Happy 1st Birthday Lance!

Unbelievable how fast a year can fly by, even more so with a little one growing month by month, week by week, day by day! 1 year ago today, at this very moment that I write, our beautiful little Lance was coming into this world :-) I could write for hours (or you could read my blog for the past year) and still not express how much joy, excitement and happiness Lance has brought to us in one very short year. We are SO excited to see what the next year will bring us. Here goes the 1 year update.

At 12 months ( 1 year) you:

• Are walking on your own. Still a little wobbly and prefer to hang on whenever possible, but just last night when I picked you up from day-care and brought you home, you walked almost the entire length of the living room, no help or push toys! And you were walking all over at the park today too!
• Your vocabulary contains: doggy (daw-gee) - that is the one you say ALL the time! Daddy or DaDa, something that sounds like Daisy, Doo-Doo - you just started that one this week, not sure what it means yet, something that sounds like "that" - you just started that one too, but say it a lot. Mmmm. You say that when you are eating and also when we say Moo. You still say AhAhAh for monkey. You don't say MaMa or Mommy unless you are repeating us saying it. And that is about it.
• REALLY do not like getting your clothes or diaper changed. It is a huge BATTLE and you SCREAM!!! You have a loud voice like your Mom.
• LOVE, love, love to eat and prefer to feed yourself. Let's see if I can list everything that you eat these days: Breakfast - Bananas, yogurt (this is one we still feed you), cereal, pancakes, waffles, nutri-grain bar, toast (haven't done eggs or sausage in a while, maybe we'll try that tomorrow) Snacks- graham crackers, animal crackers or teddy grahams, raisins, puffs, soda crackers, nutri-grain bars, dried fruit, cheese. Lunch/Dinner: Gerber meals - ravioli, pastas, carrots, beans, corn, peas, veggie patties, mac n cheese, grilled cheese, turkey sandwich, tacos, cheese, pears, bananas, grapes, kiwi (sometimes). You DO NOT LIKE peaches or strawberries. You spit them out over and over again. AND you tried your first Auntie Anne's pretzel just last week too - I don't know if I am ready to split one with you though :-) LOL
• Still love to read books.
• Still love your pacifiers at nap and bedtime.
• Are only getting one bottle per day, at bedtime - and you get so excited when you see it!
• Are drinking whole or vitamin D milk, no more formula!
• One of your favorite games is peek a boo - we throw a blanket or shirt over your head and say "where is Lance" and you pull of the shirt and we say "there he is" and you laugh over and over and over again.
• If we say "i'm gonna get you" you crawl at lightning speed - up the stairs, across the room. You think it is so funny!
• Your two bottom teeth are all the way in. Your two "fang" teeth have just popped slightly through. And your top left tooth is on it's way..... The fang teeth caused a little more pain coming in than the bottom two.
• Are very interested in Mickey Mouse ( Aunt Liz and I even took you to the Disney Store at the mall last week to see BIG Mickey!) And you have started watching a little Toy Story and seem to like that too.
• Are wearing 12 month clothes still. When we took you in to the Dr. a week or so ago, you hadn't gained ANY weight since your 9 month check up. All that movement I guess. And lack of appetite for a while.
• Make us SMILE each and every day. Happy Birthday Lance.

I made Lance a special birthday breakfast - blueberry pancakes! He ate almost 3 pancakes ( didn't try syrup yet, figured he likes them without... but I am sure we aren't too far out) It was a beautiful morning, the nicest we have had in quite some time, so we sat out on the deck and ate breakfast. Lance even shared with his brother and sister!

I took Lance to a nearby park that I found on-line. GREAT for his age! He had SO much fun and even met a friend, Olivia. What a gorgeous day for a trip to the park.

Isn't this cool, a big pirate ship!

And what little boy doesn't want to climb UP the slide? We even went down the bigger slide together.Lance walking....

Last Sunday we had a little pre-birthday celebration for Lance with our neighbors and a couple of friends here in KC. I wish I would have gotten pics with everyone, but was so busy, I forgot. here is Dave and Benno, being good sports with birthday hats!

And Cooper celebrating too.

Daisy even sang Happy Birthday

Lena wore the birthday hat....

Lance however, for some reason, does not like that little rubber band underneath his chin. Poor Guy.Dave and Benno brought Lance a little monkey cake... so cute!And he dug in himself, no pushing his hands or face in this time. Here he is literally digging in with his face, no hands.
In the eyes and everything. His bath water looked like poopy, dirty, nasty water. I had to run 2 baths to get this kid clean.

Opening gifts:

When he opened up this cool popper toy, he really didn't want much to do with it. Lena was ALL about the cool toy. And as soon as she crawled toward it and started to touch it, Lance whipped it out of her arms and brought it to me... it has started already!

He loves these little rubber cars. You pull them back and they roll on their own.