Happy Birthday Smidget

Well, its official---

Three days ago, on June 9th, my amazing son turned one. Today we celebrated his birthday with a whole collection of friends. Sitting here with Smidget laying beside me on the couch sleeping off his busy day, I find myself thinking about all he has accomplished in just a year and realizing that he is no longer my baby. This combination of pride and sadness is foreign to me. He is amazing.

At 2:35 pm on June 9, 2009, my son made his way into the world after 36 hours of labor and 3.5 hours of pushing. He was four days overdue and weighed in at 9lbs 13oz and was 22 inches tall. In just one year, he has grown to just shy of 32 inches tall and weighs in at 24.5 lbs (according to the doctor's scale, mine says he weighs a couple of pounds more). He's gained 15 lbs and grown 10 inches!

Just one year ago, he lay in my arms in a hospital room, unable to lift his head, roll his big body, or communicate. He simply opened his big blue eyes and peered around the room and understood that the world was his and that everyone who would meet him would love him immediately. At least, that's what it seemed like to me.

In those first days, he grasped Dada's hand and lay there peacefully, snuggling in toward me, looking to nurse, looking up at me and stealing my heart. Despite suffering from reflux and having trouble keeping food down, he grew and thrived---he began eating baby cereal at four months and baby food two weeks later. By the time he was five months old, he was eating a combination of stage 3 baby foods and steamed soft home-cooked chunks of vegetables as well as all of the snacks from Gerber listed for "crawlers."

At six month's old (on Dec 20th), he looked up at me in a restaurant, waiting for me to give him another bite of sauteed green beans, and said "Mama!" demanding to be fed. Soon after came Dada. Then, simply, "oh." Now, he says all of those, plus: butt, ball, yeah, no, sit, baba, and a few that are still garbled.

At almost 3 months old, he rolled over for the first time. A couple of weeks later, he rolled in the other direction. Within another two weeks he was rolling across the entire room to get from place to place chasing his toys. Then, at 5 months, he began sitting up unassisted, but didn't get fully upright until 7 months. At 6 months he began crawling, but didn't master the skill enough to get into trouble until he was almost 9 months. Now, at 12 months, he's the fastest crawler on the planet and is taking a few steps at a time on his own. He can walk everywhere he wants if he holds on, but is just beginning to step out on his own without support...and it is almost always to chase a ball that got away from him. He picks uses the ball for support to stand, then lifts it up over his head and throws it, then realizes he's standing without help and either takes a few steps after the ball he uses for support or gently sits down. In just a few months he's gone from totally immobile to never stopping! He can crawl as fast as I can walk! No wonder he's in no rush to walk on his own---walking can't possibly be faster, right? (tell me it can't! I can't keep up NOW!).

Until now his favorite foods are:
Meat!!! Non processed, baked or grilled, and served in chunks
Peas, green beans, carrots, asparagus, or lettuce.
Pasta of all shapes.
Scrambled eggs.
Any cheese!
Snacks: Fruit Loops, Cheerios, Wheat Thins, Goldfish, Animal Crackers, and yogurt.

He got his first tooth at 7 months even. A week later he had his second. He stayed at only two little snaggle teeth until just after he hit 9 months. He then got his top left tooth. Two weeks after that, he got the third---the left lateral incisor. He was totally cute and lop-sided for a month!!! I loved it! Finally, at almost 11 months, he got his right front tooth. A few days later the right lateral incisor cut through. Two weeks ago his bottom lateral incisors broke through just days apart. Now he has eight teeth---the front four top and bottom and couldn't be more handsome if he tried! And he DOES try!

His favorite activities:
1. anything involving water---bathtub, little plastic pool, kiddie pool on base, any bowl or bucket of water (including our dog's water dish). Temperature doesn't matter much as long as it's decent. And he doesn't care how much there is---a few ounces or an ocean---just as long as its wet!

2. anything involving a ball---he has golf balls, tennis balls, beach balls, kick balls, balloons, exercise balls, ping pong balls, soccer balls, footballs, baseballs, bowling balls...anything that is round and can be thrown. He loves to roll them and chase them, play catch with his Dada, make "baskets" with his hoop, and roll them for the dogs to chase.

3. He loves to do "buh buhs" and make crazy noises and mimics nearly any noise you make. He tries to do "buh buhs" all the time---sometimes on himself, sometimes on whoever is holding him, sometimes on the dogs or other babies.

4. Peekaboo. He will just scream with laughter!

5. "Reading" his books and talking to the book (maybe he's reading out loud, who knows!).

6. Climbing---anything and everything! He's a daredevil, NO FEAR!

Right now, my one year old little Smidget wears 2T clothing, size 5 shoes, and is in the 95th percentile for height and head circumference and the 65th percentile for weight. He has a fluffy head of thin blonde hair and the most beautiful blue-gray eyes on earth.

He is the world's biggest flirt and show off...and he KNOWS how cute he is. Everyone loves him. It is amazing to me to be the mother of someone who brings only joy and love into the lives of everyone who knows him. My perfect little Smidget!





Now that you have the back-story and know where he is now, I come to the point of this blog...the little stories of all of the cute things he does every day...the sweet moments, the funny things he says and does, even photos and videos of the crazy things toddlers do that win our hearts and melt us to the core.

This, is the life of the most amazing man you'll ever meet---Mr. Smidget.
If you are reading this, know now that you are truly blessed because you now have a little Smidget in your life---I hope that he brings you as much joy and love as he has brought me every day of his life.

Thus begins the tale of Smidget.