1 year, 3 weeks

"Where has the time gone?" I feel like I say this every day. The past year has flown by... alternating moments of pure blur and pure bliss. I can never fully put into words how amazed and blessed I am to be your Mommy. At 12 months, 3 weeks, you amaze me every day with how much and how fast you have developed.

You barely walk anywhere. You run... and you have skinned knees to prove it. You climb anything you can. You can get off the couch with very little assistance. You love to slide, swing, and be outside as much as possible. You are learning to stack blocks and you are so proud of yourself! You can stack 5 or 6 high... I'm pretty proud too. You've figured out how to put large legos together. You're learning to "clean up" now that you understand how to put small things into big things. We are constantly finding the remote and our shoes in your toy box. Anything in your reach is fair game!

You show me everyday that you understand what we say to you. After your nighttime bottle, I say "ready to brush your teeth?". You wiggle out of my lap, run to the hall bathroom, and wave at me to come brush your teeth. You are pretty cooperative with brushing your now 9 teeth. Your first molar cut through yesterday (8/20/12). When Dede and Pawpaw came to pick you up yesterday morning and said "are you ready to go?", you amazed us all by running to your car seat (by the front door) and rocking it, as if to say "let's go!".

You have developed quite a little temper. You can throw a tantrum with the best of them! We're doing our best to ignore it... especially if we don't know the source of your hissy fit. I think that the tantrums will get a little better as your expressive communication develops. You've learned to use the sign for "all done". You use it a lot during meals but it doesn't always mean that you are done. Sometimes it means that you're ready for something else... usually fruit. You wave bye bye most of the time and sometimes you'll say "bye".

There's no way we could possibly tell you how much your Daddy and I love you. We know you feel it.