Sometimes pulling Hooper away from everything becomes too draining. Especially with this new-human-growing-fatigue. I hate saying “No” as much as I presume he hates hearing it. We baby proof as we go. The lastest thing we did was to move all the potted plants outdoors. It became too much work to be constantly vacuuming up the dirt and picking up the rocks and washing his hands and chasing after him and oh ya, lets not forget the following:

Note the guilty, “Who me?” face. Gotta love it. Is getting mad at my children always going to be this hard??

The one thing we haven’t figured out is what to do with Sarah’s food. We’ve toyed with leaving it outside, but it’s not ideal and we haven’t gotten to the end our ropes… yet. Anyway, back to going with it. I saw him eyeing Sarah’s food. I decided to let him touch it. My thinking is that if I just let him play with it, maybe he’ll get over it. Touch it he did. Here’s a play by play:

Oh yes, I love to dig my hands in this yummy food.

Maybe I should try a piece. 

Yes, I will try a piece. Yum.

Now I’m thirsty. Oh good, there’s water.

What will happen if I put the food into the water?

My my, look at this mess I’ve made!

Better clean up before mom finds me.

All clean.

Sometimes making the mess and cleaning it up is just more fun. It’s a life lesson I suppose, if we make a mess, we have to clean it up. If you never make a mess, you can’t understand the true value of cleanliness. Look at me getting all philosophical. Off to sit on my rock and rest my chin on my hand and my elbow on my knee.

Growth: I spent your whole life worrying if you were getting enough. This is mostly attributed to the fact you were breastfed and I never really knew how much you would get. All I knew is that you were thin. You’ve spent much of your life in the 10 to 15 percentile for weight. I stopped breastfeeding when my supply was nearly nonexistent at 11.5 months. My frozen breast milk lasted another few weeks. Not much has changed in the percentile department. At one year, you are in the 18th percentile for weight, weighing a half of an ounce shy of 21 pounds. You have been in the 50th percentile for height since 8 months. You are 30 1/4inches long.

You have two teeth on the bottom and four on the top. They seemed to all come in a fast succession, but seem to have come to an abrupt standstill. We did an inspection yesterday and think you may be getting another tooth on the bottom soon. To be continued…

Eating: Now that we are out of breast milk, I mix a little bit of formula with whole milk. You drink an 8 ounce bottle in the morning and then another 8 ounces throughout the day for a rough total of about 16 ounces a day. For the most part, you are a good eater. You like to throw a curve ball here or there, but for the most part we’ve figured out what you like and what you don’t. Though, your tastes still do change week to week. It’s been frustrating and difficult at times, but we’re in a good run at the moment, so it’s hard to capture previous frustrations at this point in time. I still puree your breakfast. I do this because you get lots of good stuff in that mush that you would never touch by itself. This morning I pureed banana, kiwi, spinach, cauliflower, and berries. Then you had some flax seed cereal, which you absolutely love. I save the stuff you love for last to ensure you get the stuff I’m iffy about in the beginning. For lunch, your latest obsession has been with deli turkey. You’ve also been a fan of steamed carrots as of late, so I’ll ride that wave until it reaches shore. Snacks include raisins, string cheese, greek yogurt, applesauce, strawberries… all of which you love. I made you quiche last night for dinner. I lie. I bought a quiche from Trader Joe’s and put it in the microwave. This is how I experiment. I was wasting too much food and time home making things, so I try the quickened version first. If you like it, I learn to make it. You seemed to like the quiche. You also like dad’s asparagus when me mixes it with garlic and pepper. I don’t think you get me to eat asparagus before the age of 28, so I’m mighty proud of your vegetable intake. Other things you love are grilled cheese sandwich and dino buddies (which we give you sparingly).

You love to try and feed yourself. Most of the time the spoon makes it to your mouth, but it is hardly the most efficient or the most clean way of eating. Nonetheless, it’s good practice and fun to see you insistant on doing things on your own. Even if you aren’t feeding yourself, you seem to eat more so long as there is a spoon in your mouth.

