ONE

Dear Goose,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

You are ONE! It's so exciting! We had a lovely birthday party for you at the playground and you loved every minute of it. And then you fell asleep for the night at 6:30, perfection for everyone.

birthday cupcake for breakfast

At one year old, you are 29.3 inches tall, putting you in the 56%. You weigh 19lbs, 3oz, putting you in the 41%. You walk and run, though still looking a bit like a drunken sailor. First thing in the morning when you get out of bed, you like to waddle/run to your sister's room. You love to play with bags of things, putting stuff in, taking stuff out. You also love purses and will often be wearing at least two to walk around the house.

 with a purse and a flyswatter, you're ready for anything

gotta try on these clothes while investigating the kitchen

You still don't have any discernible words, though "ahda" usually means "yes" and you say "hi!" at appropriate times. And Dadadada is Daddy, though also just something you say a lot. And "Lie lie" sometimes means your sister and sometimes is just something you say. And sometimes "MOOOOOE!" means "more" or simply "I want to eat!"  We've been trying to sign to you, but you don't really have it yet. Sometimes you'll clap for more, but I'm not sure if you're really signing or just happily clapping. And when you want milk, you simply come up to me and pound my chest. Who needs signs or words? You communicate completely effectively! Also of complete adorableness is you waving for hello and goodbye.You make friends on every bus and train we ride and wave as they or we exit. You also wave to the bus and train when it leaves. And to the phone. 

General One Year old antics:

WALKING

Dear Goose,
It's official: you are a toddler. GAH! Though even though your preferred locomotor method is walking, you still scoot and crawl occasionally. And you still seem so far off from toddler temperament! But you just want to hang with the bigger kids, so you're walking. But only in the direction you want. I tried to rally you to walk to the laundry room yesterday and after a few minutes of trying to coax you out the door, I just scooped you up which was fine for us both.

11 months!

Dearest Goose,
You are SO CLOSE to walking! You take unassisted steps every day, sometimes 3, 4 or 5. We get very excited for you, while you seem to just think it's one more way of getting around. Your funny little one-legged crawl continues to serve you well and you have gotten much faster in the past few weeks with it. Your usual method of getting places is to pull yourself up, cruise and step a bit, sit back down, crawl a few paces, come up on your tush and turn 90 degrees, then crawl more. It's quite the combination of moves.  Your path to walking seems consistent with your personality: why rush? Whereas some kids take steps on day and run the next, you are content to be where you are. My zen baby. I am trying to take lessons from you.

 The Goose's crawl

Just standing around, eating a onesie that I will never wear (sorry Daddy)

Your top teeth STILL haven't broken through, but I seem them all so close to the surface. Any day now they will come. (I've been thinking that for 6 weeks at least). Again, I'm the one getting ahead of myself. They will come when they come. After a few months of resisting the chamomile drops, you now suck them down happily.

You have also mastered drinking water. Holy moly little Goose, it's the cutest thing! Your preferred water vessel is any of your sister's water bottles, though you're also okay with any water bottle that belongs to someone else. You drink out of straws, out of spouts and try to drink out of cups, but as soon as there's any opening, you stick your hand right in. Every time I'm drinking water, we both end up wearing some of it.

 Most of this cup of water got dumped on your shirt, but it's cool

Other favorite pastimes these days are pulling bookmarks out of books, taking Q-tips out of their box (and throwing them in the bathtub if possible), taking tissues out of their box, banging out notes on the toy pianos and Simon, taking dirty dishes out of the dishwasher and throwing stacking cups and puzzle pieces. Just today you've started enjoying putting things BACK where you got them from, but the ratio of chaos to calm is still about 100:1. It's pretty stinking cute. 

 Oh, you wanted to save your place? HA!