A & E and Little C: One Year!!!

How in the world do I try to sum up all the little things to describe our little boy at this age in one (not insanely long) post?

This past year has been full of SO many JOYS!!! The first couple months were rough, not going to lie, between acid reflux and no sleep, but motherhood has been WONDERFUL!!! There is nothing like that sweet, dimple smile to light up my day! :-)

I still just look at him and go "WOW", we made him (with God's help, or course!). He is HEALTHY. He is HAPPY. He is PERFECT.

We feel BEYOND blessed that God chose us to be his mommy and daddy.

Okay, so let's try and think of all the in's and out's of our little ONE YEAR OLD!!!

Basic Stats:
Height - 32.75" (99th percentile!!!)
Weight - 25 lb 12 oz (87th percentile) He's definitely slimmed down since he's been crawling/walking.
Clothing - Just about out of 18 months and now in mostly 24 months/2T.
Diapers - Size 4 Pampers Cruisers (accidentally bought Pampers Baby Dry one day and had some issues.)

Sleeping - Sleeps at night from ~8:00/8:30ish to ~7:00/7:30ish. Usually cries for 5-15 minutes, then gives up. He MUST have his blanket from Jolee and Stitches, his bear.

Naps - Generally takes two, ~1-1.5 hour naps. The morning nap is usually starts around 9:30/10:00 and the afternoon nap usually starts around 2:00/2:30. He'll scream bloody murder for no more than 5 minutes and then silence....most of the time. :-)

Meals - Usually a chow hound. The kid eats just about everything we put in front of him. Breakfast is around 8/8:30. He loves toast with either butter/cinnamon or just a little peanut butter (No allergies to peanuts! Yay!). He also still loves oatmeal, (baby) fruit, and Nutrigrain bars. He LOVES scrambled eggs. He also LOVES the breakfast buffet at Luby's that includes non-crispy bacon, eggs, beans, hash browns, grits, oatmeal, you name it! Lunch is around 11:30/12. He LOVES a variety of meats including smoked sausage, frozen chicken fajitas, beef hot dogs, fish, or really just about anything we give him. He doesn't like canned fruits though. I think it's a texture thing. Dinner is a lot of the same type stuff. He loves green beans, broccoli, any kind of beans, and okra. He usually has a snack after he wakes up from his afternoon nap.

Liquids - Initially, we made the transition to regular, whole milk just fine; however, this past week he's been burping A LOT and you can hear it coming back up. He actually threw it up yesterday....weird. So, I've put the whole milk on hold and bought some almond milk instead. He LOVES it... he's been sucking it down! When we had to supplement breast milk, he was on lactose-sensitive formula since it seemed as though his little system was a little sensitive. I HOPE we don't have the acid reflux thing resurface. He also loves the carrot-apple juice and ice cold water. He's pretty much done with the bottle. He'd definitely take it if we gave it to him, but he's definitely mastered his sippy cup, so I've been trying to break the bottle habit. He was pretty much down to just having one when he woke up and then being offered one before bed (which he really didn't take too often), so taking out that last bottle in the morning didn't really seem to bother him. I did give him a bottle in the car on the way to Dallas last weekend so he'd hopefully fall asleep. He did. :-) He hasn't had one at all this past week though!!! I certainly don't miss washing all those bottle parts!

Other Things About Out Little Man:

-He took his first steps right around his first birthday and then really took off this past weekend when we were up in Dallas. He is definitely a WALKER now (@ 12.5 months)... he's all over the place! {Another post to come on that!}
-He still crawls some and is SUPER fast.
-He hasn't really started talking at all other than "Mom Mom" and occasionally "Da Da." He "talks" a lot in his own little language, but he isn't mimicking us yet.
-He does know what a lot of things are though. If you say "duck" or "deer", he'll look around the living room until he sees the the duck or deer on the wall and will point to it. Some other words he definitely knows are: Dog, Shooter, Lucy, Baby, Ba (bottle), Milk, the sign for "More" and "All Done" (he hasn't signed them back though), Ball, Monkey, Book, Bird, Fan, Clock, Light (tell him to turn off the light and he does), open & close (he knows how to do this too)... I know there's more, but those are the words coming to mind at the moment.
-He LOVES books, blocks, push toys, anything that spins, his baby doll, making anything crash, pushing buttons, anything that lights up, and his music table.
-He loves to make the motor boat sound with his mouth.
-He still hasn't had a hair cut but desperately needs one around his ears and just a little on his neck. He's sporting some frat wings and a mini-rat tail.
-He's definitely LEFT handed.
-He likes to play peek-a-boo...even by himself.
-Still can blow a duck call! :-)
-He's been making the "O" shape with his mouth lately...hilarious.
-He starts Mothers Day Out in 2 weeks!!!
-He plays really well by himself and with other kids (so far).
-He likes to "pat pat" Shooter and other babies.
-He loves to jingle Daddy's keys with his foot when Daddy is holding him and his keys are clipped to his belt.
-We finally found shoes to fit his fat & vertically thick feet...yay for Robeez in 18-24 months!
-He loves to swing... too bad it's been so hot.
-Definitely shows signs of loving music. He used to just love to watch Andrew play guitar, now he wants to play it. He's pretty good!
-He's forward facing in Andrew's big truck... that and the DVD player with Yo Gabba Gabba pretty much saved us on the trip to Dallas. He's still rear-facing in my car.
-He loves the computer mouse, remote, and cell phones.
-He's very curious and loves to inspect everything.
-He loves to go to the store with me... so much to look at!
-He loves to get in the drawers in the sofa table and pull out the extra pictures...AND he knows he's not supposed to. Hello, mischievous look, I'm sure I'll see you A LOT.
-He's recently started putting things back, lining things up, and putting things into containers. He used to just dump stuff out. He's already helped me cleaning up! He loves to pull washcloths out of the drawers in the bathroom, but now he helps put them back! Love this! Unfortunately putting books back up hasn't happened yet. Pulling books off the shelf is definitely one of his favorite past times.
-He loves rolling around on the couch. (As evidenced by the failed 1-Year photoshoot below.)