All I Want for Christmas . . .

I've long ago stopped thinking "Any day now he'll get a tooth." It's amazing to me how our little boy could walk by 10 months, but still not have a single tooth (and still not a ton of hair) by one year. I kind of feel bad for him. I know he'll enjoy those pickles he so loves a whole lot more when he can actually crunch them with teeth instead of his gums. Poor kid.

Here he is on his first b-day, loving the balloons his dad bought him:

Cake time! Obviously he loved it.
Loved it so much that he thought he needed to smash it around on his head so that his hair could also have a taste.

James is a talker. He talks and talks and talks and makes me laugh all day long. Sometimes it sounds like he's Italian, other times Australian, and other times he sticks his tongue out in between each sound and the gibberish that results (something like "chuckaluckaluck") is just so darling that I wish I could freeze time and keep him this way forever. He can repeat almost anything we say, loves dogs, definitely knows who his dad is (whenever Brian is at work James walks around the house calling "Dad? Dad!?"), loves to wrestle with him, loves to be chased, and absolutely loves to play catch. Last week he took a ball to Brian and said a very articulate "Catch" and has been doing it multiple times a day ever since and is always so proud of himself that we understand what he wants. He loves to walk up to you, make sure he has your attention, smile really big say "Hey" and then start laughing hysterically, run away, turn around and repeat 3-4 times. He also walks around most of the day repeating "Good, good" over and over. The one thing he is not so "good" at, however, is obeying. He can be a little rascal. He thinks "No" and "Stop" are hilarious, even when I shout them with anger or alarm. When I swat his hand away from the Christmas tree or an outlet, he thinks it's a game. If I pick him up and remove him from the problem area, he runs back over laughing. Kids get over that, right?

Sometimes he is the friendliest kid I've ever seen, wanting strangers to pick him up, waving at everyone in sight, and other times he is so shy he won't even look up at a stranger and will bury his head into my shoulder and cling onto me until they leave. It'll be interesting to see what way he actually ends up--super social or shy? If he's anything like his parents, he is doomed, since both Brian and I tend to be more on the anti-social side.

At his 12 month appointment last week, we found out our little pipsqueak, who has been in the 75-90th percentile of most things his entire life, has now fallen to the 40th percentile in weight and only the 60th in height. It looks like he finally shed some baby fat with all that walking he's been doing the last few months. Despite the lack of weight gain, he still eats a TON and makes a mess each and every time. I probably sweep and mop our kitchen floor at least 3-4 times a day. But how could I be mad at this face?

The last couple weeks he has outright refused to nap. Not a single nap, not the morning or afternoon one and that has resulted in some majorly long days. At our ward Christmas party last week we had to leave early because we could tell he had reached his limit. The second we put him in the carseat he was out:

So, the adventures with a one-year-old continue and hopefully next time I post something, James will finally have some teeth.