The Obligatory Birthday Post

My baby turned one on Sunday.

I know I should say how sad it is that he's growing up so fast, but truthfully, I couldn't be happier. With the new baby only 10 weeks away, I'm so excited to see the toddler emerging and the baby disappearing.

And since I no longer keep baby books, I do want to go on record with all his little achievements. Because you know we moms just love to be able to look back and compare. And the kids love hearing about what they did at different ages.

When the baby eats poop , all the other kids wants to know if they, too, ate poop when they were babies. When he squeals at the "ish" in the ish tank, they want to know how and when they started saying "fish." And they particularly want to know exactly how naughty they were when they were babies.

So, anticipating the questions to come from Superboy, and knowing how incredibly interesting it is to everyone who is not his parent, I've compiled a list of all his little milestones so far.

• Walking (as of yesterday!)
• Signs "more" and "please" and "dog"
• Does a trick (head on ground, butt in air)- expects much applause
• Claps
• Makes car noises when rolling toy cars along ground (and animals, books or anything else)
• Repeats lion, monkey, dog and cow sounds (rarely on demand)
  
• Says "ish" (fish)
• Says "dat" (cat)
• Says "dat" (that)
• Says "up"
  
• Says "nuh!" (no) while shaking his head- I'm so grateful, because the word "no" is such an incredibly important part of every toddler's vocabulary.
• Squeals with delight and screams "dad-dee" every single time he sees Dave, Dave walks into a room, he hears Daddy's name mentioned or he just feels an overwhelming rush of love for Dave.
• Grudgingly says "mom" once every month or so just to throw me a bone (following in the footsteps of every single older sibling)
• Every once in a while says "thank you" as clear as a bell
  
• Has gorgeous curls that are forbidden to be cut (okay, not really an accomplishment, but whatever)
• Identifies his "piggies" (toes) by touching
• Identifies his mouth by opening and closing it
• Identifies his nose by scrunching it up like thus:
• Has 4 teeth (two new ones since last week) and 4 more emerging. Yes, it's been a fun month.
• Climbs onto the couch
• Climbs the stairs
• Climbs anything that can possible support the weight of a one-year old. And a few things that cannot.
• Plays in the trash can.
• Sleeps through the night and in his own crib. Although Dave and I would love for him to sleep with us, he refuses.
  
• Refuses to laugh. Seriously. The child has only ever laughed maybe 5 times in one year.
  
• Reads basic words like "nectarine" and "encyclopedia"
• Counts to ten. In French.
• Recites large portions of scripture.
• Corrects his siblings' grammar.
  

There you have it. The total accomplishments of a one-year old. He is still the easiest baby ever. But even if he were a head-spinning spitfire devil-child, I would love him with every ounce of my being.

So Happy Birthday to my not-so-baby any longer.




By the way, if you have a one-year old who is not quite hitting some of the above marks (perhaps only reading one-syllable words), don't fret. I've had a child who didn't crawl until 11 months, one who didn't walk until 17 months, one who had a vast vocabulary of five words at age two, one who didn't sleep through the night until age...oh wait, she still doesn't, and one who still misidentifies most common animals.