Twelve Months Old

Beckett finished his first year of life with a bang!  It was a really fun month for us all.

Here’s a snippet of what’s been going on with our little guy these past few weeks.

If I had to sum this month up in a single word, it would be pointing.  We went through a waving phase a few months ago and now we have officially moved on to pointing.  Oh the pointing.  I don’t even remember how it got started but now all day every day he just goes around pointing at things, in a very “what’s that?” kind of way.  He doesn’t even want what he points at most of the time, he just points and looks at us and wants us to tell him what it is.  We name it, then he points at something else.  Over and over and over again. 

I think it’s just his way of experiencing the world right now.  Which I should be grateful for because I feel like he’s gradually transitioning away from experiencing it with his mouth (although I fished a very soggy dog food kernel out just yesterday…baby steps!).  But it can be annoying at times.  Light.  Light.  Light.  Fan.  Light.  Light.  Light.  Light.  Momma.  Light.  Light.  Still the light, buddy.  I try to be constructive with it sometimes in that if I point and name three different things (like three toys or three things sitting on a table) and repeat them several times, I can then ask him “where’s the X?” and he’s pretty darn good at pointing to the right one.  It’s so fun to see his little brain working!

Speaking of which, it’s become really clear lately that Beckett loves to learn.  It’s a little hard to put into words, but it’s just something that can be observed if you watch him.  To start, he’s such a curious little boy.  He loves to explore things, get into lots of trouble, and figure out how things work.  Because he loves learning we are trying to teach him some new things.  Sign language has been really useful for this.  He knows the signs for more, milk, and water, and he uses them without prompting when he wants any of those things.  It’s so neat!  He also knows and understands the signs for eat and diaper, but he only uses them we say them.  We also like teaching him gestures.  When we yell ‘snow day’ he throws his hands in the air (Kolby's had a few snow days lately).  When we say ‘sweet boy’ he clasps his hands together and brings them up by his cheek (this was so cute… but lately it’s evolved to this move that looks like he’s stirring a cauldron, ha!).  We’re also working on some dance moves :). 

He’s still all about the books.  Give that kid a pile of books and he will just sit there and flip through them all and jabber and point at things on the pages.  His favorite way to for us to read him books right now is for us to point at the respective pictures as we narrate the story, or for him to point at each thing on the page and us say what they are.  Pointing, pointing, pointing.

Kolby invented a new sport called dadcrobatics.  It’s where he essentially does basketball tricks but uses Beckett as the ball, feeding him around his waist, through his legs, over his shoulders, etc. while humming circus music.  He also does figure skating moves while holding Beckett, with the routine always ending with a big ta-da where they each hold an arm out.  Both activities send Beckett into fits of giggles.  Dads are so much fun.

For my memory’s sake, here’s Beckett’s routine these days:

6am                 wake up, nurse, play, breakfast

8:30/9am         nap (usually 1-2 hours)

10:30am          play, run errands, play with friends

Noonish           lunch

1pm                 nurse, nap (usually around an hour)

3pm                 play, run errands

5pm                 Kolby gets home, we hang out for a while then tag team Beckett and cooking dinner

6:30pm            family dinner

7pm                 bath, nurse, bedtime (he’s usually asleep around 8)

What we did this month:

-I took Beckett to his first movie—Despicable Me2—at the dollar theatre. And thank goodness it only cost a $1 because I spent the majority of the movie sitting in the aisle playing with him and trying (unsuccessfully) to keep him from eating popcorn off the floor. We went with some friends and it was still a fun experience though!

-We joined my family at Cowboy’s Stadium to watch Baylor whip up Texas Tech. Beckett had a great time!

-We moved Beckett to a big boy car seat (still rear-facing, but he had gotten too big for his infant carrier seat).

-Beckett and I took a quick road trip to Houston with my cousin and her son to visit our other cousin and her new baby girl.

-Celebrated Thanksgiving with my family at the ranch

Things Beckett loves:

-POINTING

-Pushing big toys/walkers while walking behind them

-Reading books

-Playing on his own a little bit

-Eggs, banana, all types of meat

-Watching construction equipment 

Things I love about Beckett:

-how his hair is starting to curl a little bit

-he has this "stinker face" as we call it where he scrunches his nose up and gives a fake smile

-when he brings me a book to read to him

-he's starting to dance a little and it's adorable

Finally, this is about as good of time as any to jot down his stats throughout the year as well as when he hit some big milestones.

Stats

Age               Weight            Height             Percentiles (weight/height)

Birth                9lbs                21 inches          90/90

1 month         9lbs 7oz          22 inches          25/50

3 months       11lbs 14oz       23 inches          50/50

4 months       14lbs 2oz         26.5 inches       25/90

6 months       15lbs 10oz       28 inches          20/95

9 months       19lbs 3oz         29 inches          45/75

1 year             21lbs 1oz        30 inches          45/55

Basically he started out big and now he's right at average.

Milestones

First smile—6 weeks old

First laugh—3 months old

Lost the last of his newborn hair—4 months old

Started sitting up independently—5 months old

Started sleeping through the night—just shy of 6 months old (switched him to his tummy at 5½ months)

First solid food—6 months old (avocado, then peas, then hard-boiled egg yolk)

Started rolling over—6 months old (his very first rolling over was more like 4 months, but he didn’t keep it up)

First party trick (his tomahawk move)—7 months old

Started crawling—7 months old (almost 8)

First tooth—8 months old

Clapping on command—8 months old

Started pulling up to stand (including in his crib)—8 months old (almost 9)

Waving on command, doing motions to Patty Cake—9 months old

First word—this is a tough one to pinpoint… there was never a “oh my gosh he just said his first word” moment. He started making the dadada sound clearly at around 9 months, followed by mamama, and by 11 months it had transitioned more to “dada” and “mama” and he started to really associate it with us.