My Baby-Turned-Toddler

As most of you know, I actually forgot Jake's birthday because I was so wrapped up with my dad's heart surgery. It wasn't until we were visiting my dad at the hospital the afternoon following his surgery when a nurse asked how old each of the children were that it dawned on me that it was Jake's birthday. I never, ever thought I would forget my baby's FIRST birthday. But that said, my forgetting has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on how much we love our precious Jacob and how important he is to our family. Thankfully, one-year-old's have no clue what a birthday means or is about, so we decided to just let it go and perhaps we'll do an extra-special celebration for his 2nd birthday. (And he did get his first taste of birthday cake about a week later at a combined party for February and March birthdays in the Marks family.)

But, if you know me, a birthday can't be passed up for an opportunity to take some pictures. :) So, when the following day dawned bright, sunny and unusually warm for early March, we headed over to Yauger Park for some birthday boy pictures. Coincidentally, Yauger Park is where we took Abby on her first birthday and where she had her first swing ride. It was as she gave Jake his first swing ride that I realized this (why they didn't put swings in at the park by our house I have no idea!).

Jake started walking about a week previous, but he wasn't comfortable walking around outside much so it made it a little easier to take pictures...although he was terribly distracted by everything going on around him. :)

Jake is quite small for his age. Just a few weeks ago, I moved him into 9-12 month clothing and most of them are too big and I have to roll up the pant legs. I get quite a few surprised faces when people ask his age (including two other parents at the park the day we took these pictures!) and he is in fact approximately the same size as a couple 6-months-olds we know. At his 1-year-old appointment, he weighed in at 19 pounds 12 ounces and was 29 inches in length. That is about the 20th percentile for height/length and below 10th percentile for weight (his head, by the way, was in the 60-70 percentile range - no surprise there; all my babies have big heads! LOL!). Yup, he's a little guy. But other than a bit of nervousness about him being overly small as an adult, we love him being small. I've seen some of my friends packing around their husky babies and my back is quite thankful for my petite children! :) 

I got a few other pretty great pictures at the park, but I won't drown you in picture after picture as I tend to do most times on these "photo shoot" posts. So, onto some everyday pictures around the house... :o)

It is absolutely amazing how Jacob has gone from a baby to a toddler in the blink of an eye. He started out his 11th month eating baby food purees almost exclusively, bananas and cheerios being the only table food he could handle (all three kids are have been texture-sensitive and have gagged easily). But by the end of the month, and with the addition of his top two front teeth (which came in with much fussing and clinginess!), he was eating table food almost exclusively. He like to feed himself and even uses a fork well. I'm loving it, because it frees up a lot more time for me not having to make the baby food purees anymore! Drinking on the other hand, has been a bit more of a challenge. As I mentioned, all my kids gag and choke easily, so drinking straight from a cup is usually not an option unless you want to watch a choking fit. So, the sippy cup was wonderful for Abby and Ben. Not so much for Jake. He's always been a horrible sucker (a main factor in his early nursing problems), and it continues today. He couldn't figure out how to suck hard enough to get anything out of a no-spill sippy cup, so we have to forgo the stopper-kind which makes for bigger messes for a 1-year-old. Oh well! :)

Walking is, of course, the biggest baby-to-toddler development and it has been fun to watch him go from his first steps less than four weeks ago to pro now. He has fast and slow speeds, resists any helping hands (it's that independent boy in him showing up like it did with Ben at this age :), and even loves to spin around in circles, twirling until he gets dizzy and falls down.

Twirling at the park.

He has been done with "baby toys" for awhile now and prefers Ben's trucks, buses, trains and cars, much to Ben's frustration. :o) The first time I saw him really playing with cars (i.e. not baby play like banging the cars together, etc), was just over a month ago when I watched him pick up one of Ben's hot wheels cars and take it over to the window sill where he proceeded to drive it back and forth.

Since then, "driving" a car/truck/bus is his favorite play-time activity and he has since added making engine noises to his play too. This type of pretend play does not usually occur until about 15-months-old according to his doctor - I'm not sure if we have a major smarty-pants on our hands or if he is just trying to keep up with big brother! :o)

Jake has always been a Momma's boy and loves to cuddle and be close to me (everyone at church can attest to this, as he usually starts crying his eyes out the moment I step away from him!). It does make weaning a bit more difficult, but we are seeing some progress, and I am happy - no, ECSTATIC - to announce that he is FINALLY sleeping through the night! Yay, oh yay, for mommy! :o)

Overall, Jake is fairly easy-going (minus when teething, sick or during separation-anxiety moments mentioned above :). He likes to get his teeth brushed and even does a pretty good job getting his nails cut. He is content to play by himself, although he loves to tag along with his older siblings. He loves being silly and making us all laugh. He is VERY ticklish. He likes to look at books, and not just board books, and is usually quite careful with them. He, thankfully, has passed his dishwasher-obsession phase and has even cut back on trying to get into every cupboard and taking everything out (hallelujah!). He has added new words to his vocabulary, including light (more like "ttt" :), Grandma (sounds a lot like mama), and Grandpa (sounds more like "Bompa"), and tries to copy many other words he hears. His first animal sound is "Aaaaa" for a sheep.

Oh, and did I mention that this just turned 1-year-old likes to play catch with Daddy?? Um, yeah, he throws (and has great aim!), kind of catches, and puts his arms up in the air when we say, "Touchdown!" Yep, not only is he smart, but he's athletic too. ;o)

This past year has been absolutely amazing and we are thankful for every moment that we have been blessed with Jacob in our lives. We cannot imagine our little family with out sweet Jake - he is a perfect fit, just as our heavenly Father knew He would be. :o)