Twelve Months

Bowen :: Twelve Months Old

Weight: 23 lbs 7 oz and 30.5 inches long. He’s in the 75th percentile for weight and grew 3.5 inches from his 9 month appointment! Explains why we’re flying through clothes lately. He’s mostly in 12-18 month clothes, although he’s still wearing 12 month footie sleepers. As he’s gotten more mobile, he’s starting to lose some baby chub and look more and more like a toddler.

Eats: A few weeks ago, I swapped out the bottle for the sippy cup and we haven’t looked back. I do so miss our snuggle time, especially first thing in the morning, but I’m super thankful the bottle weaning wasn’t a huge issue. So, now he’s pretty much eating 3 meals with a glass of milk. He eats pretty much everything, although he shows definite preference for bananas, watermelon, strawberries, grilled cheese, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and PB sandwiches. He does eat everything, but I often have to be strategic about the order that things show up on his tray. He recently learned to sign “eat” and “more” and he’s pretty enthusiastic about using them.

Sleep: He’s still taking two naps, and they’re both right around an hour (45-75 minutes). He’s still sleeping from about 7:30pm-6:30am, although there’s been a few mornings we’ve crept back towards the 7:00 am wake up. We still use some cry it out and he’s a good self-soother as long as he has long sleeves on!

Milestones: Crawling, crawling, crawling, fast, fast, fast. He sits up on his knees to play (no pulling up yet) and loves to walk around holding the hands of anyone who is willing to sacrifice their backs! He makes “vroom vroom” noises when he drives cars and trucks, and has a few animal sounds thanks to Peek-a-Boo barn. (His "oink oink” sounds a lot like someone clearing a throat…) He says “bye bye” and “ni ni” (for night night), tik-in (chicken) and na na (banana.) I love the sweet sound of his little voice! He signs “eat” and “more” but never all done. (He’s never all done.) He mimics a lot of things he see us do, like holding a phone next to his head or brushing his hair. He has become well-acquainted with the word “no” this month, and often repeats it back to me when I say it “no, no!” and then giving me his little sideways smile to try and make me laugh. (I sometimes have to turn around to keep him from seeing me break out into laughter.)

Likes: giving kisses, hugging Buddy, zooming his trucks, music, grilled cheese, pancakes, bananas, the Itsy-Bitsy spider song with hand motions, football (“foo-bahhh”), cake, reading books (favorites: Hello Bugs, The Fuzzy Duckling, The Easter Bunny)

Dislikes: being told “no”, being tired, spotting an iPhone and having it be moved out of his reach (ditto: laptops, remotes, cameras, Buddy), having shampoo rinsed off his head, sitting still for more than the length of time it takes to read 2 books

Twelve months! I can’t believe I’m writing this post already. In the first few weeks of his life, I remember so many people telling me how quickly the year would fly by and my sleep-deprived, routine-missing self did not believe one word of it. How can a year go by quickly when you don’t even know if it’s day or night? And just as sure as can be, a year has flown right by.

I’ve written, deleted and rewritten a final paragraph for this final month of this first year but nothing I say does justice to what the experience of being this boy’s mother has been like. It’s been exciting, hard, fulfilling, exhausting, funny, joyful, surprising, challenging, peaceful, reaffirming, fun, confusing and wonderful in so many quiet, small magical moments. I am so full of gratitude and love for this little boy and Matt + I both feel so blessed to have had a healthy, happy and memorable first year with him.

Happy 1st Birthday, sweet Bo!