12 months!

Firsts: 
-First Birthday!
-First birthday party!
-First birthday cake (actually first cake, and for that matter, sugar, of any kind!)
-First cow's milk
-First ice cream
-First time crawling in grass (as he got brave enough to go off the blanket!)

Growth and Development:
Weighing in at 20 lbs even the day before his birthday (we'll get another weight on him at his 12-month check up this next week), he's wearing size 12-18 month clothes and some 12 months still.  He's also still wearing size 3 disposable diapers, and seems to fit into size 3 shoes.  The only shoes he really wears so far are his soft soles leather shoes from Australia (thanks Nana Louise!), which are designed for pre-walkers.  His teething situation hasn't appeared to change much since last month, even though he's had some very inconsolable times that we hope we can attribute to teething and not just general crankiness.  Thus, he's got 5 teeth, and a 6th one just ready to come in, but still hasn't.  I think I do see a few others just under the gums though, so one day he may just wake up with a mouth full of teeth...who knows!

Showing off his new shoes!

Evan's balance is definitely improving, but he has not expressed much interest in trying to stand on his own or walk.  He does let go of things he's holding for balance sometimes, but falls soon thereafter or only does it while he's squatting to sit back down.  He seems more interested in exploring, which he can do just fine on all fours. While Evan's not walking yet, he does go up and down stairs with near ease.  We still are with him to supervise and catch in the case he would fall, but he does it very well now.  Yet, we still keep the stairs gated off, unless we can be there to help him go up/down.

Evan has developed quite a keen sense of touch.  He can pick up the tiniest things on the ground, and while initially he would pick it up and put it straight into mouth, sometimes now he reaches out to give it to us (though there are still plenty of times it goes into the mouth!).  I've had to fish out grass, strands of carpet, and even little pebbles!  He can even sense anything as small and light as a thread or cat hair, and will pass those things on to me.  I'll see his little hand sticking out and then as I look closer I'll see a hair in it, and then take it from him with a "Thank you" and throw it away. lol.

Just throwing in a cute pic from our most recent visit to the baby pool.

Meal time:
Lately we're trying to feed him more of what we eat, including rice and beans when we were out at a mexican restaurant recently (which he loved)!  He also likes raviolis and other pasta (like spaghetti or penne), sometimes he'll eat bits of steak or chicken from our dinners, but he's not been too keen on meats yet (other than those blended into the baby food purees).

We're also now weaning him off breastmilk and onto cow's milk.  We first started this about 2 weeks ago, right before I left for my trip to Germany.  I nurse him in the morning and at night, and pump once in the middle of the day so he gets some breastmilk still though.  We still use bottles for his milk though, but he's now drinking water from sippy cups with our help (he doesn't hold the cup high enough to drink from it).

Favorite foods: cheese and fresh fruits (raspberries, peaches or nectarines, blueberries).

Foods that I don't think he likes or is very picky about: Peach-flavored yogurt melts, bananas,

Cheerios used to be a big hit, but lately he's getting even a bit picky about them. Sometimes he'll eat them, other times they all end up on the floor. (Which by the way, he loves throwing his food on the floor!)

We also learned this past month that he may possibly have a strawberry allergy.  We'll be talking to the doctor about this at his upcoming check up, but essentially I noticed some red spots (maybe little hives?) on most of his arms and legs one day.  It turned out we had just introduced strawberry in strawberry-flavored puffs and yogurt melts that day (it was actually the second time he'd had them though).  Thus, we haven't given him anymore of those until we talk to the doctor.  He's been having some other rashes lately too and I'm not sure if it's a food, the cow's milk, or something else (like grass), but we'll be discussing all of this with his pediatrician to be sure.

Sleep time:
This past month he started waking and crying a lot more at night.  It's almost ritually around 11pm and then around 5am, sometimes also around 3am.  Initially this began after he had been sick (over the 4th of July holiday week) and I had been nursing him extra all those times to comfort him while he had the fever and was sick, as well as to try to keep him extra hydrated.  Perhaps that was a bad idea and he got used to it?  Or he got used to us sleeping in the same room (while we were at my dad's), but ever since he wakes up screaming a lot.  In the past weeks, we've stopped feeding him in these overnight outbursts, at least not until the 5am wake up.  However, I really don't think we need to feed him then either, because he typically falls back to sleep in our bed and will sleep until about 7am (even when I move him back to his crib).  During the other wake ups, John goes up and rocks Evan back to sleep.  I hope that with time he'll get back to his normal sleep pattern, but then again, with a fast growing baby, is there really a normal?

He's still taking 2 naps per day, sometimes they've been only 30 minutes long though, as he seems to be such a light sleeper these days.

Play time:

New toys:  Evan got some new toys this past month for his birthday.  Thus, besides the Leap Frog activity table, that we still have in our living room, our living room floor is now littered with even more stuff.  Like his Poppity Pop Dino and a Little People Pop and Surprise Train set, plus some new plush toys (a little monkey, platypus puppet, and Skipper the penguin from "Madagascar").  One of his gifts that's been coming in handy at nap time has been My Pal Scout.  Scout pretty much lives in Evan's crib now, as he keeps him company when he needs to go down for sleep.  I also got him a Pop and Push Car, which he does enjoy pushing around, though I'm not sure if the popping action in it is as exciting for him as it was in his corn popper push toy.

Just a snapshot of what our living room typically looks like these days (except the books on the shelf in the background are typically in a pile after Evan pulls them off the shelf).

Favorite books: He's lately become very fond of his "If you're happy and you know it, Aussie Edition" book again, as well as loves pretty much all lift-the-flap books (he got some new ones for his birthday that he already likes, such as "Dear Zoo" and "Spot visits his grandparents").

Evan also discovered how to open the cupboards this past month, so we've now finally childproofed them as well.  The first time I went to open one after John had put the latches in, I nearly broke the latch back off!  I had opened it with normal force and it so rudely closed right back on me!

Most of his play time is spent pushing things around on the floor.  He also loves to throw things on floor (balls, other toys), and loves to bang toys together and/or on walls or the back sliding glass door.  I guess he just loves the noise!  The remote control is probably still his favorite "toy" to push around and play with.  Just goes to show you that you can give them all the toys in the world, but they may satisfy themselves with something else.  Take for example the box that his Pop and Push Car came in when it was delivered (see video below).  It seemed that Evan loved his birthday present before he even knew what it was! Video of Evan pushing the box