1 Year Old!

Ronan you are 1! You can tell us how old you are now. You have started to acquire lots of "tricks". You can point to your nose (well, 50% of the time). You can patty cake (that is your favorite thing to do). We chuckle at you because anytime you see or hear someone clapping, there you go, patty caking. We were watching golf on tv (the horror). You usually don't pay much attention to the tv, but once you heard the clapping you whipped your head around and joined in. You wave bye-bye. Sometime we are walking down the hall, leaving daycare, and you are waving the whole way.


Physically, you are crawling like a mad-man. You go up the stairs so fast. You have started trying to go down the stairs, usually after you throw something down them (pacifier or toy). You took your first steps on 8/3/10. We were all in the kitchen and Mom turned around and there you were taking about 5-6 steps. You didn't get far, but they were steps! Your walking has progressed slowly since then. You still prefer to crawl, but you are getting better and better. You take your share of falls also. Today you chipped your front tooth on the coffee table. I guess there would be some benefit to getting your teeth later. I feel really bad about the tooth, but hopefully it won't be too noticeable.

You still love to eat. We just laugh and laugh at you stuffing your face. You have been eating lots of fresh peaches and blueberries. I usually can't cut up the fruit fast enough for you. We also reached our goal-1 year of nursing! I felt really good about that. It is not too often that I achieve something that I set out to do and we did it! We didn't buy any formula the whole year. Now Mom and Dad are trying to get you to drink whole milk. We have not been having good luck with that. You have been refusing it. I thought that was the wierdest thing because you eat everything. I talked to your pediatrician about it and he said that breast fed babies tend to be fussy about drinking cows milk. He suggested mixing breast and cows milk, so we have been trying that. So physically, with your 8 teeth, I am ready to be done nursing. Emotionally, I'll be a wreck when it is over.

We went to the Grand Haven beach this month (July 10). It was so hot! I burned my feet, but it gave me an excuse to shop and now I have water shoes. You and Mom and Dad packed a lunch, had some Pronto Pups, and enjoyed the water. We didn't stay that long because it was so hot, but we had a lot of fun. You loved the water.

We also visited the John Ball Zoo in GR with the Layer Family. It was also really hot that day. You liked looking at the fish tanks and at all the people. I'm not sure what you thought about the animals, but it was fun regardless.

The Layer girls liked playing our piano and now you do too! We started leaving it open so you can crawl over and pound away. Mom has even gotten out some of her books and played you a few songs.
Mom loves you. Can you tell?

We went back to Grand Haven on Mom's 31st birthday. We walked down the pier and enjoyed the beautiful night.

You started dancing to music-specifically your fridge farm toy, on 7/18/10.

Your favorite book is "F is for Farm". You love the page where you have to open the barn doors and see the tractor. You tried to eat part of the book after you tore the scoop off of the backhoe.

You like to play with the toys you can walk behind. You also like to push your wooden cars around, but you absolute favorite is to throw a ball. You will throw it back and forth for quite a while.

You are saying quite a few words now. You can say Mama and Dada (not always at the right times though). You say ball (you call balloons, balls, and just about everything round a ball). You are also saying "Uh oh". That is so cute. You will drop something and then say it and then Mom could eat you right up.

You are still eating 100% of everything at daycare. For example, on 7/27 you ate 100% of pasta and ham, tomato, applesauce, muffin and banana.

Daycare notes:

7/1/10 Ronan really enjoyed playing with the trucks today. He also like playing with the puppets and play phone.

7/13/10 Ronan loved walking around with the push toys today. He also liked playing with the toy animals and puppets.

7/19/10 I had fun sponge painting and reading "Frog Jumps".

7/20/10 Ronan had a good day! He loved playing with the mega blocks and plying with the pop up toys.

7/23/10 I had fun today doing art with stamp pads and making hand prints.

7/26/10 I had fun finger painting with ketchup and reading books.

7/27/10 I loved playing with musical instruments today, as well as learining baby signs and listening to lots of stories.