Aaron at 1 year

Aaron had his one year check up today and here are his stats:

20 pounds, 15 ounces - good for 50%
31 inches long - good for 80%

For comparison sake, I know both Kyle and Emily were 30 inches by 1 year since we had to switch car seats (height limit reached) and Kyle had just barely broken 20 pounds and Emily was at 19 pounds, I believe.

He's meeting his milestones and doing very well. We think he says mama and dada. We thought he said ball, but he says ball a lot and not just to an actual ball so we're not sure it's really a word. He does make a lot of noise and sounds though and is trying to communicate. He goes up on his knees and opens and closes his hands to tell us he wants to be picked up or he wants something in that direction. He waves goodbye and blows kisses. 

He still has 8 teeth though he's working on some molars we think since he chews on his two fingers, placing them where his molars would be coming in. And he's been a bit cranky and not sleeping well for his morning nap despite being desperately tired. 

He does still take 2 naps and it is normally a good 2+ hour nap in the morning and another 1 -1.5 hour nap in the afternoon. If he has a bad morning nap, he takes a longer afternoon one. He sleeps well at night from about 7pm - 7am more or less. He is very cute at nap time with our "nigh-night" ritual. We turn on the white noise machine and say goodnight to things around the room including Kyle's monkey mountain, scuba monkey, closet monkey, Stitch and his favorite, the basketball hoop. After we have a laugh about the basketball hoop and say "goodnight to you" he has his thumb in his mouth and is ready to go to sleep. 

He love, love, loves his brother and sister. They are a constant source of entertainment for him. He is very much in their faces now even when they are trying to do something else like homework. He often thinks he is the center of the universe and that everyone should pay attention to him. ;-) 

He is still crawling and standing up on his own, but he hasn't shown much interest in walking. (Note: at the time of actually writing this, 3 weeks later, he has shown some interest and has put together a few tiny steps and then doing his best timbers.) Despite not walking, he is on the go, go, go. He can open doors and drawers so he can get where he wants and get what he wants. You can't turn your back on this guy. He goes up and down stairs and knows to go down feet first on his tummy. 

He loves the tupperware drawer and the kid cup drawer. He is also very fond of the cabinet with the funnels. He will take the funnels, some cups and water bottles and Tupperware containers out and make a big mess. He does like to find the matching lids for the Tupperware. It's really quite impressive to see him in action matching them up. I didn't realize a 1 year old could do that. He likes to crawl around with some sort of cup in his hand so you can hear him coming. If it's not a cup in his hand, he likes pens, pencils or markers. 

He still eats well for the most part except when he's sick or tired. We are working on getting him to drink regular milk and he's just not diggin' it very much. He will take some sips and make a face at me knowing that it's imposter milk. He does enjoy seeing the milk drip out of the sippy cup and onto his tray or the floor. On that note, he is a very messy eater. A dog in our house would be very well fed by Aaron at feeding time. 

He loves his bath time and is starting to show some interest in books. We try reading to him, but he's good for about 2-3 pages and then is off to do something else. He also likes to chew on books. But he's slowly coming around to sitting still for a book. We're working on it. 

He gives hugs, kisses and zerberts and is getting even more snuggly with his hugs. He will wrap his arms around us and rest his head on our shoulders for a hug. He did this with Emily the other night when she was saying good night to him. It was very sweet.