped him a lot. They dissolve so quickly that he can get the feeling of biting something but then it turns into a thick mush that he can just swallow. So from then on it's been no turning back! He still eats baby food occasionally, because it takes me 20 seconds to heat it, rather than 10 minutes to fix him something, so it's easier when I'm in a hurry! But mostly he just eats what we are eating in an appropriate form. He eats bananas, baby food, avocado, pasta, veggies, breads, oatmeal, yogurt, smoothies, pancakes, muffins, anything! I love it. We had his iron re-tested at his one year appt. and it was still a little low, like it was at his 9 month appt., but she said just to keep trying to feed him iron-rich foods and it should go up. I think just eating table food will help, since most of what we eat for dinner is veggies. He still nurses 3-4 times a day. I thought I was going to stop nursing him as soon as he turned 1 because we were having HORRIBLE issues with his teeth biting me. SO painful. But for some reason, he just stopped so it hasn't been painful lately. He's been a little under the weather this week so I am nursing him a little more than I might just to give him an extra immune boost. I don't have any specific plans to stop. I'm sure the more and more food he eats, the less he will want to nurse, and that's okay with me. I'm ready to stop whenever he is! :) Speaking of teeth, I know he has six, and I can see one more on the bottom coming in and the pediatrician said she saw one more on the top, too. So there may be more and more teeth coming in even this week.
Motion:
He is still crawling and cruises the furniture like a speed racer, but he doesn't even try to stand up by himself and he does NOT like it when we try to "help" him walk. He's not showing any interest in walking by himself. He loves to walk with a toy walker -- he does that a lot during the day! I'm not worried. I know he will get it. He's just getting into waving, too, and he LOVES to wave at Wesley when he leaves for work and when he comes home. It's the cutest little wave. He loves to try to climb, especially into the bathtub when I start running the water for their nightly bath. He loves to stand up in the bathtub, too (not allowed!) and he loves to try to climb on things to reach other things. Yikes!
Talking:
He can say Momma, Dada, Nina/Nana (?), night-night, uh-oh, and tonight in the bath he said "Bubble" (seriously!) and then I was taking him to change a poopy diaper after I had already gotten his pajamas on, and I said, "You have some poopoo in your diaper!" and it sounded like he tried to say poopoo and diaper. We kept trying to get him to say diaper and he sounds like he is trying so hard. He says a lot of other random things, too, but those are the clearest.
Sleeping:
Nothing new to report. Still naps twice a day, or once a day if we happen to be out and about during what would normally be his morning nap. He takes good, long naps (praise the Lord!) and he sleeps very well at night, only waking up once still. With Lucy, we had to eventually let her cry a little bit before she learned to sleep through the night, but that's next to impossible with Ian because Lucy sleeps in the next room, so if Ian were to cry at all, it would wake her up, and then we'd have two awake kids on our hands. So because it's not interfering with me too much, I just get up and feed him once a night and he goes right back to sleep. The other night he slept through the night but that is an exception, not the rule.
What a joy it is to be Ian's mommy! I am constantly amazed at how smart he is, at his little personality, at the things he knows that I KNOW I did not teach him (both good and bad!), and at how much he takes in. I was thinking the other day about how when Lucy was 1, she had all age-appropriate toys and she barely watched any TV or videos, and she went to age-appropriate play outings, etc. Now Ian gets the benefit of having toys that are for older kids, so he gets to figure them out. He gets to watch Elmo's World while we're eating breakfast because Lucy is watching it. He gets to go to storytime for 2 year olds at the library because I take Lucy there. So he is getting the benefit of learning for older kids and it shows! He already knows so many songs and hand motions and signs ... it's crazy. I love watching him grow, and I am really savoring each day with him.
Ian, we love you so much, and we are so happy you are our son. It only gets better from here!
