Daniel is ONE!

You can't quite tell- but Daniel's shirt says "This lil' scallywag is 1" and it has a picture of a pirate on it. Had to get it for my little guy!

Today's a pretty chilly day for us, so Daniel's sporting his adorable new Disney hoodie sweatshirt from Aunt Wendy. Thanks, Aunt Wendy! And don't you just love the little black jeans?! They're a hoot, I think! :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Daniel! It feels like just yesterday we met Daniel- and we had so much to learn about him. It's been a fun-filled, wonderful year getting to know our little guy and I know that so much is yet to come. Daniel is such a delight in our lives- such a happy little guy. We're SO lucky to have such a wonderful son. What a blessing Daniel is! We can't imagine our lives without him. How quickly things change- sometimes it still amazes me that I'm a mom and that I have a son. And I still can't believe he's one- I've actually gotten tears in my eyes several times over the last couple days just thinking about how my son is one now. I just look at him and my eyes well up- in the good, happy kind of way of course.

So today was Mickey day again- and we got a few fun photos. You can even see all of Daniel's bottom teeth in the top picture and even most of his top teeth in the second picture. Daniel has 4 teeth on the top and 3 on the bottom. The 4th bottom one is still on the way- it's taken a little longer than his last three teeth which all came at once pretty much. It's hard to say if this next tooth is bothering him- we're going through a bit of a rough patch with some fussiness right now. Daniel isn't usually bothered by his teeth coming in, but who knows?! He sure can't tell us- wish he could! He's otherwise quite playful these days and still quite the explorer! We had a fantastic birthday party the other day- more on that later- and Daniel was WONDERFUL the whole time. He was happy, playful, quite obliging with all the presents and cupcakes and people, and really just awesome the whole time. I was so proud of him. We had a lot of fun.

Daniel sleeps a lot better at night lately. He was still waking up a few times a night, but now we're down to mostly once a night and occasionally twice. His average nap is 2 hours twice a day, which is great, but I think he's adjusting that too. We've had more days with 1 hour naps still twice a day, with the occasional day where he takes just one nap- that makes for a long day for him, so this doesn't happen too often just yet.

Daniel eats more now. He does great if there's distractions around to keep him occupied (hence the eating out and eating a lot then! perhaps a tv in the kitchen is in order?) and will really try to feed himself, though he does like us to use the fork if the food is slippery and sticky because he doesn't like to touch those foods. Daniel will try just about anything we give him- which is great. So, we're getting there. I've been doing more snacks and even 2 dinners for Daniel, to try to get him to eat more and that works sometimes. I really just follow his cues- if he's hungry, okay we'll eat. Doctor appointments are all coming up- so more news on that later.

Daniel is always on the go! He crawls everywhere and LOVES walking with us! He's really getting good at walking with our help- he can turn, he goes a little faster now, and he even sometimes has a goal in mind for where he wants to go. If we're carrying him, and he wants to be put down, he does not want to sit down- he wants us to walk him! I just love the walking. It's so much fun. He will walk his toys or laundry baskets around- this is too cute and makes him look so independent and like such a big boy. He got a new riding car for his birthday and he must have walked that thing up and down the hallway ten times last night! (Thanks for the fun new toy, Grandma Mary Kay and Grandpa Larry!)

Daniel does great at stooping and picking something up while he's standing. Occasionally he lets go and stands for a split second or maybe two on his own, until he either realizes he's not holding onto anything or he falls. Daniel will even push his cars around while crawling. His motor skills are moving right along and he's getting so much stronger, so much faster, and so much more independent. Watching him play is such fun!

A few things Daniel learned to do in the last week:

1- Open the cabinet door under the tv (yes, Daddy still needs to put the latch on it!). Daniel thought this was just great! He doesn't so much like the word "no" when it comes to this cool new trick! It was funny too because I was just thinking that day that it was a good thing he mostly just pushes things and can't quite pull things open- he must have known I was thinking this and wanted to prove me wrong.

2- Pushing down on his ball popper spin toy with his finger to make it go. Mostly Daniel just eats this toy or fingers the screw holes on the bottom of it, so when he figured out he could push the button on top to make it go- he just sat there for the longest time and kept pushing it and pushing it. I loved the expression on his face as he studied what was happening!

3- Daniel also figured out how to blow/inhale by making an "o" with his mouth, kind of like he does with his whistle toy, but now he can do it without the toy. This was fun to watch, too- he spent the whole day doing this when he figured it out.

I should also say what fun it is to make Daniel laugh these days. He doesn't laugh a whole lot, but when he does it's the most fun. And most laughing tricks never work twice! He loves silly faces and silly sounds and just the most random things sometimes. I think it's cute that his sense of humor is developing more lately.

Another fun thing Daniel does more lately- if he hears music, either from toys or a silly parent, you can see him slightly bopping to the beat. That's cute too.

Daniel also waves bye-bye now! This is lots of fun. He often does it after the fact- like if we've just said bye to someone and we/they are already walking away, then he'll wave. He waves night-night, too. We say night-night to his toys, to the cats, etc. and Daniel has started to wave then, too.Last night, when he was walking his car up and down the hallway with Daddy, Daniel would wave bye-bye to me before going down the hallway. I loved it! He might be close to saying bye-bye, too- but I still think it's mostly coincidence and my imagination! We'll see.

One more cute thing (well, it's all cute, isn't it?!)- Daniel is starting to clap, too. It's still rather occasional and perhaps accidental at times, but he does try to clap and will especially try if we're doing it. He's doing a lot more imitating lately- and it's fun to try to get him to do things with us.

Daniel is just an all around cute, happy, easygoing little guy! And now he's one! Hooray, Daniel! Hugs & kisses, and all our love, and miles of smiles to you, my little guy!