Tate Lately // The One Year Old Post!

 

Oh my goodness, Tatie Tot!  ONE YEAR OLD!!!  Boy did that year go by fast! 

• Favorite foods: green beans, raisins, cheerios, Puffs, chicken, any and all fruit
• Clothes: 18- 24 mo./2T shirts and pants, size 5 shoes, size 4 diapers
• Bottles: switching over to whole milk slowly – worked our way up to half formula, half whole milk over the past week.  So far so good!  You take 3 to 4 a day, depending on the day.  Once we get you switched to whole milk completely we’ll work on switching to only sippy cups.  You drink water out of the sippy at meal times but only in small sips.  We’ll get there.
• Favorite toys: anything that plays music, especially your vintage Fisher Price radio.  You know how it’s supposed to turn on, by turning the dial, but it’s too tough for you to turn still so you just pretend you’re doing it.  You also still love the Little People collection we have.  And books!  You could sit and look at books for quite a long time!  I always hand you one when I strap you in your car seat.
• Walking!!!  Yes, little boy, you are walking!  You started working on it shortly after you turned 11 months old and never looked back.  We were all surprised how fast you picked it up.  One day you worked and worked and worked at it.  You’d fall down and get right back up to try again.  Now it’s your preferred mode of travel.  You really love being able to carry toys around with you now. 
• Socks, shirts and pants:  give you a pile of clothes and you could play for hours!  It’s so funny how much you like playing with them.  When I change your clothes I leave them out for you to play with.  You shake them all around, pull them tight over your head, almost like you’re trying to put a shirt on.  You carry them from room to room and back again.  You move them from in front of you to drop behind you, then turn around and do it all over again (another 10 times at least!).  It’s funny to watch you do all of this.  I don’t dare fold laundry when you are around or you’d undo all of my handy work and have clean clothes strewn all over the house!
• When I get you out of bed from your nap or first thing in the morning you will stay laying down, snuggling with your blankies, and say ‘aww’.  I’ll rub your back and you’ll smile at me!  So sweet. Then I say “lets get up!” and you’ll grab your favorite blanket, the one we call Snuggle Blankie, and hand it up to me.  Bless your heart, that melts mine every time!  You love your blankie as much as I love mine!
• You are rolly polly!  You act like a sweet little playful bear cub, it just cracks us up!  You lay on your back, pull your legs up and flop over to one side. Then roll back to your back, pull your legs up and flop to the other side!  If one of us is laying on the floor you come over to us, sit down by us and lay back like you are all relaxed.  If we have a pillow you get right up by us and eventually work your way onto it so far that we are now off the pillow.  When you do this Daddy says you are just like me. Makes me smile!
• You love being chased by your brothers!  Especially now that you are walking!  The peals of laughter out of all of you does a mommy’s heart good! 
• You are obsessed with getting the remote or our phones if we leave them laying where you can reach them.  You finally know it’s not for you so you just give us a devilish grin when we take them away instead of the major temper tantrum you used to pull.  And a couple of times you have handed them over to us, kind of like “here guys, I found this.”
• A few times a day you will disappear back to your bedroom.  There are a few toys back there but mostly you go back to sit and look at your books.  Sometimes you crawl or walk back to the living room by yourself, other times you will stand in the hall and scream and cry until I come get you. 
• You eat your food off a plate or a bowl now.  Sometimes you pick them up, trying to dump them, but for the most part you just chow down and leave them sitting in front of you.  This seems like such a big boy thing to me.  It was just a month ago I’d put everything on your tray.  Still not using utensils, I figured that would be more of a toy for you at this point. 
• When I am sitting or laying on the couch you will sometimes walk over to me and lay your head down on my arm or head and snuggle in.  It’s really the sweetest little “I love you” there is!  Sometimes you will come charging over with your determined walk, as fast as you can, and hold your arms up to me for some extra love and hugs.  We do a lot of hugging and kissing every day and when I was sick a week ago and couldn’t do that I could tell you were missing it.  It seemed like just when I couldn’t handle being sick any longer you’d sense I needed some extra love and come give me a lean in ‘hug’. 
• You don’t really say too many real words yet.  You do not like to perform on command but I have gotten you to say “ho ho ho” and “moo”.  When you are fussing a little and I ask you “do you want your ba-ba?” you’ll do this little chuckle thing which means ‘yes’.  You make the craziest sounds and really use your tongue a lot when ‘talking’.   Still making the da and ma sounds, lots of ‘g’ sounds and a bunch I can’t even begin to describe. You will say ‘ba ba’ and ‘nigh nigh’ sometimes. You ask questions, I can tell by your tone, and sometimes you go off on a tangent and tell us a really good story.  You can crack yourself up.  I’ve caught you sitting on the floor with toys chuckling to yourself – adorable! 
• You take 2 naps a day still.  I thought for a little while we were transitioning away from that but then you made it clear you were not ready to give either of them up yet. That’s just fine with me, I don’t want a fussy tired bebe!  Your nap lengths vary, anywhere from 1 – 3 hours.  You do a lot of chattering to yourself when falling asleep, and I can hear you kicking the rails of your crib a lot.  You never stay in the same place or position that I lay you down in and at night before I go to bed I go in and cover you back up.  Who knows how long that lasts but it gives me peace of mind.  At night you go down between 8 and 8:30, sleep all night, and wake up between 6 and 7.  Sometimes in the middle of the night I can hear you talking in your sleep.  Just like Mommy!
• You have 2 teeth on top and 4 on the bottom!  It’s the most adorable thing seeing you take a bite of something using those front teeth!  It’s almost dainty how you do it, ha ha! 
• You hate having your toes messed with.  I can tickle the bottoms of your feet but if I touch your toes you scream out.  I don’t like my toenails touched, could it be the same thing?  All of these similarities, you are most DEFINITELY part of the pea pod! (Sorry, Daddy, we got another one!)
• You may be a mommy’s boy but your are definitely a fan of your daddy’s!

Sweet boy, you are so loved!  Every last ounce of your squish!  I don’t want to forget a single morsel about you and our time together.  I could write and write and write about you.  Your dimpled squishy hands.  Your tight lipped smiles.  Your big brown eyes!  That puff of hair! Your sweet, innocent smell.  And how much you love me back!

I adore you, Tate.  Happy First Birthday, Big Boy!