12 Month Check Up

Parker had his 12 month check up with his Pediatrician today. He is right on track for weight, height and head circumference. There are not any concerns right now about his other developmental areas - he is not walking yet, but is "cruising," which is acceptable at 12 months. I think he'll take off walking in the next 2-3 months...and the doctor agreed that was fine. We do have some homework - getting rid of the morning bottle before solid foods. Parker has protested eating breakfast before his bottle...he always eats Cheerios or something similar after his bottle, but since he's had all of that formula he's not very hungry so he only eats a handful of Cheerios. So, we are going to offer up food with a sippy of milk for breakfast every morning and quit the morning bottle cold turkey. I'm sure it will be a few days of protest, but he'll catch on quickly. We're going to keep the before bed bottle for now and work on getting rid of it in a month or so - I'm in no hurry to take his bottles away if he needs the comfort of one to go to bed at night.

This leads me to my next challenge - getting rid of the pacifier. Parker uses his pacifier to go to sleep, but usually spits it out while sleeping and doesn't seem to care about it any other time. It doesn't interfere with his sleep, meaning he doesn't wake up crying because if fell out of his mouth, so I'm not too anxious to get rid of it, but I know it has to be done sooner rather than later.

It's hard to believe my baby boy is now techincally considered a "toddler"...WOW how 1 year went by quickly.

1 week and 1 day...

I can't believe Parker turns 1 in 1 week and 1 day! I'm not sure how I feel about my baby boy not being a "baby" anymore. We turned his carseat around yesterday - yes, I know he's not 1 yet and I'm breaking the law - P smashed Goldfish crackers all over his carseat yesterday and I had to take it out to vacuum it so I just flipped it around when I reinstalled it. He loves riding forward and watching where we are going instead of where we've been! :) But, that's just one more thing that grows him up from being my baby.

Here's an update on what P's been "doing" recently:
- Crawling all over and getting into everything. He's very fast, but since most of our floors are tile, we can hear him coming from anywhere. His hands go slap, slap, slap as he's speed-crawling to his next destination.
- Pulling up and trying to stand. His latest attempt to stand is the funniest. He gets up on his hands and feet with his legs straight as can be and his butt up in the air - like he's doing a bad push up - and then he turns in a circle until he gets frustrated and sits down. It's funny to watch him do it, but I can't seem to catch it on camera yet...he's fast!
- Babbling non-stop and actually getting out a few words. His clearest words are mamma, da da, daddy, get (he tells this to the dogs when we do)...a few not so clear phrases are puppies, thank you and snack. I know what he's saying but no one else does.
- Shaking his head "no". Mainly when it's time to eat he will shake his head "no" if he doesn't want to eat what we have for him. He locks his lips shut too.
- Rolling the ball. P loves to roll the ball back and forth and throw it around and chase it. If it is a bouncy ball he likes to throw it and make it bounce too.
- Reading - P's into the touch and feel books as well as other books that we read to him.
- Putting shapes into the shape-sorter. P has a hard time getting them to match up, but he's persistent and usually finds the right shape hole.

He's changing so much...and I realize this is still the beginning. ;)