Dear Bo, You're 12 months old...

1 year old! 

 Here's what you're up to:

• You weigh 22 pounds 3 ounces and are 29.25 inches long (both just below the 50th percentile).  Your head circumference is 18.25 inches (50th percentile).
• You wear a Size 4 diaper, 12 month clothes, and Size 3 shoe (more for the thickness of your feet than the length!).
• You still only have 2 bottom teeth!
• You take your paci at night and when you go down for a nap, but we're going to take it away soon.  A little nervous about that!  It was such a comfort to you when you had your tummy troubles.

• You finished your last bit of formula on Nov. 19 and transitioned 100% to a sippy cup on Nov. 14.  I can't believe we're finished with formula and bottles!  Hallelujah!  Packing up your bottles, burp cloths, formula dispenser, bottle drying rack, etc. was bitter sweet.  You drink 20-24 ounces of milk a day.
• You're still allergic to milk so it's actually not cow's milk you're drinking...it's hemp milk (which is not really milk at all I suppose).  It has more calories/fat/protein than rice or almond milk, 2 common milk substitutes for MSPI babies, and you really like it (of course, it can't be hard to outdo that nasty amino acid formula you've been on!).

• You still sleep wonderfully.  As soon as I said that when you turned 11 months old, you threw us for a loop and started crying every time we put you down.  It only lasted 4-5 days then you went back to your old self.  I hope I'm not jinxing you again!  You take a bath, then one of us rocks you while you drink your cup of milk while the other reads you a Bible story then a bedtime book.  We pray, then one of us rocks and sings a couple of songs before laying you in bed with your lovey and your fish and moose.  You don't fall asleep while we rock anymore.  In fact, you're usually giggling and turning and twisting so much that we cut the songs short and just put you in bed.  
• You're still a scheduled little guy!  You get up around 7:30am, have a cup of milk then eat breakfast.  You've stretched your wake time to about 2.5-3 hours so you go down for your morning nap between 10-10:30.  You're starting to shorten your naps, but they still run between 1.5-2.5 hours long.  You have a cup of milk when you wake then eat lunch around 12:30 and go down again around 3 or 3:30.  You're often still asleep when Daddy gets home at 5:30pm.  You have another cup of milk then supper around 6-6:30pm.  Bath is around 7:45, and you're generally in bed by 8pm.

• You eat all kinds of things!  For breakfast, you have"big people" oatmeal with half a fresh banana mixed in, plain coconut milk yogurt with banana baby food for flavoring, mini bagels, or nutrigrain bars.  For protein, you have rotisserie chicken, turkey (from Rudy's or lunchmeat), hamburger meat, black beans, or edamame.  For vegetables, you have sweet peas, green beans, and carrots (not your favorite).  For fruits, you have diced pears, diced apples, bananas, diced peaches, mandarin oranges, and apple sauce.  For starches, you have baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pasta.  For snacks, you have cheerios and Ritz crackers.  I'm amazed at the variety of food you eat now and how easy it is to get away from the house.  You've even eaten part of a kids meal this month!
• You still react to dairy.  We had unfortunate incidents with goldfish crackers and with cool whip this month.  I continue to try things out every now and again to see if they will work or not.  So far, "or not" is the verdict.  

• You still like to play with your Laugh n Learn House (you do not like the window to be up).  You love to look at books and be read to.  You love to be sung to.  You get the giggles when we tickle you or do "this little piggy..." with your toes.  You are less into your toys right now since you've started cruising.  You'd rather just pull up and see what you can get into.
• You crawl extremely fast, and you pull up on everything and are into everything.  Your favorite thing to pull up on is our legs!  Your reach is good---we've had to put lots of stuff out of the way.  You walk along the couch (two major incentives are the computer and Scout---you like to mess with both) and can transition from place to place, but you don't take any steps on your own.  In fact, you fuss if we try to walk with you holding our hands.  Mimi and Pop got you an adorable walker for your birthday, and you use it as a crawler, pushing it with one arm and crawling with the other arm like a lame duck.  If we try to stand you up and show you how to walk with it, you put your head on the ground and cry.

• You babble a lot and say dada, but I'm still not positive you are saying it at Jonathan yet.  If we say, "where's Dada?"  "where's Momma?"  "where's Scout", you look in the right place, but you just don't call us those names right now.  
• The day after your birthday you started waving bye-bye.  You put your arm out straight and move your whole arm up and down.  It looks a little "Heil Hitler" but, of course, we think it's adorable.
• You're getting a little temper.  If you're frustrated by something (you're stuck/a toy is stuck, you can't reach, we take something away from you), you either yell or start to cry.  You're understanding "no" better and better and have stopped crying every time we say no.  If we use a strong tone now, you generally eye us as if you understand (now whether you actually stop doing what you're doing is a different story), whereas before, you'd just look at us and your bottom lip would start to quiver.

• You are just such a happy feller.  We're so grateful to have a little giggle box who follows us around, trying to climb up our legs.  Watching Daddy crawl around the house and you giggle and crawl in pursuit of him is the best sound ever!
• We love you, Pooka.  One year down and a lifetime to go!

Just look how you've grown: