12 months

Where O where has my little baby gone?!?! Apparently I'm supposed to call him a "Toddler" now, pfmph...fat chance, he's my baby and will always be my baby ;)

But on a serious note I can totally see a toddler in Mr. Max. He's a pretty happy kid and his smile is contagious. Which means we are smiling a lot in our house. Everything makes him smile, even if we just look at him and smile he smiles back and giggles. He loves to be outside, too and will smile the entire time.  The only time he really gets pissy is at bedtime and when he's hungry. He hates the routine of putting a diaper on and putting pajamas on. We don't get it and we've tried different ways of doing it but it's always a fight and it's super annoying. The hungry thing is an easy fix, put some food in front of him and he's quiet.

 We have full on conversations during the day and he loves to mimic noises. He will tell us what a lion says, "raahh" and a dog, "ruff".  He says, "mama" and "dada", but that's about it. The other stuff is just a bunch squeaking and squalling and he does it a lot. He points at everything and usually has something to say about it, but we don't know what that is yet.

The cutest is when he dances. He will dance to anything with a rhythm...including me. HAHA. And music makes him happy. If he's in a grumpy mood music will almost always cheer him up.

He still doesn't mind snuggling with me. I swear he would be perfectly content if I just held him all day or let him sit on my lap with a toy to play with it. Sometimes I get frustrated when all he wants to do is crawl up my legs but I always remind myself that this is only going to last for a short time and then I'm going to miss it.

He listens to me! When I say "No" he listens and immediately stops doing what he was doing (like eating things off the floor, sticking electrical components in his mouth, swiping food off his tray, playing in the dirt from our plants, putting shoes in his mouth, the list could go on forever). I figure this might last for another year and then when I say no he'll just laugh at me.  Also, when I shake my head "No", you shake your head right back at me...cute now...not so much next year.

He still puts EVERYTHING in his mouth...when does this stop???  When he puts my flip flops in his mouth it disgusts me the most. I usually scare him because I yelp so loud when I see it shoved in there. I swear we watch him but somehow he manages to sneak things in every once in awhile.

We also call him the "Inspector of Things".  He will find something out of place or that wasn't there before like a feather, a piece of yarn, new photos on the wall (yes, we're still moving in) and point and stare at it.

Not walking yet, I think he still has about a month to go before he braves those first steps on his own. I can't decide if I want him to start walking or not. On the one hand crawling is so disgusting and his pants and socks and hands are always dirty. But if he does start walking then he'll be in to everything faster and better and I've got to be on my game even more. Not sure which one I like better.

He's still taking two naps a day, one around 10am and another around 3pm. I'm wondering when they go to just one nap a day? 18 months or so? The afternoon nap is getting rough. If we are home and I put him in his crib it will take him 30-45 minutes before he falls asleep. He'll usually play half the time and cry the other half. If we are in the car though he's perfectly content with falling asleep and will be out by 2:30. Sometimes I'll try to rush to get home and then he falls asleep with 10 minutes left in the car which totally screws up the plan. I've only been able to do a successful transfer one time.

I can't believe he's been in our life for an entire year and we ALL survived...and how the love for him grows more and more everyday. I thought it would peak by now but it hasn't and it's marvelous! I can only imagine what the next year will bring!?!?

Happy 1st Birthday, Caiden Max. We love you to the moon!


First ride in the Radio Flyer

He loves to play in the curtains

The weirdest thing is the first thing he goes for in this cabinet is the bottle and loves to play with it. But he will not drink out of it anymore. I pretty much gave up a few months ago trying to give him a bottle. Sometimes I'll put milk in a sippy cup and he's fine with it. So the bottles are officially retired with Caiden.

He crawled in to the cabinet yesterday, got stuck and then got scared. He did find his way out on his own, though. It was so cute. 

He loves to play on the playground at the park. Sometimes when the older kids are playing around him and yelling he'll get a little scared but most of the time he's having a blast. He crawls around on the bridge and loves it when it shakes. 

Looks like we need a bigger car seat.

And we'll end with this gem!