Life with Luca: 12 months!

I know the blog has been all about Luca turning one lately (I actually missed his 11 month post), so I promise this will be the last post about that. I want to continue taking monthly photos, but I'm not sure how I'll do it from now on- suggestions welcome!

Dear Luca,

You are such a big boy. This month you turned one, and it's like a switch was flipped on your behavior. It's much more.. toddler-like.

Most of your favorite things to do involve loud noises- banging maracas on walls, floors, tables, your head, anything! You're loving playing the drums, and sometimes I'll give you the wipe container while I'm changing your diaper and you play that like a drum- it distracts you long enough so I can change you! Noise and music are huge for distraction while changing your diaper- you still love the kazoo! You also love driving your trucks and cars around, and you make the cutest little truck noise while "driving".

Your attention span is all over the place- sometimes you can play on your own for a while, and other times you go from toy to toy very quickly. Anything that you can slide on the wood floor can amuse you for a while- you recently discovered the drawer where mommy keeps the placemats, and you took them all out to crawl while sliding on them. You also do that with puzzle pieces and books.

You understand a lot of words, but we're still hearing only a few words from you- mama, dada, light, dog, nanana (banana- your first three syllable word!) and I *think milk and max (these are fairly new and inconsistent). Your dad gave mom the most beautiful flower arrangement for your birthday, and we talk about them during dinner so you now point to them when I ask you where the flowers are. You're pointing at everything these days! We talk a lot about what's around the house.

We put up the Christmas tree on your birthday, and you came down from a nap to see the lights for the first time. It was pretty cute! You love lights, and I thought it would be hard to keep you away from the tree, but you're being very good at looking from afar. Whew!

You love to give hugs and kisses, and mama loves getting them from you. You met your great grandfather a few weeks ago, and mama got a picture of the four generations of men on daddy's side of the family- that was pretty special! Granshan came to visit again, and you also met mama's dad! You are SO loved.

You're eating a lot more food now that we've tried to switch from the bottle to sippy cup and to whole milk all at the same time. You started using a sippy cup a few months ago and have had no problem with it during meals, but trying to get you to drink more than an ounce is proving to be difficult. So during the day when you're with your auntie you don't really drink much milk- hopefully you're going to start drinking more out of the sippy cup soon! Some of your favorite foods are blueberries, apples, squash, tomatoes, grapes, bananas and yogurt. You had your first peanut butter and jelly sandwich with daddy last weekend and I think you really liked it!

You have four teeth up top and two on the bottom. The two on the bottom aren't exactly close to each other, so we're interested to see if the one in the middle will pop up next. You're certainly teething in a unique way, and that's fitting for your personality:)

You're not quite walking yet, but you reeeeally want to! You're scooting everything around like it's a walker, including your high chair and the dining room chairs. I guess it's a good thing we have wood floors! Mommy needs to get you some shoes so we don't have to take off your socks all the time because you slip.

What else- you like to turn the pages when we read, and you sometimes get specific about what you want to read. You got a few new books for your birthday, and we've also been reading Christmas books, so that's a fun change.

Sleep- your bedtime is 6:30-7, and you usually wake up anywhere from 4-6 for a morning bottle and some cuddles. If it's early, mommy gets you to go to sleep again until 7ish, but sometimes you are up for the day- you just never know! We still try to get you to take two naps, but it's hard sometimes when you're excited. You spend the day with your cousins, and you just don't want to miss anything- my little social bug:)

Your one year check-up went great! You had immunizations and you did really well- you held onto an apple afterward and wouldn't let go- it was sad but adorable. You weigh about 23 pounds, and you're 30.5 inches tall (73rd percentile). You're wearing 18 month size clothes, and in some brands these are a little big but in others they fit perfectly!

You're pretty mischievous lately, and you love to go where you know you're not supposed to! The monthly photos this month were sort of difficult because you just wanted to do this...