Talking: You’ve been saying “Ma-ma” for months now, but it now has meaning. I can hear you muttering “ma ma” from behind the door when I come home from work and am fiddling with my keys. Much to papa’s delight, you’ve just started saying “Da-da”. Truth be told, I think you’re trying to say “doggie”, but we’ll go with “da-da” for papa’s ego. “Doggie” has come out a few times but sounds more like “aug-gie” or “da-be”, hence the confusion with “da-da”. Whatever the case may be, you are learning the names of all the people in your life and it’s a trill to see. You’re always making new sounds as well. You make this one little ramble with your tongue and I call you the auctioneer because you sound like a babbling man at a auction. You also like to mimic us, making sounds back at us that we make to you. You can almost see the little wheels in your head spinning as your process the sounds and words we’re making and saying.

Development: You are beyond walking and onto running. I thought we skipped over the accident phase rather quickly because you became so steady on your feet so fast. I was wrong. The problem now is that you like to carry things. Large things. Like brooms and vacuums. You also like to throw your blanket over your head and walk, causing you to run into doors and walls. You got your first goose egg when trying to walk with the extension part of the vacuum. You tripped, of course, and went head on with the corner of the sofa table. You looked like a cyclops with an additional eye on your forehead. You pick yourself up rather fast when you fall and save the tears for the cyclops forming tumbles. We’ve made it a point not to coddle you when you have little falls and it seems to have paid off.

You are strong. Your grip is insane. You can hold yourself up in a pull up position from the towel rack. You can hold yourself up on your arms if I put you in a handstand position. You can climb onto a chair that is at your chest level. You climb off the bed and sofa with no problem at all. You climb up your highchair like it’s a ladder. You are quite agile and fiercely determined.

Sleeping: We put you to bed at 9pm. This is what works best for us and you are comfortable with it as well. You sleep through the night, always, and typically wake up between 7 and 8 am. You go down for a nap around 10am and usually sleep for about 2 hours. Most days you’ll also take an afternoon nap around 3 and sleep for about an hour. Sometimes two, if we’re lucky.

Favorites: You’ve just developed quite an attachment to your blanket and your red stuffed alien-like animal. You throw them out of your crib in the morning and they are the first thing you pick up when you are down on your feet. I try to pick them up when you’ve moved on to something else (they get so dirty being dragged all over), but if you notice there is a protest and an all out tantrum until they are back in your arms. You also love your books, but not all of your books. You only like the ones that have a cut out in them so that you can stick your little fingers through the hole. You also have an affinity for the touch and feel books. You like to run your two little fingers over all the soft animals. And your long standing favorite, “Who Says Moo?”, is still a top pick. It’s the only book you sit through beginning to end that has no cut outs and no touch and feel. It’s just animals and the sounds they make and you love it. You also love, and I mean LOVE, youtube nursery rhyme videos. Nothing else exists when they are playing. I think you’d open your mouth and eat just about anything we fed you with the video on, eating becomes merely a reaction in their presence. You clap at the end of each video and pull at our legs when we’re at the computer so that we can put a video on for you. You are obsessed. Your favorites are the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Humpty Dumpty… but you’ll watch any of them. Over and over again. And then one more time. You also love Sarah’s food and water bowl. It’s impossible to keep you away and you are so very persistent. And Sarah herself, she’s your best bud.

Upcoming: You need a haircut. The hair growing over your left ear is getting ridiculous. It necessitates more of a trim than anything else, but it needs to be done. It will be done. Just not sure how to get you to sit for that. Maybe during a youtube video? We’ll also need to do some more toddler-proofing. You’re starting to show an interest in the toilet lid and I can just imagine all the things you’d love to throw in there. I’m also looking into a few mommy and me classes, as I’d love to have you socialize with more kids your age.