One Year Old

We celebrated Mr. Alex turning one this past week. Here is a little glimpse of what he is up to these days:

-We have completely transitioned to whole milk and he seems to have taken to it quite well. I am also working on serving it cold, but daddy gives in and warms it up, so Alex still resists the cold milk quite frequently.

-He is still a bottle boy, despite our attempts to give him the sippy cup. He wants no part of that and I haven't pushed it too much since he still hasn't learned to tilt his bottle up properly.

-For the past couple of weeks we have been giving him table food--slowly adding in new things. We know he likes bread, most fruits, crackers, cheese, pasta, and sweet potatoes. He does not seem to be a very picky eater, which we are grateful for.

-One week he was loafing around on his belly, and the next he was up and crawling around. It is a funny type of crawl--I would call it crab-crawling as he sticks one leg out to the side and skooches more than actually crawling. For the past week or so he insists on pulling up on everything, but he still hasn't mastered the whole balance thing, so he frequently bops his head and we have the beautiful bruises and goose eggs on his noggin to show for it. But he keeps trying. The day of his party he used a walker and moved all around the room to visit with party guests.

-Alex still attends PT and OT twice a week, and we believe they are helping him develop in leaps and bounds. He is still behind most of his peers, but I do see him catching up in some areas, while others he continues to baffle us. We are having his speech evaluated this month and he may begin speech therapy as well. Thank goodness all this therapy is state-sponsored, or I don't know how we would afford it.

-Josh and I made the executive decision to cease the use of the helmet. His last appointment showed a huge improvement in the shape of his head. It will never be perfect, but at this point we believe (and his pediatrician agrees) that it is probably as good as its going to get and the helmet was impeding his developmental growth, which is more important at this time, so no more helmet. As a result, Alex is now displaying a nice shag hair do that I can't bring myself to cut. He also has a really great rats tail.

-He has two bottom teeth and copious amounts of drool indicate we've got more teeth on the way.

-Lucas has been taking swim lessons and we bought season passes to Wild River Country, so we have been in the water a lot lately and Alex really loves it. He will sit and splash the water until his hands are red.

-He still isn't talking much, mostly just babbling, but we do think he knows and understands several words--including bottle, brother, up, momma, dadda, and kisses. When you ask him to give you kisses, he always leans his head close to you to bop foreheads with you.

-Although he goes to bed early (sixish) and sleeps MOST of the night, we are still battling him waking for long periods of the evening where he coos and talks or now stands up and begins screaming (he can't sit back down once he pulls up). As Josh and I both cherish our sleep, this is very annoying and we try to ignore the behavior for the most part--but he is also extremely stubborn and can use his lungs very well.

-He is a very sweet boy. He loves to cuddle and snuggle.