1 year!

We made it! And what a fast year that was! You practically grew into a toddler this last month too!

• You're walking!! You went from just barely standing on your own at 11 months, to walking as your main mode of moving by 12 months. It's been crazy! You started standing alone a little bit longer each day, then pretty soon Dad got you to take a few steps to him. After that, everyone was helping you practice walking to them every day. And pretty soon, you'd pull up on furniture and let go to walk somewhere yourself. Then, all of a sudden it seemed, you could get up off the floor and walk without pulling up on anything! All in a month!
• You aren't enjoying being fed by a spoon and prefer to suck down the pouches more. You are spitting out the green ones again, though, and totally prefer fruits. You'd also prefer to feed yourself most foods. You love breads now too.
• You still nurse in the morning, after each nap, and at bed time. You'll drink cow's milk and water, but only a few sips.
• You like to dance and turn on the radio in the preschool to dance to the music.
• You like to play with the remotes and try to turn on the tv, but you don't watch it when it's on.
• You love your brothers and sister and give them snuggles and kisses, and laugh and giggle for them.
• You still enjoy walks in the stroller and never whine when I put you in. However, you do scream and arch when I try to put you in the car seat.
• You are independent and want to be down and exploring any time we're not home and I want you near me. When we're home and I need to get ready, or do dishes or cook dinner, you are whiny and hang on my legs screaming and want to be held.
• You can sleep through the night, but sometimes you wake up to nurse at 5, then sleep until 7. When you don't do that, you're up at 6 and won't go back to sleep.
• You love to drive cars and crawl on one knee and drag the other leg as you drive them around the floor, making a car noise. You love the toy kitchen in the preschool and play house too. You love playing with the pots or bowls and a spoon, and taking things in and out of the bowls. You carry spoons or spatulas around a lot.
• You like getting into the kitchen cupboards and pulling out things to play with.
• You are busy and constantly going and climbing. You climb onto furniture, onto kids sized chairs and tables, or on your thomas train, or into and onto the toy cars outside. So so busy and daring. 
• You love to be outside and exploring out there. You especially love sticks and rocks.
• You say "hi" and wave to people all the time. We love when we walk in a room and you say hi to us. You now say "mo" for food, but sign eat more often than more. So, you say "mo" as you put your hand to your mouth when you want to eat or drink something. And you want to eat or drink everything we're eating and drinking. You will sign more to copy us. You'll repeat done, by putting up your hands and saying "du" when I sign and say done. You learned "bird" and melted my heart! We watch birds at the bird feeders out the window, and I showed you the sign. You'll now sign bird with both hands as you say "bir" and watch them out the window. You also say and sign bird for dogs and cats you see. You get very excited to see animals and point and say "ooh" in a high-pitched voice.
• You like to swim now and splash, especially in a pool shallow enough that you can walk or crawl and not have to be held. You tried splash pads and liked those too!
• You've been babysat a few times now by neighbor girls, Grandma and Grandpa B all day once, and a neighbor mom, and you've done great with them!
• You still fight naps and scream when I take you to your room, but you fall asleep rocking on my lap, facing out. Once this month, you curled up on my chest and fell asleep! I couldn't believe it, it'd been so long.
• We just finished up summer movies and you were so great, usually just sleeping on me during the whole movie. Sometimes you nursed to sleep, other times, just fell asleep on my lap as I rocked you.
• You love kids your size and telling them hi.
• You babble and tell long stories that we love.
• We love you so much, Colby!! We are so happy you're in our family and for all the joy and love you give! None of us can get enough of you each day!