All about Bob turning a year!

This is in our backyard by the shed.

He was so interested in pulling out grass that day that he would rarely give me even a glance.

My Bobby, who made his entrance into this world in a hurry (He couldn't even wait for his Daddy to get there!), has managed to mosey on through his first year of life in a much more laid back manner.  He's been such an easy baby and an excellent traveler.  He's definitely starting to have an opinion and try to assert himself more lately.  He still struggles with taking decent length naps despite the fact that he wakes up pretty early in the morning (between 5 and 6:30am, but usually before 6am for the last two months.)  This hasn't bothered me as much as it would have with some of the children because he is so easy when he is awake.  I thought that would end when he started moving around, but it hasn't.  He listens very well to "No" and doesn't have an affinity to all the dangerous things in the room like my sweet Drew always did, nor does he eat every tiny thing he can find like my sweet Judah did.  He mostly plays and explores in the areas he is permitted to do so.

My photography assistant!  He won't be getting any recommendations from me for this kind of job.

I have so many pictures of him eating because that's been my focus this month and where he's made the most progress.  On the airplane home I handed him a gingerbread cookie in a package to keep him happy a second while I helped Drew with his food.  When I looked at him he had chewed through the wrapper and was eating the cookie which was melting into mush all over his face.  But he was eating it!  Like a real solid food item!  I was so excited about the new possibilities that I got all kinds of things for him to try from the grocery store once we were back.  Over the course of the last month he has learned to eat avocado (cut up), banana (mashed at first, then moved on to cut into strips), puffs, yogurt melts, arrowroot cookies, green beans (cooked until really soft), watermelon strips, spaghetti (cut as tiny as I could), roasted zucchini, regular oatmeal, and other things.  He even decided plain Cheerios were worth putting in his mouth.  He feeds himself the finger foods, but we are going to have a long uphill battle with getting him off of me spoon feeding him.  

This is an older picture of him with his mesh feeder.  He has since rejected that for the more palatable choice of actual finger foods.

Gnawing on a giant carrot was what helped him get better at handling food in his mouth.  He learned to moved the shaved off carrot pieces out of his mouth as his first step.

Bobby can show you his tongue, point to clocks and say "Tick tick" instead of "Tick tock,"  roar when you ask what a lion says, clap or wave on cue, plays "So Big," peek-a-boo, and chase with his brothers and sisters.  Days after his first birthday he learned to sign "More."  His words are as follows (but some of them are not used regularly):

Mama
Dada
Hannah
Genna (replaces "G" with "D" sound)
Isaac (leaves off the "C")

Hi
All Done (with sign)
Ball
Up (leaves off the "P" and reaches arms up)
Tick tick (for clocks)

My little pumpkin smiles all the time and is so sweet.  Judah likes to tell him, "Bobby, you are so-oo-oo cute!

He's got the crawling down perfectly now.  He can pull up and that is as far as that has gone.  Shortly after his first birthday, his Occupational Therapist helped us set up a system where Drew is responsible for scattering toys on the sectional couch every morning and switching out the toys at lunch.  This small step actually got him to side step one step.  He is a very cautious boy (which definitely has it's benefits! ), but it is making this process of learning to walk painfully slow.

In full crawl position

He has quite the stink eye that everyone seems to think is adorable.  At the airport, he was getting all kinds of giggles from ladies after he'd give them his dirty look.  One day it won't be cute anymore, so hopefully, it's just a stage.  It probably is.  He is already doing it less often and warming up to people faster.

This is one of his mad faces, but not quite the real stink eye he gives to people who smile at him.

As always, I am in love with the dimples!

It's hard to tell in most pictures, but Bobby does have whispy blonde curls like Drew did when we were first growing it out.

For his birthday we got him a stuffed fox.  It is our tradition to give a stuffed animal for a luvey for the first birthday.  Isaac loved and still loves to sleep with his corduroy crocodile that we got in Scotland.  That was my inspiration to get Bobby his own corduroy animal.  It was not a success.  He gives it the stink eye and leans away from it if it gets too close.  We are all working to get him to love his fox, but I'm not sure how it's going to play out.  We also got him a wooden toy car with his name engraved on it.  That seems to be a big hit so far.

Bob's not so sure about that fox.

Mid clap-  I love how he always opens his mouth when he claps.

Birthday gifts from the godparents came in the mail.

The tradition of giving a luvey as a gift for the first birthday started with Genna, that is why in the following picture Hannah isn't present.  Genna, Isaac, and Drew slept with their first birthday luvey for a very  long time. Drew still does sometimes. Judah's luvey that he sleeps with turned out to be the Grumpy cat that his Mimi got him for Christmas when he was 16 months old.  He rejected the Okapi that I got him from the Rain-forest Cafe at a year.  It stays in his crib still, but he doesn't cuddle it.  He's always been a big kitty cat fan.  He has at least five of them in his crib.

Judah and Ollie the Okapi from the Rain-forest Cafe in Dallas, TX, Drew and Neigh Neigh the horse with attaching blankie from Red River, NM, Isaac and Crocodile from Scotland (I sewed a Scotland patch on his foot,) and Genevieve and Sleeping Beauty from the Disney Store.

We went to the pool during the day.  He played hard in the sun, ate a ton of watermelon, and took an amazing nap when we got home.

Mastering the snack cup has been HUGE!

This is the awesome baby pool.  The only problem with it is that it is still kind of deep for Bobby since he's not standing or walking.  Sitting, the water comes up to his chest and so I can't move away from him or really let go of him yet.  Crawling wouldn't work with it being that deep.  A little limiting for me this year, but next year it will be good.  Maybe.  But then I'll be up chasing up the stairs and down the baby slides between the three mini pools.  The big kids went to the bigger pools, but they did play here a bit because the slides are kind of fun for all.

We had two families come over to have a simple dinner and cake that evening.  I made brisket, baked beans, tomato and cucumber salad, guacamole and jalapeno dips.  And I decided I'd been taking it easy on the cakes lately so I made sure to do a cute one for this guy.  He loves cars and construction trucks, so a dump truck cake idea that my mother-in-law had sent me years ago seemed like a good choice.  Here is the link to the one I used for inspiration.  Plus, I had pinned this a long time ago as well.  So I set out a big dump truck filled with chips coming onto a plate, but failed to take a picture of that one.

Perhaps the cake looked too much like a dump truck, because this guy wouldn't touch it or even open his mouth for a bite.  I finally caught him off guard and sneaked a piece in.  However, he made a face and would not open that mouth again.  He started playing in the cake and swiping it off the tray, so game over.  Maybe next year, Bobby!

"What is this?  You don't expect me to eat it, surely?"