Thanksgiving pictures can take a backseat -- Robin can WALK!!!!!

Yup, that's right, Robin can now walk! My baby is no longer a baby, and my toddler can now toddle!

It's amazing. He's been ready for the last two weeks or so. He kept taking two or three little stumbling steps, but he didn't seem to realize what he was doing. But tonight it clicked. The first time he did it, Dean was looking away and looked back to find Robin standing alone in the middle of the room, but then he sat down. So we followed him around and tried to entice him with toys, the zipper on Dean's jacket, and a refrigerator magnet, and sure enough, he struck out across the open floor to reach said items! It was so awesome! He kept repeating the feat, so we managed to get this video. Oh my goodness! *sniff sniff*

We're so proud of him!

Updates

Robin has been progressing a lot lately, so I thought I'd make an update before the chaotic holiday season.  We're looking forward to the feast tomorrow, since it'll be the first big holiday feast that Robin will be able to participate in.

I am very ready for him to talk.  It'll be nice when I have a better idea of what he wants when he starts to whine.  He will mimic a lot more hand and arm motions now--we can spread our arms wide and say "love you THIS MUCH" and he'll spread out his arms, he will sometimes blow kisses or put his hand over his mouth and off and back on in rapid succession, reminding me of the Indian war cry noises I used to make as a child.  He will wave and still says "night night" before naps and bedtime.  He'll sometimes give eskimo kisses. 

He finally cut his fifth and sixth teeth.  They took a long time to poke through, but came out last week.

He's learning to feed himself with a spoon a lot better now.  He can get several spoonfuls into his mouth over the course of a meal, although he still doesn't have the angle right, so there's usually still some food on the spoon when he takes it out of his mouth.  He mostly eats table foods now, just variations on what we're eating, cut up small.  It's really nice to not have to prepare as much.  The biggest difference is vegetables, since most of what we eat is raw, and he doesn't have the teeth for that yet.  We've even ordered him a meal in a restaurant once.  We would've just given him some of ours, except that Dean and I both wanted shrimp, and the allergist recommends waiting longer before introducing that.  He shows preferences between the foods offered him at meals, occasionally dropping those he likes least on the floor.  He still pretty much eats anything we offer him, but he often likes one much better than another.  His favorite food is cheese.

He has taken a few stumbling steps a few times without support, but still doesn't seem to realize he's done it.  He did a lot of that yesterday, so it won't surprise me if he finally realizes that he can walk in the next few days.  Wouldn't it be precious if he does it on Thanksgiving?

He loves to open drawers and empty their contents all over the floor.  He has also learned to climb things (thankfully it still needs to be on a slight slope, so he hasn't gotten out of his crib or anything, but here he is climbing up the back of the futon.  His reach gets higher with every passing day, so we keep having to move things higher up.

He will sometimes follow commands--pushing the garage door button, putting an object inside another, come here--though he obeys the last less often.  He will make choices for himself--what shirt would you like to wear, etc.

We've begun the weaning process.  We went from four nursings a day down to three on his birthday, and from three down to two a few weeks later.  We ought to drop down to one any day now, possibly even today or tomorrow, depending on how our schedule goes.  Yesterday he only ate for four minutes on each side during his second nursing, so he's obviously ready to drop it.  I'm not sure how much longer we'll continue the morning feeding, which has always been his longest, and is probably his "comfort" feeding.  It's also somewhat for my comfort right now, I'm not sure I'm ready to give it up.  I was a little disappointed at how quickly he has been reducing the length of his feedings, because it seems he's more ready to wean than I am.

He's afraid of the vacuum cleaner.  It would almost be comincal if I couldn't see how worried he gets.  One day I had the vacuum in my room and was putting items up on the bed to clear the floor, and he wouldn't even come in the room with me, he just sat in the hall and whined at me to come get him.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!  We'll post photos of our celebrations sometime after the holiday!

Happy Halloween and snow

Zoiks!  It's the Scooby Gang!  We decided to wear matching costumes this Halloween, and we let Robin choose between the Scooby Doo and Yoda costumes.  Obviously, he chose Scooby, so Dean became Shaggy and Eileen, Daphne.  I love this photo.  Robin's expression is perfect.

Robin's first Trick-or-Treat, from our next door neighbor.  The night was almost warm, which was really weird considering we'd gotten 19 inches of snow two days before.  If I hadn't had a cold, I probably would have taken off my coat.

He got quite a bit of candy, considering that we only went up and down our street and probably only one out of every three houses were even open for business.  But everybody gave out handfuls, probably because we don't get many kids in this neighborhood.  Of course, he can't eat most of it himself.  Oh darn.

His first piece of Halloween candy.  He'd gnawed half the wrapper off by the time we got home.

Confronting my jack-o-lantern.  Robin dealt with it okay, as long as he had a good grip on Daddy to morally support him.

Reproducing the photos from last Halloween.  Robin takes up a lot more space in the cauldron than he used to.

