Luke is ONE!

 Well, my baby boy is now ONE! I cannot believe that it has been a whole year since we met our sweet Luke for the first time! I can't remember what it was like to live life without him. One year ago, we went to UAB Hospital, not knowing if we would come home with a baby boy or a baby girl - I can definitively say that this little squirt is ALL BOY.

He has had a great month. Although his ears are still bothering him (boo!), he seems to be over the pneumonia and other illnesses that he acquired during September. I don't know what we are going to do about these ears - he had another ear infection last week, which brings the total to 5 since we got tubes the last week of August. The doctor said that about 20% of children will continue to get ear infections post-tubes, but I think there has to be something behind all of this. Allergies maybe? I am going to give it one more round of antibiotics and then we are going to head back to the ENT.

My once-chunky-baby has become quite the little stringbean! At his one year checkup, he weighed 20 pounds (15th percentile) and was 30.5 inches tall (75th percentile). His head continues to be off the charts (99th percentile) ;-) The doctor attributed his low weight to his recent illnesses and his lack of interest in eating solids - he wants us to keep nursing, but to limit it to 3-4 times a day. Luke just isn't a fan of big meals and I am not going to make mealtime a battle, so we will just have to ease into what he is comfortable doing. He LOVES pot roast, chicken, bananas, waffles, hummus, spinach, bok choy, green beans, cheese and turkey, he just doesn't eat a large quantity of anything. He will sometimes eat the little squeeze pouches of food, but seems to just like a sip or two and then he is finished. He feeds himself and can hold his squeeze pouches by himself, but he just likes to use the spoon as a toy. We are working on that one! He has learned to sign "all done" and lets us know when he's had enough.

He absolutely loves anything mechanical and is obsessed with the vacuum cleaner, the washer and dryer, phones, remote controls, the dishwasher, and anything else with buttons or lights. We were walking through  -Target yesterday and they had the Christmas lights on display - I think he could have stared at them all day long! He definitely isn't scared of anything!

Can you believe how much he's grown? The top picture was taken when he was 4 days old...the bottom one was at 11 months, 3 weeks. So many changes in just one year! He certainly fills up the chair now!

We had his one year pictures taken at the petting farm at Oak Mountain State Park - he was so cute with all of the animals. He loved petting the horse and didn't bat an eyelash when it snorted right at him! He would have chased the goats all over the farm if we had let him! He is very, very close to walking and will take a few steps now and then. He will walk while holding one of my hands, but prefers to crawl or cruise. He loves his little Melissa and Doug alligator clacker push toy and pushes it all over the house. He has learned how to turn it and steer it on his own, so he can entertain himself for quite some time with that! He can make almost anything into a push-toy - laundry baskets, chairs, you name it - he will figure out a way to slide it around the floor!

He is really good at entertaining himself - he will play with his toys and can figure out little games to play by himself. He loves chasing the cats and looking out the windows. He loves to open and close any cabinet or door and loves to empty any box/laundry basket/cabinet that he can find. He loves to "read" his books and can point to some of the animals and objects. He knows "kitty", "pig",  "sheep", and sometimes "bear". He loves to point at the lights and say "maahht" and calls everything that is round a "baaah" (ball). We love to ask him, "How big is Luke?" and he responds by throwing both hands way up in the air when we say "SO BIG!" We also ask him, "How old is Luke?" and he (sometimes) responds by holding up one finger. I don't think he has any idea what it means, he has just learned to do that somehow. It is very cute!

He is still really enjoying his stroller and loves to go walking in the neighborhood. We got our first little snap of cold weather (which is now gone :-(), so I bundled him up for a stroll. This proved to be a bit of overkill, as he was burning up about 4 minutes into the walk. I thought he looked so cute in his little hat! Of course, the ear flaps didn't fasten all the way around that big noggin, but at least his head was warm!

He has started to sleep pretty well at  night. He wakes up a few times, but he can get himself back to sleep without me. He has started to wake up very early in the morning, but we don't go get him until about 6:30 or so. He will usually play or go back to sleep, so we are quite grateful for that. We are going to start working on learning to fall asleep unassisted - not looking forward to that! I have always nursed him to sleep and it has worked very well, but he needs to learn how to fall asleep without me. He sleeps in the swing at Mother's Day Out, but that is not a habit that I want him to get used to. His napping is kind of erratic right now. He will usually take one good (1 hour or so) nap and then one small (20-30 minute) nap. Sometimes he only takes one nap, so I am trying to figure out if I need to keep him up in the morning or just let him sleep when he is tired. Our pediatrician is very supportive and gave us tons of information on how to help him fall asleep on his own, so we are going to get going on that once we get the all-clear on his ears.

I just cannot believe my little man is ONE! We had a fun party for him (I will post on that later!) and it was just so cute to see him interact with everyone. He is definitely not shy and loves to be in the middle of the action. He is all joy and we are so amazed and grateful for his little spirit. This has been the most amazing and special year of our lives and we can't wait to see what the future holds for our sweet Luke.