Seth 1 year

Dear Seth,

Today is your birthday. You are one year old today! This morning I was excited that you woke up before I left for work so I could come in and sing you happy birthday. That put a big smile on your face. You love singing and music, especially if it has a good beat. Your auntie Natalie got you this dancing monkey for Christmas and you are seriously obsessed with it. If you had your way that monkey would be a'dancing all the LIVE LONG DAY. When you see it you get so excited and start bopping your head in anticipation. Then you pick it up by one ear and carry it around and fuss until someone turns it on for you. Daddy hides it from you when your back is turned because it gets on his nerves. I don't really mind so much, what ever makes you happy makes me happy my dear.

So I guess I should give a run down of the basics, here on your 1st birthday. At 12 months you still ESP:

Eat - still nursing in the early morning and once at night. You also started drinking the evil cow's milk this week and seem to find it quite delicious. You still don't quite get the concept of drinking from even a sippy cup by yourself. You just want to wave it all around if we give it to you. But if we hold it up for you, you gulp ferociously for a minute and then push it away gasping with your mouth open and milk dribbling out. You eat lots of random stuff these days - refried beans, french toast, yogurt, garden burgers, broccoli cheese soup, and graham crackers are just a few of your favorites. You will often alternate putting a piece of food in your mouth with dropping one on the floor and then peering over to see where it went. Unless it is something you really don't like in which case a few swipes of your little hands send it flying. Today you discovered that you had a feline audience - Buttercup was intently watching each piece fall to the floor and this got you SO excited that you were laughing and giggling and throwing food like I've never seen before. I had to turn my back and hide my amusement. Then like a good mommy I took the few remaining pieces away and calmly reminded you we don't throw our food, we eat it.

Sleep - around 6:30/7pm - 4/5am at which point you are still nursing and then going back to sleep until around 6:30/7am. This hasn't changed for awhile. Your nursing days are numbered but I have not come up with the game plan yet, so we'll keep going for now as long as you're still waking up. You still take two naps - one morning and afternoon. I had observed in the past that you would wave bye bye when you were tired and I picked you up. Today you actually came over to me and waved (after fussing incessantly for a long time). Even though you had already had your afternoon nap and it was only 4:30pm I put you in your crib and Lo and Behold you took a little cat nap. I guess we need to start working on the "sleepy" sign so you know the difference. I'm sure when people wave at you it's a little confusing.

Poop - we don't really need to talk about that do we? Yes absolutely because what happened last week was both disgusting and hilarious. After your bath I was letting you run amok naked as per usual and I was sitting in the glider reading out loud to you from The Little Prince. All of a sudden I looked down and there you were, doing the inevitable - pooping on the floor. So we cleaned that up and resumed reading for a minute or two (after putting a diaper on of course), and then all of a sudden I glance down again and see that you have poop IN YOUR HAND, next stop MOUTH I am sure. So off we went back to the tub. Blech. So now you have a story to tell when someone asks you about your most embarrassing moment. For the record, even after this I still think puke is worse than poop.

Aside from that... a few of the randoms: you definitely know how to sign "more", which usually looks a lot like the sign for "ball" but you use it pretty appropriately. It's kind of the universal sign for food right now, we haven't worked much on "eat" or any other ones. I am getting a lot more confident in your comprehension of the whole signing thing so we'll be practicing some variety in the coming weeks. I started "milk" today and I could see the wheels were turning but the best you could do was hold one hand out. I predict you'll catch on by next week :)

Umm, you now have 8 teeth now visible. Four each on the top and bottom. The two top lateral incisors are JUST starting to poke through but they're there. Brushing them is a real adventure. You seem to like it at first for about 5 seconds but then insist on biting and sucking on the toothbrush. Rumor has it we're supposed to actually take you to the DENTIST soon. Not sure how that's going to work with the way you squirm constantly. I'll have to ask for a sedative or something. Kidding.

Well my little monkey, that is about all for now. I love you bunches! You have made this last year of my life the best yet and I look forward to many more to come. Happy birthday buddy!

Love,
Mama