I'll take my toast to go, please.

Learns Something New Every Day

For example, how to remove his own pants. 

12 Months

Well. We made it. The baby is a year old and also, I suppose, a toddler now. I will save the reflections for the birthday post and just do pretty much another monthly update here.

However...I haven't done a photo shoot yet and am still sorting through the birthday pics, so you'll just have to slog through words here. I'll add photos later but wanted to get this up as it has been 49 years since my last post.

Eating is more or less unchanged. You eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus or minus a snack later on the day depending on timing. People always ask if you're a "good eater"...while I'm not exactly sure what that means, I always say that you are. You definitely have preferences, but they change frequently--things fall in and out of favor. We just make sure we offer choices and there's pretty much always something you'll go for (even if there was a three-day stretch where it was just Goldfish...). You seem to eat enough, and just let us know when you're finished. You're neither picky nor piggy.

Now sleep...sleep is a different story. I knew our good groove at 11 months was too sweet to last. In a twist, the challenge lately has been nap time. First (as posted), there was a general nap strike. That was terrible and we'll just leave it at that. I adjusted the interval between naps to about 3 hours before first nap and 3.5 hours between the naps. With a little time, this seems to have helped, but is tricky. If you sleep in ("sleep in") or otherwise stretch the interval, there isn't enough time in the day to get the second nap in without it getting too close to bedtime--and I am not about to mess with nighttime sleep. So, these days, sometimes the second nap happens but sometimes it doesn't. A lot of people ask whether you need to move to one nap, but I think it's not time yet--your one nap isn't long enough and still needs to be too early in the day. Plus, I really do not want to go to one nap yet. I do see some up side to it, but I also really like the two-nap deal.

Bottom line: naps get messed up at this point and apparently it's common (Google 12 month sleep regression). HOWEVVVERRRRR...one night, the weekend of your birthday, you slept straight through until 6:50am. And then did it again the next night. The day after that, at your 12-month checkup, the pediatrician said if it happened three nights in a row, then it was the new normal and to stick with it. You did, so a big HUGE gold medal to you! Depending on if I am good and go to bed at a decent hour, I can now get a normal, human-caliber stretch of sleep. You usually start stirring around 6 and wake up at 6:30 or later. The flip side to this development is that you're then usually up for the day, but I'll take it. I know there will be hiccups in the future (just with general development, teething, illness, etc.) but I know they are temporary and we really don't go backwards from here. So...we made it. Some of your little friends have been doing this for a while, but some aren't there yet, so it's really individual depending on baby, your needs, your setup, and so on. Do not despair, friends. It will happen for you, too. Champagne all around.

Likes:

• dogs
• balloons (I mean, like...LOVES)
• Goodnight Moon. Although I have a sneaking suspicion it's because a balloon is featured prominently
• flags
• push toys

• the vacuum and the dustbuster

Dislikes:

• changing diapers or clothes. Rolls around like a greased pig and screams.
• really anything if I don't figure out the problem fast enough (e.g., a few days ago, the cereal bar was too hard. Waterworks.)
• not being allowed to play with the iPhone

Milestones:

reliably signs "more" -- though he kind of expands it just to mean "give me that"

this.

• says "dog" and "balloon." Of course. If I'm being honest, though, they'd really only be understood by me and BA, so I'm not sure when things count as first words. 

Stats:

• Weight: at least 20lbs. He freaked out on the scale at the doctor's office and that was the best we could get. I think he weighs more. 
• Height: 28 inches. About 85th percentile or higher, if I am remembering correctly. 
• Diapers: size 4
• Clothing: 12 month

King of Winter

It's somebody's birthday week!

Perched on his throne (an early birthday present) with a scepter of wrapping paper.

Nap Strike

If you're here looking for new material, I apologize. About a week ago, Mr. C decided that naps were for babies. All of the naps, in all forms. I happen to disagree, but there's not really a (legal) way to force someone to sleep. [For what it's worth, I don't think it's that he's moving to one nap--just an overall disturbance in the Force. We'll power through.]

Anyway, what I'm saying is that without nap time, there's no blog time (or shower time, or work time, or email time, or lunch time. There are 6 baskets of clean-but-unfolded laundry on the bedroom floor). We will return to our regularly scheduled programming soon. I hope.

I would also like to give a shoutout to Miss Helen, the first member of the February Babies Club to hit the one-year mark. Having a January birthday gave her a head start, but we're all looking to her for reports from the other side. Whenever she's not too busy driving her car to the voting booth or whatever.

In the mean time, here's a picture of the Southern Sophisticate in his basket with magazines and coasters.

Just Doin' My Puzzles

Drunk Shopper, Aisle 9