Baby State of Affairs: 1 Year!!

Today we took BB in for his 1 year check up. Aside from 3 tear inducing shots, it was a great visit. He was an angel to the pediatrician (compared to last time when he was sick and wanted nothing to do with the woman). As suspected, he's still a big ass baby.

Weight: 23.75 lbs (83%)

Height: 31 inches (87%)

Head: 18.5 inches (75%)

On the sleep front, he's still sleeping a solid 11-12 hours at night and taking one 2-2.5 hour nap during the day. He typically wakes up around 7:30, naps at 11:30, then goes to bed at 7:30ish. Usually we can put him down awake after feeding him a bottle and he'll just play by himself until he falls asleep. Every now and then he wails and you need to go back in and hold him but it's less and less the norm.

On the food front, he eats 3 large meals a day. Breakfast is usually a blend of fruits, lunch a blend of veggies and beans or rice, and dinner a meal of oatmeal with cinnamon and sometimes fruit again. I know, it's a bit strange that he eats oatmeal at night. We'll start making the meals more like adult meals in the short future.

As of last week, I dropped the night time feed, mostly because I was taking a two day trip to Vancouver for work and I really didn't want to bring the pump. It was with mixed feeling that I ended the breastfeeding. Sad because you lose that precious moment with your baby (I never really understood this description until I experienced for myself), but relieved that you can move on and do things like sleep on your stomach again haha. I'm pretty amazed that I breastfed till almost a year. It seemed unfathomable to me when I first started that someone could nurse for so long, but now I understand the appeal.

Anyway, BB currently drinks about 28 oz of formula, but we're going to switch to whole milk as soon as the current batch of formula runs out. The doctor also recommended we start giving him more snacks (we give him puffs sporadically) and reduce the milk intake to 20-24 oz. He's got 7 teeth and one more coming in. Two more seem like they'll come in in the next month. Ah Ma has started brushing those itty bitty teeth. I'll have to watch and learn how she convinces him to bear the grooming.

On the language front, he babbles like crazy and sporadically says "mama" and "dada". Sometimes he attempts to repeat what you say if you say it often enough. More than anything though he understands word associations. Badge claims he knows around 20 words. I definitely agree it's > 10 but not so sure about 20...maybe 15. We're continuing to do controlled experiments so this really has been proven. Aside from the words I previously mentioned in his repertoire, he knows "monkey", "lion", "bunny", "ghost bear" (our nickname for this bear blanket he has) and "doggie" as it relates to his stuffed animals. He turns and looks at me for "mama", Badge for "dada", my mom for "ah ma", and even Monkey for "auntie alice". He looks out the window when we say "birdie" or "airplane", and even looks around for the cats when we say "kitty cat". Crazy!

On the walking front, he cruises around the play pen perimeter like a drunken sailor. Once I turned around and caught him standing unassisted for a couple seconds. I imagine in the next month or so he should be walking. We'll see! Overall, he's still the same silly lovable bundle of joy. Welcome to toddlerhood BB!