ONE

I am still in awe that we are the parents to a ONE YEAR OLD. There is no longer a baby living in this house, he is a TODDLER. Welllll, he will always be my baby, even though he thinks he is such a big boy :)
Lets see...what is our one year old up to these days?

*He has SEVEN little toofies. He has four up top and three on the bottom. He did fantastic with the ones on the bottom, but the ones on the top have given him a run for his money and made him just miserable (as well as the momma and the dada). The top teefers were also accompanied by an icky runny nose. Boo, hiss, ick.



*He is now formula free, in which he made the decision, not us. He woke up one morning and decided he didn't want the bottle anymore and that was that. At his well baby visit, Dr. M said it we could stop the formula and make the switch to whole milk. At first I was a little worried since 1) he is a horrible eater, and 2) he wasn't drinking very much whole milk. Well, he is still a picky picky eater, but he is now doing really well with the whole milk. When we first started out on sippy cups, I had bought the soft spout ones before ultimately settling on the straw sippys. Well I had recently brought back the soft spout one because E was throwing the straw ones in the floor and the lid would pop off sending milk everywhere. He drinks a lot more milk using this sippy BUT he brings the sippy to Momma to hold up for him. Haha. It makes me laugh and I think he learned this from his BFF Will :) :)



* He is a little sponge these days. It AMAZES me at how quickly he learns. He will almost always copy anything you show him, being a new toy or an electronic device. He is also trying sooo hard to say everything that we say, which can be bad since his Daddy curses like a sailor. :) New phrases are going to have to be learned or we are going to have trouble. Hahahaha. His newest word is OUCH. Soooo cute to hear him say it. We have been trying to teach him nice (which is being gentle when touching our faces, etc etc) and one morning he did it a little rough and I said ouch, and he immediately repeated me and said ouch as well. When you say touchdown he will raise his arms over his head and then he claps because he is so proud of himself.

*He will also 'woof' when you ask him what a dog says and 'moo' when you ask him what a cow says. It is incrediably adorable. We have been working on other animals but cow and dog seems to be his favorite and he is being stubborn :) His favorite book at the moment is a Sandra Boynton classic called Moo, Baa, LaLaLa. If you have children and you have never heard of her, I HIGHLY recommend getting her books. Alison introduced us and Elias LOVES them and has gathered quite the collection.



*He communicates with us by pointing(and grunting) at what he wants. He will get your attention and sometimes guides you over to where he needs you to be and then points to what he wants. He also brings things to you that he needs help with. He will bring you his toys that he needs turned on, or a book that he wants read, or a sippy cup that he wants turned up. :)

*His eating habits are still VERY picky. I try to give him lots of things I know that he will eat, in order to fill him with nutrients. He is still a big fan of pancakes so he usually gets those once a day, and he loves the graduate cereal bars. He is still a gold fish connoisseur and could eat a whole bag in a sitting if you would let him. He was eating the Gerber fruits and veggie purees but now he refuses those as well as his yo baby yogurt. I think the deal with that is, he wants to feed himself, which I dont mind but he hasnt quite mastered the spoon unless its something that will stay on the spoon like mashed potatoes.




*He loves being outside and if you say the word outside he gets really excited. Unfortunately this cold in the Deep South has prevented any outside play which really stinks since he got a new wagon for his birthday from his Great Grandma Alice and Great Grandpa Guy. We are improvising by using it as a TV chair :)




*When he sees you with a diaper and the wipes HE RUNS. Haha. He HATES getting his diaper changed and it is a constant battle.

*He is climbing on EVERYTHING, trying to give his Momma a heart attack. With his fine new climbing skills he has master Mount Couch. Hahaha. He climbs up on the couch and then just smiles cause he thinks he is doing something he isnt suppose to.:) He has also invented a new sport...dishwasher surfing:)





We are having so much fun at this age and I am just in awe at how Elias' cute little personality is starting to shine through.