One Whole Year Old!

Hurray! Josiah is ONE! I’m not sure how or when it happened, but it did. My baby is officially not a baby anymore. (He still needs, and wants, me though – I just had to add that.) The other day I was in Target looking at all the infant stuff trying to find one particular item and I realized that despite how cute most of it was, I didn’t need any of it anymore. I’ve decided not to be saddened by it and all the phases we left behind, but instead to delight in all the new things that this age brings. There is a whole new world of experiences to be had out there and I plan to enjoy it with my little family.

One thing I’m truly excited about, although it is silly, is that the risk of SIDS supposedly drastically decreases at this point. I remind myself of that each night that I decide the house is too chilly to turn that silly ceiling fan on and I don’t want to feel anxious about it. I’m also excited that it is time for weaning, which we are partway through. The other big event to be excited about is the birthday cookout! (If you are reading this, you probably should have been invited. So, if you didn’t get your invite, I must have messed up your email address, so please let me know.) I’m trying to get Jacob to do a hay ride for the kids, what do you guys think?

Ok, about the Birthday Boy himself:

Josiah has started to stand on his own. We just happened to catch the first time on video, so that was special. He is really great at walking with something to hold onto, but he’s not ready to go out on his own quite yet. I’m hoping by Easter, though, wouldn’t that be fun? No rush, though.

Josiah is quite the little dancer as he bobs up and down to the beat of any song playing. The boy has rhythm! Grandma has noted this and has taken to teaching Josiah how to rap. This is a skill I did not know my mom had (actually, she has no skill at all, but it is funny anyway!) It is hilarious to watch Josiah try to mimic her bad rapping, but he enjoys it.

Lately we have been experimenting with letting Josiah feed himself with a spoon. We load the spoon up for him and as long as he is not too excited in taking the spoon from us, thus flinging the food, he is great at getting it into his mouth. In the last couple of days he has pushed the food around on his tray with the spoon, but he is not coordinated enough to scoop it up yet.

His two new signs are “eat” and “milk”. I think he has been doing it longer than I recognized, but it was very clear about a week ago and now I see it more often. He was doing “milk” with both hands very frequently and at odd times for a long time before I was sure about it. It kind of looked like a two-handed “bye bye”, yet different. Maybe he liked milk more than we knew or was trying to tell us to give him privacy???

He had two negative “firsts” this month. One is that he threw up. Gross, I know. And the other is that he got scratched across the forehead by the cat. He had taken to lying on the cat and rolling on her. One time in particular, he and Lilah were under his exersaucer and he was laying on her with his head twisted up to look at the toy from below. I noticed his elbow was digging into her gut and told Jacob it looked like it hurt (dumb me didn’t get up to help her and just expected her to take it like she always does), next thing we knew she had swatted him and ran out from under him. Ooops! Totally my fault. Lilah immediately came up to him to apologize and they made up on the spot. I’m just like my clients that I say are dumb for doing that kind of thing. Lesson learned and she will get her nails trimmed more often.

I usually attempt to limit how much I write for these monthly updates so as to not bore you nice people who actually read it, but I’m really struggling with not going on and on about this precious boy we have at this one year mark. It has been a wonderfully crazy year of changes that are nearly impossible to keep up with. I think after this mark I may only do these official updates every 3 months or so.

Here are some pictures and video of the big boy!

I think Josiah is ready for spring. He has taken to trying to pull his long sleeves off. We found him like this twice, once after some bedtime shenanigans after he finally fell asleep and once after we apparently left him in his crib too long in the morning.

Now that is talent!

Boys know how to make forts out of anything.


My precious baby! Can you see his single tear and 3 scratch marks from the cat on his forehead? He's happy anyway.

How to love on and play with a cat, according to Josiah. We are bad pet owners and parents, I know. Lilah goes wild when we play with this sewing measuring tape, but not so much when Josiah tries it.

Bathtime and bedtime giggles.

Walking with his tractor. At the end of the first clip you will also see him stand for just a second by himself and then celebrate it.

Jacob taught Josiah how to make elephant sounds...kind of.