One year old

Dear Kaeden,

Happy Birthday!


Okay, so I'm a little late, but we were too busy celebrating for me to get the portraits/blogging done on time. More to come on that soon...

You've had a wild month. I feel like something about you changes every single day. The most significant is that you've started walking some. It's been very gradual, but over the course of the month, you've gone from 1-2 steps at a time to occasionally walking across a room. You still fall on your bottom plenty, but you're doing great and you're very proud of yourself. If you get any recognition at all, you stop what you're doing and clap.


This month, you had your first sleepover with cousin Atticus. He got to stay at our house, and you were so thrilled. You still love him and he's still wary of you, but don't worry - he'll come around eventually. He's quite happy playing next to you, though... just not with you yet!

We also tried out the car-full of cousins and you all seemed to get a kick out of being back there all together:
You have a new cousin now too! Her name is Gwen and you'll meet her in a few weeks. She's pretty cute, so I think you'll like her. In fact, you have a bit of an obsession with babies right now, so I'm afraid you might like her a little bit too much. You don't really understand "gentle touches" quite yet, so you may have to watch her from a distance.

You have also been in a serious daddy phase. You've had a strong mommy preference for most of your life, so it's been really sweet and a lot of fun to see you clinging to your daddy. It's not always so fun when you scream in the mornings when he leaves for work, but it's worth it :)


You painted for the first time this month. You were super focused & into it at first, but you lost interest pretty quickly.


Some other skills you've been working on are clapping, waving, pointing, and blowing kisses. You are a very social little guy, which is a new thing for your daddy & I to get used to. On the plane ride up to Nana & Papa's this month, you entertained people all around us for most of the flight with your smiles and waves. It was great for me too because it kept you entertained!


At your one year check-up, you weighed in at 21 lb 13 oz and you were 29.5 inches long, both of which are right around the 50th percentile. You grew 2 inches in 3 months!! I have definitely noticed that you are thinning out some and getting longer - makes you look like a big boy. You also got another tooth this month, so you're up to 5 now. Oh, and you are officially done nursing. I cut out your last feeding this past week and you have hardly noticed, so it's been great. Unfortunately, you don't like cow's milk at all yet, but we're working on getting you used to it. In the meantime, you get lots of yogurt, and milk and cheese mixed in with things. You continue to be more and more picky, which is a bit frustrating. You are now fighting veggies too, but you'll let me spoon feed them to you still as long as you have other food at the same time.


You are definitely starting to transition to one nap. If you sleep well in the morning, you will often skip your afternoon nap these days, which makes for long afternoons! Once I get more of a commitment out of you, I'll start pushing back your morning nap so that you can hopefully have one longer mid-day nap. We'll see.

I guess that pretty much wraps it up. We made a trip over to Duke Gardens for your one year pictures and I LOVE them.

Happy birthday once again to my child of many expressions. Mommy loves you!