Our Toddling Boy

Hi everybody! So the holidays passed wonderfully and here we are in 2008 with an active, happy, sweet little 1 year old boy. Gosh, he's fun. He has most definitely been keeping us on our toes too. He is all over the place and I can barely keep up with his growing arm length. The things on our tables keep moving farther and farther back out of the danger zone. Pretty soon we'll just have to put all of our stuff away- I guess we'll be going for the minimal look in our decor from now on. Our big event in the last couple of weeks has been Rinat's 1st birthday party. His BDay is the day after Christmas so we figured we'd just start out celebrating a couple of weeks later so that when he gets older, then all of his friends won't be busy with family stuff and unable to come. It was a lot of fun- as far as Rinat's concerned, the more activity the better. Some family came in town to attend and some of his little friends came over to play. Parties sure have gotten different now that everyone has kids! The photo above is him enjoying one of his BDay cupcakes. He ate all of the icing but none of the cake- he knows what's good! Unfortunately our little sweetie was sick for his party (not that it slowed him down at all) and when we went to the doctor today and he told us he has an ear infection to go along with his runny nose and hacking cough. So that means we have to reschedule his surgery for late-Feb/early-March. No big deal though since it is not exactly urgent. He also hasn't been able to get his first little haircut quite yet so he is still constantly mistaken for a girl. Today I was looking at him while Peter was holding him and I have to admit that I think he is kind of pretty too. Maybe the haircut will help. He has also been drooling so much that I have to change his outfit several times a day (I don't need him getting a rash on his chin too!) so I think that teeth #7&8 are on their way soon. And speaking of his rash, it has gotten sooo much better. It's still a constant battle but we've had several (non-consecutive) days of rashless butt. It makes life a whole lot easier. And I think our big boy is working toward 1 nap a day. When I put him down in the morning now, he will just babble to himself for about 45 minutes and then start crying for me to come and get him. He thinks he's so big now! And he is just soaking up everything we tell him. The other day, I told him "Rinat, go get your shoes" and he crawled over and got them and brought them over to me. I couldn't believe it. And he will point at pictures in a book and make the please sign until I tell him what it is called. He is very insistent about it and I think it's a good sign that he is going to love learning about the world. He wants to know about everything around him. But the big news with our guys right now is that he is officially walking. I can't believe it! He has been using the walker wagon to cruise around here like Speed Racer. And he has no trouble at all walking with me and barely holding one finger. And I have enticed him into taking a couple of steps at a time to get to me, but the last day or so he has been standing up like a champ. I counted 'one hippopotamus, 2 hippopotamus, 3 hippopotamus...' up to 26 yesterday and I think for the first time he realized what he was doing. He kind of froze and stood really still and kind of looked at me surprised, then smiled, then stood for another couple of seconds, then slowly sat back down and started laughing. It was really exciting. But then a couple of minutes ago, he stood for a few seconds, thought about it, and thought 'I can walk to the big giant turtle', took several steps, and boomed onto the turtle. Peter and I were both frozen watching him figure it out and I am so happy we both saw his first true steps. I have to admit I cried just a tiny bit. I mean, we just got him and he's already a toddler! I know that not everyone's day was quite as exciting as ours, but I hope it was a good one! -m