Andrew is 1 year old!

Today is Andrew's first birthday. YEAH!!! We made it!!! And here is the obligatory post.

This has been a great month with Andrew. He is starting to grow up and it is so fun. He has finally started sleeping really well!!!! And it was so easy. We had tried letting him cry (but peeking in every so often) before, but it never worked well. Andrew has some amazing abilities to cry for hours straight (which our baby-sitter unfortunately found out first hand many months ago). But we decided to try it again, and this time Andrew seemed finally ready for it. Even the first night was a piece of cake, for the most part, and Andrew now goes to bed within a few minutes. Even last night when we didn't get home from Toronto until like 10 and his schedule has been EVERYWHERE for the last week, he still went to sleep and slept through the night really well. So, YEAH, good job Andrew. So now we just need at least another year to catch up on the last year's lost sleep and then we're good to go. (So, yeah, no plans for another baby anytime soon for all those people who ask - we need to sleep!).

Andrew has also been so much better at eating, especially the last few weeks. He still spits out quite a bit of food (maybe 40%), but he does awesome with the little Gerber toddler's food. We hadn't anticipated feeding him all these snack-y foods (I mean, they bear an uncanny resemblance to Cheetos), but I guess when you have a kid like Andrew you do what you have to do. That said, he will try to eat anything and everything. Just this week, he's had chicken, bacon, french toast, pizza, cheese, chocolate, and of course, all his regulars.

Andrew is quite the expert crawler and loves to climb into cabinets now. He took his first step (maybe) today, but still prefers crawling. But he is always on the move. He knows how to turn on and off the TV, change the channels and volume and does it all on purpose - looking over at us and laughing. We went to a party a few weeks ago and Andrew figured out on the spot how to crawl up the stairs of their house. We don't have any stairs here, so I had no idea kids could figure it out so fast. He also is always crawling into rooms and closing the door and then cries until you open it. He is really trying to play peek-a-boo.

He is babbling ALL the time. He says Daddy at least one hundred times a day - it is by far his favorite word (and his favorite person). He says Mommy maybe 10 times a day and usually when he wants to eat. He has little conversations with us all the time. Last night when we got home he babbled on and on to Joe presumably about all his adventures in Toronto (of course, half the words were Daddy).

His gesturing skills have finally emerged! He can now point and likes to point out whatever is interesting. He also is learning to make choices by pointing to what he wants. He has clapped maybe a couple times and has waved a few times, but he still prefers not to do so.

Andrew loves to play and dance and talk and explore. He likes to give kisses and hugs and generally cuddle. He is always smiling and laughs a ton! He loves to go on adventures and new places. His favorite toys are his push-walker toy (he does some gorgeous three-point turns I am envious of), pots and pans and lotion samples (yum! lotion soup), his shape sorter (a pro at putting in the circle, but working on the others), the telephone (he is always trying to call Daddy and crawls to the phone whenever it rings saying Dad, Dad, Dad), remotes, and the cat Joe.

We are so glad we have Andrew in our lives. He is our happy little boy and we love him so much!!!!