Now That I'm One

Hi! Just taking a break from waving my sushi snack until rice flies around the living room to let you know what I've been up to since my birthday:

• I'm officially no longer a baby but a full-fledged toddler. Woo-hoo!

• I figured out cruising. Before I was one, I would pull-up, assess the situation, and if I wanted to be somewhere else, I would sit back down, scoot over, then pull-up again, assess the scene and see if I was where I wanted to be, then sit down again if I needed to fine tune my position. This week, I've been experimenting with scooting my foot over while standing up, but I hadn't figured out how to pull up my anchor foot. Then, this morning - ta da! I pulled up on the bathtub upstairs, and I just cruised right along it like I was meant for cruising. Cool, huh?

• Before I was one, my parents spent considerable effort trying to teach me the names for the parts of my body; I listened, but I wasn't interested in showing anyone what I was learning. Then yesterday morning Mommy said something about my tongue, and I decided to show it to her. She wanted to make sure I actually understood and it wasn't just a coincidence, so she asked, "Tongue?" I showed it to her again, an annoying number of times since she kept asking over and over again. She's not sure how I learned that particular word, since it's not one they've gone out of their way to show me. Most kids identify their nose, or their hands, or their feet first, but me - I'm a tongue guy. Ask me - I'll show you.

• I've become a fairly consistent high-fiver.

• I've decided to try out some of the big people words. I only started saying "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" last weekend (much to Mommy's relief), but since I turned one I have started saying "Ma Ma!" when Mommy comes in my room to rescue me from my crib; I'd been saying "Da Da" for forever but I was using it for both my parents until now. I've also started saying "ba ba" for bottle (and for bye bye). Uncle Jon noticed me saying "wa wa" (for water) again, and when I woke up at my Nonna's the other day, I looked around and asked Mommy, "Na Na?" And finally, I've resumed saying "num num" when I'm hungry, and "ne ne" when I specifically want milk. Amazing, no?

*****

On to my birthday! Here are some pictures from the big day:

The night before my birthday, my parents took me to the Auto-Rama so they could see The Simpsons movie. I ate most of an apple before I conked out for the rest of the flick, so they let me sleep in my clothes. When I woke up the next morning, it surprised me that my parents came in singing to me. That "Happy Birthday" is a great song!



For lunch on my birthday, we had mongolian barbecue. I got to feed myself broccoli, pineapple, zucchini and tofu; I wasn't feeling the rice, but at least they had tortillas there. I also had milk in a special kid cup with aliens on it.



We stopped by my Nonna's office to say hi, and she let me play with her ID badge. Then we went to see my Oma, but I passed out on the way there and slept through my visit with her. When I woke up, I had this cool travel quilt she made me for my birthday, with travel-themed fabric squares and pictures of me on my travels. Oma also sewed a special message for me on the back, which I will love to read, as soon as I learn how.



The sad part of the day was that I had my 12 month check-up. It was all okay at first: I got weighed (21 lbs 7 oz) and measured (28.82" tall and 47 cm head circumference), and I had a good visit with Dr Roberts, who let me check out his stethoscope and gave me a new Clifford book. While he was examining me, I saw Nurse Sandy in the hall, and I waved excitedly to her, because she is really cool. But then she came in and gave me four shots and tried to draw blood from me in three places before she had to give up and give me a referral to go to the lab, and it was the worst experience of my whole entire life so far. I have never been so upset, or scared, or in pain. After it was done, I gave Daddy the cold shoulder for holding me down to be tortured.



But then I forgave Daddy when we went to East Coast Custard and I got my very own baby cone with Cherry Cheesecake custard. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!


Maggie and her parents met us at East Coast Custard to celebrate and Maggie has gotten so big that she smiled right at me. I can't wait until we're both big enough to run around the patio together with our custard!



Matt, Sara and Maggie gave me this really cool drum with musical instruments inside. I immediately took to banging on the drum...



...but what I really loved was playing with the sparkly tissue paper the drum was wrapped in!