My Little Big Man is One!

Dear Jack -

Happy birthday to you, my darling little man. I don't know where to begin detailing how exciting, crazy, fun and honestly stressful this last year has been, but every time I see a huge grin break out on your face, I know it was all worth it.

You are a sweet, sweet little man. You have a contagious giggle and a big smile for almost everyone, and you're starting to babble and have little conversations with us. You say bye, da, ma, ball, and "sh-sh" when we give you a rattle or other noisy toy and say "shake-ah shake-ah".

You are a never-ending source of entertainment for your brother, who delights in sharing toys with you (and then un-sharing them!) and who has become quite the guardian. I hear "Jack's on the picnic table!" fairly frequently as you have decided that your main goal in life should be to climb UP - no matter what the object is you're attempting to scale, you just want to be up.

You are pretty fearless as a recent trip to the pool suggests - you got dunked a couple of times but just blinked and coughed it off, and you delighted in sitting on the edge of the pool and leaning forward until you fell into my arms in the water. Eventually you turned around and lowered yourself into the pool much the way you've learn to scoot down stairs.

You have a big mouthful of teeth with a molar or two clawing its way out now, which interrupts your 75% sleeping-through-the-night average.

You're eating what the rest of us eat now (you'd eat corn on the cob morning-noon-and-night if I gave it to you), and bottles and formula are a thing of the past. You love drinking milk out of your stainless steel sippy - we might have to buy a share of a dairy cow to keep you in the white stuff.

You've taken a few steps on your own (mainly to the outstretched arms of Grandma Nancy or Grandma Charma) but you're still pretty content to cruise around holding on to furniture - or crawling if you need to get somewhere quickly.

At your 12 month check up you stayed on your growth curve - at 22 lbs 10 oz you're in the 50th percentile for weight, while your 32 inch length continues the 97th percentile pattern. The doctor checked your eyes, ears, etc. and watched you crawl, cruise and walk, and declared you PERFECT - but we already knew that.

We also had your final spine x-ray at Children's Hospital, and it was totally straight. You charmed the doctor and interns by giving high-fives to everyone, and they all lingered in the exam room after sharing the good news just to enjoy your charming personality.

It has been an absolute joy watching you grow and develop - I try not to compare you too much to your brother (because honestly I can't remember much beyond yesterday, much less 2 years ago...) but you do have more hair than he had at this time! I can't wait to see what you do next (and I'll try to be better about taking pictures of it!).

"Love" doesn't feel like a strong enough word,
Mama