Hey hey! We have a one year old! We also had Christmas, a new year, and a little birthday party since I last posted. Definitely a busy time of year, but it did remind me that I’m very grateful that James was born in January rather than late December. Those couple extra days beyond the holidays really did make a big difference!

The vast majority of pictures this month are blurry, because he just moves non-stop. His preferred speed is As Fast As Possible, which is slightly dangerous since he’s not entirely steady on his feet all the time. Hence the little bruise on his cheek, which he acquired first thing in the morning on his actual birthday. It was a bit of a rough start, but the balloons cheered him right up and he would probably say he had a delightful day, if he could tell you verbally.

Speaking of verbal skills, he doesn’t say too many things, but he can say Mama, Dada, and, when prompted, Uh Oh, which is quite useful since he likes to drop food and water bottles off his high chair when he has finished with them. Fortunately, this particular skill didn’t affect his birthday cake.

His absolute favorite thing to do remains climbing up anything he can manage, which has most recently included our dining room table (not pictured, for safety’s sake). He climbs up a dining chair, plants his hands on the table, and then pulls himself right up. And he doesn’t stop there; oh no, if he’s not standing on the table, his ascent is only partially complete.

At his 12 month checkup, his doctor declared that anyone would be hard pressed to find a taller baby, although we have quite a few friends with equally tall children, so perhaps we just have something in our local water. Nevertheless, he is quite tall, and so I find myself using strollers more than baby carriers since those are getting harder to use. He’s also got a couple of top molars and is working on the bottom ones and all of his canines, so teething has been rough lately. In spite of that, he remains a very happy camper the vast majority of the time, and the discomfort has mostly affected his sleep rather than his mood. As a result, all of us are very ready for the teeth to be all the way in.

At 12 months, he was still requiring two naps a day, but within the last two days, he suddenly seems to have perhaps dropped down to only needing one. We might give that a try tomorrow to see how it goes, which will mean some reshuffling of our daily schedule. When better to do that than a weekend, right?

His birthday party was small and I guess sort of Covid-style, although to be honest we mostly do small but happy birthday celebrations all the time. After his balloon-fest and his morning nap, we had immediate family over for a taco lunch, birthday cake, and presents. James loves blueberries, so I decided to make a lemon cake with blueberry frosting between the layers and a whipped cream outer frosting. I will never win any awards for cake decorating, but I can make them taste good! If it’s not too boastful to say, I think this was a very tasty one.

He got a layer to himself to smash up as he saw fit, since I was nearly certain he wouldn’t eat the entire thing himself. He enjoyed stabbing it and squashing it with his fork, and I think he may have put one bite into his mouth. The rest of us ate the other two layers, and then my dad took the smashed up leftovers home and consumed them later. Leave no trace, I suppose.

And then after exploring his new car toy a bit, he settled down for a long birthday’s nap and enjoyed living his best one year old life. Can’t get much better than that, according to him!

He is a joy and a delight, and life with him in it is better than we ever could have imagined. Happy birthday, little buddy. We’re so blessed to call you ours.

Woodstock Writings