Thirteen months!

I can't believe a month has passed since Ben turned one! His walking progress has been well documented, but it really has amazed us at how quickly he decided that since he's one, he's now a walker, not a crawler. And he's never looked back!

We got to borrow our friends' super-nice camera again this month and had lots of fun capturing his new moves at the park down the street from us. (double click on the slideshow to edit the view)

Somehow, even with all this walking, Ben managed to put on a whole pound in one month, and now weighs in at 23 lbs! Must be that good eating he's been doing! Let me clarify that by "good" I mean in quantity, not always in well-rounded, food pyramid portions or anything. But he eats bananas like nobody's business and will now stand in front of their home on our counter and point, grunt, and sometimes babble variations of "nananana". And turning one meant getting to try new things like peanut butter and whole milk - both which have been successfully implemented. I guess we could work in some honey now too, but who wants to deal with those sticky fingers/ears/walls?

Green vegetables are on the outs, but he does great with carrots, sweet potatoes and sometime squash and mixed vegetables. Of course, snack foods and Cheerios still reign supreme - which is where the questionable meals come in to play. But the parenting articles I've scoured all tell me to calm down and know that he's getting the nutrients he needs, even if he has a meal of bread, cheerios, puffs and freeze-dried yogurt bits every now and then.

He's down to one nap a day, as that's the new schedule in his class at school, and we try to stick to that on the weekends. His teacher told me that sometimes after he gets cleaned up from lunch, he'll walk on over to his cot, pop in his thumb, grab his lovey and put himself to bed! (sniff, sniff) So, here's to two-to-three-hour midday naps! Now if we could only reset his internal alarm clock for something a little later than 6:30 a.m. on the dot everyday...

We also went back to Aldrige Gardens for another photoshoot. Now before you think "he is the happiest baby I've ever seen!" please keep in mind that these are the shots that made the cut from the 271 that we took in an hour's time! But we did have fun, especially on the bridge, when I ran back and forth around a tree and through the thicket to "surprise" him. Sidenote: Ben loves to be startled. The more he jumps, the harder he laughs. He also loves knowing that he's about to be surprised, if that's possible. It's the anticipation of it all!

A few outtakes made it into the slideshow though; they were just cute in their own rights.

He did get another ear infection last week, but apparently the tubes are doing their jobs in letting the fluid drain. Fortunately the antibiotics worked very quickly, and he was back in top form within a couple of days! Bathtimes have been increasingly better lately - maybe b/c they've also been few and far between due to some hectic weeknight evenings! (fingers crossed, no reports of him being the smelly kid in class yet!) But he's getting a kick out of bringing in his socks and laying on his stomach in the tub...whatever works, am I right?

So one month of toddlerhood down! This isn't so hard. Yet...:)