12 month (1 year) updates

And so the big day is here! Little J is now 1 year old. I'm not even sure what category he is in now--he's certainly not an "infant" now but yet I don't think they are considered "toddlers" until the age of 2 (I might be wrong about this though). We've recently been visiting various churches, looking for a new home church. One of them named this age group "waddlers" (it was wigglers for 0-11 months, waddlers for 1, & toddlers for 2-3 I believe). I thought this was VERY appropriate & cute & so was the wigglers as J has always been a major wiggle worm.

So he has really stopped growing for the past couple of months. His weight is still 23.2 lbs, which puts him in the 50-75%. His length (or height now that he's walking) is still 30", which puts him in the 50%. And his head circumference is still 19", which puts him in the 90% (a big brain apparently, I think that's a good thing, a very good thing!). :)

So in the last couple of weeks little J has gone completely off of baby bottles & onto sippy cups. I am so proud of him, no complaints at all. When the sippy cups are really full he does pretty well at doing it by himself, but as they go down he starts to struggle, so I still help him with them quite often, but I am pleased that he is off the bottle & at least doing it himself part of the time--I feel like we are finally making progress. I never thought it was going to be this easy. And I kept reading stuff that recommended having them off the bottle completely before they turn 1 & I never thought it would happen, but it did.

He's down to about 3 sippy cups daily. And he usually eats 3 meals daily, although occasionally there's a fourth meal in there. Usually 2 of the sippy cups are goat milk & 1 is goat milk kefir each day. Once in a while I offer him juice, but not very often. And I always have a sippy with water in it available to him at all times. Since he's drinking less milk now I would think he might need more fluids & he likes water (just like mom!). This also gives him plenty of opportunity to practice with the sippy, having it available all the time like that.

At some point I will start to work on the pacifier. I will probably limit it to naps & bedtime only at first & then to bedtime & then no more. I don't want to start that right now, since we just did the bottle to sippy transition, I don't want to overwhelm him. And also since he has the chicken pox right now I feel like he needs more comforting, which he definitely gets from the pacifier. But overall he's really not that attached to his pacifier, I don't think it'll be a tough habit to break. I had really thought the bottle would be a big struggle & am shocked to find that it's not at all. He had seemed so attached to his bottle.

So he's still wearing size 18 month clothes, with the exception of his PJs, those are 24 months--his growth seems to be slowing down or pausing, but he still has a long torso like mom & dad.

He is walking on his own daily now, short little bursts at a time. I am sure this will continue to increase & he will be walking more & more as time goes on.

He is VERY vocal now. He has a little variety of noises that he enjoys doing--sometimes I will start a noise & he will copy me & sometimes he will start the noise & I will copy him. He REALLY enjoys this game. And he also doesn't cry nearly as much, it's more of a deliberate attempt to verbalize now. You can hear that he is saying the same "word" over & over as he calls out to us or the dog or whoever/whatever.

He is very possessive of his toys & stuff. He doesn't like me reading his books. He often holds things out to people as if he's going to give it to them, but he refuses to let go of it, almost as if he's teasing them. I guess I have my work cut out for teaching him about sharing & being generous & blessing others. Although I sometimes wonder if when I'm holding his book & reading it out loud, if maybe he doesn't understand that & he thinks I'm talking to (& giving attention to) the book & so maybe he's just jealous of the attention the book is getting......he is definitely more possessive of books than other toys. That could possibly be what's going on.

Last night hubby & I gave him his bday present, the ride & stride lion from Fisher Price. On his birthday hubby got home from work after little J went to sleep for the night, so we had to wait. He seems to like it, but he's not quite as excited about it as I had expected him to be. I think the more he experiments with it the more he may come to like it.....maybe.........

That's all the updates I can think of for now.........