12 month pictures

We blinked, and he's 12 months old.  His hair is many shades lighter than it was when he was born.  He has ideas about what he wants and doesn't want and is very vocal when his wishes aren't met.  He loves to crawl and can walk when holding hands or holding on to a walker, but he isn't a big fan of that.  He likes to play music, particularly maracas and the xylophone.  Balloons captivate him and one of his favorite things is to run errands -- you never notice how many balloons are in the grocery store until you go with Augie.  He still isn't the smiley-est baby, but he's generally in good spirits.  He says "mama" and "dada" when he wants us to pick him up.  He says "dat" for "bath" which is one of his favorite activities.  He's started to master the ring tower, and also enjoys putting things into bins or into drawers.  Or putting his toys just on the other side of the baby gate down a stair or two, then reaching for them but not being able to get them.  He loves Nanaa and is starting to show her that he can do gentle touches, but doesn't understand that she doesn't want to be gently touched on the face, claws, or have her tail tugged.  He loves to eat, but what he loves to eat changes each day.  Recently he's gone on clementine strike, which used to be one of his favorites.  Except when they had clementines for sample at the grocery store and he devoured it like it was the best thing he's ever tasted.  Every day has so many moments that we don't want to forget, but inevitably do.  We wish we could just take snapshots of each moment to remember forever, but if we were taking snapshots the whole time, we wouldn't really be there.  

His 12 month photo shoot was in the evening on the day before his birthday.  He had been sick and wasn't in the best mood.  He cried one of the longest sustained periods I've seen because I picked him up and moved him back about 5 feet so he'd crawl again for a better shot.  But despite the challenges, dada still got some good photos.  The blanket has become an incidental prop that we try to capture in the background before he moves out of the frame.  It has been so fun to see him grow through these photos, and I really credit Brett in giving a sustained effort each time.  

Right out the gate -- no blanket in this one!

You picked me up and put me back down!

A decent stair climber who only occasionally now goes to sit down on the step behind him and stumbles

He likes to close the gate!

His xylophone hammer is never far away!

So tall.

Toddlerhood, here I come!

On his birthday, they had a party for him at daycare.  Ms Rachel and Ms Liz made him the crown and it says his name on the back in embroidery.  He wore a cape and listened with all of the other children to the story (sometimes in song) of how the angel brought the baby down to his mommy and daddy and how his mommy and daddy gave him something very special -- his name.   All the kids sang happy birthday to him and then we had banana muffins.  It was so cute seeing all the kids so mesmerized by the story and who sang happy birthday to him with such excitement.  We feel so lucky to have found such a great place for him.

When we got home, daddy had a surprise -- a birthday balloon!

A birthday bottle.  One of his last.  Moving on to sippy cups!