And here's the snow from before Halloween.  This is the first time Robin has been able to explore snow.  I didn't have any snowpants for him, so I wrapped plastic bags around his legs.  I think he was a bit uncomfortable because he had trouble moving.  And he got cold pretty fast.  I made the mistake on day 1 of the blizzard to attempt to shovel while he played.  Even though I moved us inside slightly after he started fussing, he was hysterical by the time I'd finished unwrapping him, and he didn't settle down until I'd warmed him back up with a bath.  On day 2, I knew better and took him inside at the first sign of a fuss.

19 inches of snow, 29 inches of Robin

Robin is ONE!!!!!

Yup!  Robin has hit the big milestone.  These were his cakes: a volcano to go with the dinosaur theme, and alphabet blocks just because.  Let me tell you, coming up with a way to make eggless cake that didn't fall apart was a challenge, but in the end I found something that worked.

On Robin's actual birthday (Friday, October 23) Dean took off from work.  We spent the day playing, giving Robin his gifts, and preparing for the party the next day. 

We gave Robin a fire-truck-ball-pit, a mega-blok train with alphabet blocks, a little toy car, and a big truck that he can ride or

push (we gave the last to him a few months ago because we wanted it around while he worked out how to cruise and walk, but we put a bow on it since it was supposed to be for his birthday.)  He also opened gifts from some great aunts and uncles, which had come in the mail.

On Saturday we had a pretty big party.  We had about 26 people here at the maximum time.  Eight were children, including Robin, with four of them being 12-18 months old.  It was fun to have so many kids around (but we were glad their parents were present too!)  We also pride ourselves in guessing the right amount of food pretty accurately, since we had just a tiny bit of leftovers.

We had some unstructured play/eat time at the beginning of the party, then moved on to CAKE!!!!!,

and then presents from the non-family guests.  After that, the Guest of Honor went down for a nap, while family and a few friends stayed to talk. 

After Robin woke up again, he played with his family and then opened their gifts. 

It was a very full day, and Robin went down for his naps and for bed very quickly, so I guess we wore him out.  But it was fun, and out of all of the toddler meltdowns that occurred, which were all pretty short, not one came from Robin!

The "oh" look on his face in several of these photos is something he's been doing a lot lately.  We think he's discovered this new and fun way to move his mouth muscles.

Our big one year old has officially spoken his first word, other than Mama and Dada.  He is definately saying "night-night" before naps and bed.

A new year of life, a new blog style.  Yes, as you can see, I thought it was time to change the blog up a bit.  As always, hope you enjoy watching the development of our "little big boy"!

So big!!!!!!!

I can't believe it, but we've got a big milestone coming up in a few days! Yup, Robin's almost O-N-E! In fact, this will be the last post before the big birthday. It's hard to believe a whole year has passed already. Poor Dean is already mourning the loss of his FMLA time.

Robin is going to be walking on his own very soon. He's got a big truck pushtoy that he can easily walk behind, and he's getting very good at walking while holding our hands. His balance and endurance seem to improve every day, and he's even walked while just holding ONE of our hands a few times! He has also managed to stay standing for a few seconds without holding onto anything.

In-out-in-out, on-off-on-off, open-closed-open-closed...

Robin is learning these concepts and more, by repeating the actions while I narrate (over... and over again.) He'll spend several happy minutes opening and closing a door, putting toys into a bucket (or trash can *sigh,* or I even managed to get him to help me put his clean socks in his drawer) and pulling them out again, turning the radio on and off, and putting the stacking rings together and taking them apart.

He's a boy, all right. Robin has killed his first spider. The other day we saw him suddenly chase after something and saw a small dark spot moving around the floor away from him. I tried to pick him up so the spider wouldn't bite him if he caught it, but he stuck his finger out and squished it before I got him away!

Our latest trip to the zoo was, by far, the most exciting for all involved. Robin is now able to actually see the animals and pay attention to them (provided they're moving) and he got really excited by all that there was to see at the zoo. We loved watching him squeal and shriek and point.

Waving is now part of Robin's repertoire, and he's added the sign for "more" as well, though he doesn't use it near as much as "milk."  He can grasp his hands with his fingers interlaced too.  Apart from "mama" and "dada" (which often get lost in the other babble,) we have yet to hear any definite words, although he says "nah-nah" when he wants to eat. We have no idea where that came from, but it's consistent enough that we're sure of its meaning. We also think he might be trying to say "night-night" (ni-ni) when we put him down to bed. 

He can hug now, and often does so to stuffed animals and us when asked to.

We have allowed some sugar into his diet now. 
...mmmm...
chocolate!..

Using a spoon by himself is slow going, but occasionally something makes it into his mouth.

This is what happens when Mommy lets Robin play with a ballpoint pen and doesn't realize that it's not retracted.

Robin really likes the pirate Halloween decoration we put up in our stairwell every year.

Another trip to the park.

Check back soon for an update on the big FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!