Happy First Birthday Jonah!
I can not believe it's already been a year! It's not as cold as it was this day last year, but it's certainly cold. I want to say it was in the teens while we were driving to the hospital, but I can't remember exactly. I know on the news they were saying it was the coldest day of 2006 in Nashville at the time. I know I was freezing yet sweating that morning, having run a wicked fever once I went into labor.
Our little baby boy is officially a toddler now! And toddling around he is indeed. He's getting better and better at walking every day. Just last week, he figured out how to stand up without pulling up on something. Won't be long before he can walk in public. Right now he still falls too much I think.
One thing that's surprised me is how much he loves to share his toys while he's playing and how he's learned this without any prompting. If one of us is in the room, he'll grab two toys and bring one over and hand it to you so you can play with him. It may just be hitting two blocks together or something, but it's play to him. Another thing that surprises me, though it's something I've tried to teach him, is how he'll randomly decide to put away all his toys, or at least the ones near his toy box. For a while, though I've been lazy about keeping up with it, I was trying to teach him that before naps or bedtime, he had to pick up all his toys. It seems to be kind of a game for him at this point, not a chore. I hope it stays that way, but I'm fairly certain it won't. The least I hope for is that it becomes habit for him. He probably won't like it, but if he at least does it, I'll be happy.
He brings me books all the time he wants me to read to him. And just once is never enough, he wants me to read them over and over in the same session. Gets pretty boring when there might only be 6 sentences in a book, if that. There's only so many times I want to help him find the cat hidden under the flap of fabric. But hey, these are the things we do because they're our kids and we love them and want them to have fun, am I right? Off hand, I think of Steff's patience with Lilly's incessant and often rhetorical questions.
He loves to use Mogwai and Jimi as pillows and drums. I'm not sure he differentiates much between them and his stuffed animals, at least the way he treats them thus far (chewing on tails and such). Sunflower still won't let him near her and she's probably wise not to. But if he's ever upset, she makes sure she runs to tell me like a good nanny dog. He still loves our drums, but at this point, he thinks too many other things are also drums. Something we're attempting to break him of before he starts going around hitting people to see what sounds they make.
He started clapping spontaneously about 6 weeks ago. He was just sitting in his high chair and I noticed him looking at one hand, then he suddenly hit it with the other hand. I encouraged him and I could see in his face it was like a "eureka!" moment for him. I had been working with him since he was about 6 months old on clapping and he never even really attempted it. Just goes to show, they pick up on things when they're good and ready to. All you can do is encourage them and help guide them. Now we're working on patty cake. He won't do it while you do it, but as soon as you're finished, he does his own version. And randomly I'll see him rub his hands together like we do during the "roll it" part. I guess while I'm teaching him hand things, I should teach him to tent his fingers and say, "eeexcellent".
We go in tomorrow for his 1 year checkup. I'm excited to see how much he's grown since the 9 month checkup. I noticed this morning he's got tooth number 8 starting to peek through, just a tiny white dot right now. Chris weighed him at his parents house on Thanksgiving, he was 25 lbs then, but that's probably not as accurate of a scale as the one at the doctor's office.
It's been so much fun and so fascinating to watch him grow and learn. I look forward to many years to come!