There's been so much going on the last few weeks that I'm just now getting around to your monumental one year post. For your birthday I made probably the most labor intensive, time consuming cake yet, Noah's Ark. When you saw all the little animal heads drying in a fruit box on the kitchen counter, your eyes lit up and you got all excited. You immediately tried to dive towards them. I let you have a rejected piggy that Daddy had made and you crushed it with your powerful hands into a mushy wad of fondant dough.
In the past month you've made a lot of developmental progress. You are finally starting to understand "No No" and sometimes you even listen. You've started voluntarily handing me little pieces of things you find on the floor when you see me, instead of immediately stuffing it into your mouth like before. You clap for yourself when you feel you've done something good. You are drinking better from a sippy cup instead of using it as a weapon or launching it toward the floor. You started taking one step while holding on to the sofa and going to the ottoman. You still don't say any words though. Not even the "Dada" that we were hearing before. I think you've just shifted focus to walking and other developmental skills for a bit. When you see someone you know, you greet them by pointing at them with a big smile and then quickly retracting your hand and then doing it again. You're still drooling like there's no tomorrow. I know next time I get a good look in your mouth, all of your baby teeth will probably have suddenly appeared.
Right after you turned 11 months, you had a scheduled check-up with your allergist again. You were skin tested for a few more things and now you are the lucky recipient of additional allergies to eggs, peanuts, and mixed nuts. Not good news at all, but what can you do. It is what it is. And although I received the news with a level head and knew that it just simply meant we would need to avoid a greater variety of foods, I think it will get harder as you get older and if/when you are not in my immediate supervision. When we are over for dinner at some one's house I have to give suttle reminders that you cannot be given any "tastes" of things with butter or cheese, or whip cream, etc, etc. And just last week Abuelo seemed bent on giving you plastic bagies with peanuts to chew on at Kiri & Ann's rehearsal dinner. It's hard to get people to understand that it could be more serious than just a skin rash. And it makes me feel a great deal of responsibility knowing that I'm the only one here to protect you even if I have to sever relations with certain people because they just don't get it! (no, just kidding about that last part). Soon we will be taking you for a blood test that will hopefully give us more specific information as to the degree to which you are allergic to all these things including the already known milk as well as soy. The soy test will be important in determining whether we can end the financial hemorrhage that is the Nutramigen hypoallergenic formula and hopefully allow us to switch you to soy milk as well as other soy products. Please don't be allergic to soy.
At your one year check up it was confirmed yet again that you are still a wee little man. You've made progress moving in weight percentile from the 3rd to the 5th percentile since your 9 mo. check up. coming in at 19 lbs. You're at 29 inches for length (25th percentile) and 16.5 cm head circumference (50th percentile). At this age Sofia was a quarter inch shorter than you and she weighed 25 lbs. (90th percentile). Hello, when are you going to start growing. Maybe if you didn't poop so much during the day you could grow a little. The only thing I'm not complaining about is that you still wear #2 diapers. So I guess, we'll wait until you weigh the required 20 lbs to put your car seat forward facing. I had planned to switch you to Sofia's old larger car seat and out of the infant carrier one but since your cousin Autumn has been coming over more often she's been using it so you may have to stay in the infant seat a while longer. You only got one shot this time and you have a healthy, spirited, but short cry over it.
When you wake up in the morning, you either put yourself back to sleep for a little while or entertain yourself in your crib for a while. Sometimes, Sofia and I go get you and you are delighted to see us and ready to start the day. Sometimes, Sofia asks if she can go play with you when she hears you talking to yourself. She climbs in your crib and you guys play for a while. When I go in, I find a bunch of stuffies and toys scattered throughout the floor. You have a very good attitude riding in the car and you almost never complain about being put in your car seat. I have a little toy for you but you usually like to make toys out of your shoes and socks which inevitably must come off. I spend a lot of time putting your socks and shoes back on. One of your favorite times of the day is when Daddy comes home. You see him and immediately start crawling as fast as you can towards him and usually make him hold you for a while.
Everyone comments on what a good little boy you are and I so happy that it's really true. I can't wait to see all the new things you learn in the next year. I know it will be any day now that you will be off and walking.
We went to Cookie Cutters Haircuts for Kids to get your hair trimmed up right before your birthday. It's a special salon for kids and it was worth it. You loved it. They sat you in a car chair and put a Baby Einstein video in for you to watch. They caped you up and you loved it all. I think what you enjoyed the most was that you knew this whole event was about you. Sofia was at preschool and Daddy met us there for this special event. You were all aglow with your smile and you would look up at as every few minutes as if to reconfirm how neat this all was. I guess, because a lot of the time you're kind of the tag along in our activities, this was a welcome surprise and you behaved beautifully.
At the end of August you got to go on your first vacation to Bear Lake and you should consider yourself lucky because it was also Sofia's first vacation. So already you are getting to have so many more fun experiences and you're only one year old. You really enjoyed playing in the sand for hours with a little shovel that you found. You didn't let it go; not even Sofia could pry it away from you. Sofia would build castles and you would come in like Godzuki and crush them to smitherings. You loved crawling around in the water too and had a great time. 
