Live. Laugh. Love.: Where we are now

So now that I have recapped Will's first year, here are a few notes on where we are now.

Physically: Will's main mode of transport is still commando crawling. In the last couple months, he has mastered pulling up and 'cruising' around on all the furniture. He has complete confidence when he's hanging onto any solid object. But try to get him to stand alone or let go, and he gets a look of caution in his eyes and reaches out for anything to hold. He's still too wobbly to support himself upright alone. Craig blames the large dome that sits atop Will's shoulders (which was genetically gifted from Craig). And yet, Will manages to be all over the place... including into Brutus's dog food on many occasions and anything electronic just like his daddy (remotes, phones, cell phones, etc.). He also loves to walk behind his new push/ride toy from his Great Grandpa Korn and occasionally walking while holding just one of our hands briefly. What's really funny is watching him try to sit/squat down from a standing position. He starts to spread his legs apart until he's nearly doing the straddle splits to lower himself to the ground and then bends one knee in to plunk down. It's hysterical to watch!

Personality: Since birth, Will has always been labeled a "good" or "easy" baby. I would still say that holds true, however, as is common with this age, he's learning that he is independent from mom and dad and also that he can test his boundaries. He keeps us on our toes with all that he gets into and it's still mostly cute to see him get an ornery look (scrunchy nose) when I tell him "no" as he tries to do something. He looks you right in the eye like "what's she gonna' do?" and slowly reaches his hand into the dog dish anyway.

Will has also recently started yelling "Ahhh!" at the dinner table when he wants something or is frustrated. He is frustrated because he doesn't know how to communicate so, although I first thought it was unnecessary, we've started doing some sign language just for "more" and "all done". We'll see how that goes.

Sleeping: I feel very blessed that Will does so well with naps and bedtime. But I've worked very hard to set up good sleep habits and routines to get to this point! He goes to bed at 7:30 every night (unless we're out later for some reason) and wakes between 6 and 6:30 each morning. He takes 1-2 naps daily, about 1-3 hours each.

Other milestones: Will waves bye bye with his arm extended, fingers spread apart, and bending his wrist up and down. He says 'ba ba' to mimic but I don't think he knows that the two go together. His bottom left lateral incisor broke through this past weekend, so he now has 7 teeth - 4 on top and 3 on bottom. We're working on object identification now, so we're pointing and naming everything we see now in books and around us, i.e. "Where's your belly?" or "There's the doggy/truck/ball".

Foods: Now that he's one, there's a lot less caution with some common allergy foods. At this point, he pretty much eats what we eat and the only thing he doesn't get is peanut butter and other nuts. He LOVES fruits and vegetables but still dislikes cheese and yogurt most of the time. He's drinking the cow's milk well, although it took a bit of time to transition. He's been completely off his bottle since 2 weeks before his birthday and he never took to a pacifier, so no trouble there. He handles a non-spill proof cup well at all meals. We're still nursing just once in the mornings when he wakes. The last couple weeks before he turned one, we cut out one daily nursing per week. I LOVE not having to pump at work now! But I will miss that special bond when we're done for good.

Here are some recent pictures from the last couple weeks.

Here we are with my cousin Molly and her 6-week old daughter Cora. Will seems so BIG next to her!

Will's buddy Griffin shares a bunch of his hand-me-down clothes with us. We are so lucky! Griffin's mom has really great taste! This photo was taken at Uncle Zach's graduation party.