The Big One!

 One Year Old Update on Drew

After a berry good dinner!  Unfortunately, this was taken right before he learned to take off his bib.

Troubles
Drew is having a very hard time in Mass for the last two weeks.  He may be on his way to beating Hannah as the family's worst behaved baby in church.  The only reason I say he would beat Hannah is because she was at least good if you stood in the back for a while and the returned to your seat at this age.  He still cries and squirms some days, and I have to stand out in the foyer with a crying squirming baby the rest of Mass.  A good summary of Drew right now is, "Great sleeper, great car traveler, great eater, bad airplane traveler, and awful mass attender." In fact, on his birthday after Mass some daily Mass friends of ours came up to him and said, "Your brother was not like you at all when he was little!  He sat and was so quiet!"  They meant no harm, they were just stating the truth!  Father Charlie gave him a birthday blessing and then made a point of telling me how glad he is that we come to daily Mass and how it must be hard for me to get them all up and there at 8am.  I replied, "Oh, that's the easy part!" because it so is!  We are now moving from the front pew to the back for daily Mass, at least, so I can not be a visual distraction to everyone as well as a noisy one.
On top of that issue, he has begun little tantrums as well.  Aah, can't I have my sweet boy back?  Where does the time go?

Physical Development
I was expecting him to be walking everywhere right now, but he is not.  I guess his illnesses slowed him down.  He is such a fast crawler.  He just drops and crawls when he really needs to get somewhere fast.
He has said a few new words this past week, but they don't come easy.  They are "Hi" (only to the phone) and "Night night" (only once to his daddy.)  His lack of words and signs is incredibly frustrating to me since I have always had talkers.  He will sign "More" if I start the sign for him by pushing one hand toward the other.  I know he understands so much because he will look at whatever I am talking about.  If I ask him if he wants a drink and he does, he will look intently at the cup.  If I ask him if he will help me turn out the lights, he looks over at the light switch.  You get the picture.  I just wish he would try to talk or sign!
 We have been working on body parts.  He seems to know nose, tongue, feet, and belly button.  You have to catch him at the right moment though or he is absorbed in what he is doing and will not respond.  He is no performer like the other three!

Nutrition/Eating
He is a great eater and eats almost everything.  Many times he eats things as fast as I can get them on his tray which leaves me little time to eat my own meal.  He is drinking water and whole milk from a sippy cup.  He is still nursing three times a day before meals. 

Sleeping
He is doing great with sleep.  He must be in a growth spurt or something right now, because he is sleeping so much more than usual.  He started fighting the bedtime routine AGAIN this week, but had been doing well with it for a good while before that.  Even when he fights the routine part, he usually settles down during the song.  Even if he doesn't settle down for the song though, he lays right down when I put him in his bed. I guess I can't complain.