Life with our one-year-old

Here is a snapshot of everyday life with our little boy.

We dance: lately when my boy hears music, he starts waving his arms and shaking or bouncing his body. It is SO cute. So we have dance parties -- and it rocks.

He conducts: related to above, other times when he hears music (most often at church) he starts waving his arms like he is conducting. When he was younger my husband would conduct his arms as we sang, so now he does it all the time. He is really smart and is usually able to distinguish between kinds of music that one normally conducts versus kinds one normally dances to.

He walks: our little guy has been walking around the house for a while, but only recently did that start to happen outdoors as well. He loves exploring outside (AKA find things to put in his mouth) and especially loves rocks (he calls them “Ba!” like he does for ball).

Shoes: when he was younger he hated shoes. Well, at least it seemed that way since he always kicked them off and protested us putting them on. Though of course he liked eating our shoes. Now he LOVES getting his shoes put on, though most often it’s because he knows that means we’re going outside. Outside of that though (see what I did there? Haha) he even loves to try on our shoes and try to put shoes on my feet. It’s pretty adorable.

Nuzzling: we’re not sure what he’s trying to do, but lately when either my husband or I do dishes at the sink, he’ll crawl around and between our legs while nuzzling his head against our legs. It’s kind of cat-like to be honest. But we prefer that to him banging his head against the wall or floor, which he also enjoys doing.

“Mum” and “Ba!” These are pretty much his two words for everything. “Mum” most often refers to food or drinks, but can refer to anything he wants or anyone he points to. And then “Ba!” is usually ball, or rocks as mentioned. He used to say “Da-da-da” a lot, but now he almost ever does. Sometimes he associates that with Dad, but other times he’ll just go off on a stream of “Da-da DA-da da-DA-da!” 

Waving: he has gotten to be such a good little waver. Though, ironically, he’s much better at doing it to strangers at a distance than to people we know and are talking to at a given moment. It is still so cute though, since it means he is making friends everywhere we go. He much prefers to initiate contact than to have interaction thrust upon him.

Prayers: when we bless the food we’ll tell him we’re going to pray and he’ll either fold his hands or his little arms. It is the cutest thing to watch. And then when the prayer ends and we say “Amen,” he claps. Yay! The prayer is over! Haha.

Hugs: we put stuffed animals in front of him and ask him to give them hugs and he lays his head/body on them. It is to die for. But to ask for hugs for us, he does it better if we say, “cuddles.” Probably because we always told him, “Thanks for the cuddles!” when he’d do it before. He is pretty much the most adorable kid.

We're very blessed to have such an adorable, loving, fun little boy!