12 Month Milestones

Caden's first birthday has come and gone. Just over a month ago his primary mode of transportation was crawling, but now he walks everywhere. He walks in circles sometimes just because he can. He loves to walk around holding on to a toy (which 'toys' these days consist of things that aren't really toys that I allow him to play with such as cereal boxes, bottle/sippy cup parts, baby food containers, and his favorite...baby spoons. He is even talented enough already (has been for probably 2 weeks or so) to walk WHILE drinking from his sippy cup. I know that running is not too far away! He only did the adorable little Frankenstein walk for about a week and then he got his balance down and no longer needed his arms. I miss the Frankenstein walk. It was the cutest thing! He loves to play chase with Daddy still, but he's walking and playing now instead of crawling. John has been working to teach Caden how to chase him and we think he's finally getting it!

One of the wonderful things you can get in Korea (and other Asian countries) are the "mink" blankets. They aren't really made of mink, but they are so incredibly soft. Imagine the softest baby blanket you've ever felt.... multiply it by 10 and increase the size to a full/queen/king and there you have a mink blanket. I recently purchased the softest one I've felt yet. Unfortunately, each blanket is different in how it feels and in it's color. I had to chose between incredibly soft and doesn't-match-my-house baby blue or matches-the-house but isn't as soft tan. Of course I went with the softer of the two and Caden has fallen in LOVE with this blue mink blanket. He loves to play peekaboo with us under it. We make forts out of it for him to crawl through, and when we lay on the floor under it he crawls back and forth over us (or should I say climbs) because he loves how the blanket feels....squealing all the time in excitement.

Caden is tall enough now to get things off of our kitchen table (he's mastered standing on his toes to reach) and if we leave something on the edge of the kitchen counter... it's on the floor if we aren't watching. Time to turn those pot handles in when we cook!! If he had more things to climb on I think he would be a climber, too. He tries to stand on toys or other objects to make himself taller... especially when trying to escape from his playpen. Nonnie has been teaching him to crawl off the couch backward and he seems to get it, for now. But he can't get up on the couch yet. That is still a ways away!

Caden is really starting to understand language, too. He understands a lot of what we say and can do several things on "command" (sounds like a dog when I word it that way), such as: dance, wave bye-bye, head-butt, and give kisses. He signs more and all-done and he loves to play peek-a-boo both hiding us under blankets and holding a blanket in front of his own face. When we ask, "Caden, can you say ___?," he will TRY to repeat the word to us. If it's too hard then it comes at as "Baaa!" But, he always purses his lips together and pauses as if he's trying to think of the right way to say the word first. If it's dada, naynay, mama, or bye-bye then he will say it. Oh, and his newest word is "Uh-oh!" He copies his Nonnie when she says it.

He is still throwing balls all over the place, but only farther and harder now. And since he has mastered the skill of throwing, he's moved on to objects other than balls. Large toys are a favorite because they make a loud crashing sound. My fear is that he is going to crush his toes throwing something heavy like that one day.... yet another way he keeps me busy watching him all the time. He has no fear. As I type this right now he is walking around the kitchen with a smaller ball working on his one-handed throw (up over his head...and then throw)!

He loves to press buttons on things. One of his favorite toys is his gear-toy. He takes all the gears off and then puts them all back on (which is a great new skill in and of itself) and then presses the button that makes them spin. He also loves to push the buttons on his Learning House and then dance to the music. He loves to put things in boxes, dump truck beds, etc and then take them back out again although this is a newer skill and he isn't doing it on large scales yet...just one item here or there. He likes to crawl while pushing his trucks around (one of the only ways we see him crawl now days). He is also learning how to stack the rings on the.... ring stacker-pyramid toy? What's that thing called anyway?? He loves to carry two objects around and bang them together. While we were getting ready to cook his birthday cake we let him play with the cake pans and he had a good ole' time banging those together. Usually it's smaller objects that he practices that skill on. Oh, and he likes anything that makes loud noises.

He is really starting to enjoy his bath more and more...not that he ever hated it or even didn't like it...he just never got as excited as he does now. He loves to splash the water, he could care less how much of it gets in his eyes. He also loves to "shoot hoops" in his little basketball goal in the bathtub. And he loves to see himself all wrapped up in a towel after his bath. He talks to the baby in the mirror.

Caden likes to surprise us by copying our sounds. Not words, but sounds. For example, John will clear his throat and Caden will make a similar sound to copy him. He also has a high-pitched, airy sounding, squeal that sounds like he is trying to sing. Not sure what to call that sound, almost like a scream without the sound, just air and the occasional little squeak that peeps through. Although it sounds like he's singing when he does that, it's not how he really sings. When John plays the guitar or he hears music he will often start with "aye-aye, aye-aye, aye-aye" over and over and over. We think he is singing when he does this because he does it consistently when he hears music/singing. He also loves to strum the guitar with Daddy.

Another favorite 'toy' right now would be a mirror. He loves to smile and laugh at himself. We have a big mirror in the car so we can see him, but he can also see himself in it and sometimes he really gets going just laughing at himself. He also will do a lovely fake cry (scrunched up nose and mouth with a smile behind it saying "eeeeeeeeeh"- which is my attempt to turn his sound into a 'word'). If he hears another baby crying he will start to smile, then scrunch up his nose, and then proceed to do the fake cry. It cracks us up!

So, what are the things Caden doesn't like? Well, honestly there aren't many. He doesn't like a diaper change if it interferes with something he is "working" on, but usually he is good about letting me change him. He doesn't like to be barricaded in a room. It's okay for the baby gate to be up as long as we are in the same section he is in, but if we move to another room and the baby gate keeps him from getting in there, he will fuss and fuss. These days if he fusses, he says "Mama, Mama, Mama" over and over and over until he is rescued. It's endearing now, but I know it won't be that way much longer.

He still isn't saying Dada to John, but he babbles and copies the word. I find it kind of funny because most babies say Dada first. He says Mama to me, but really only when he is fussing. Not to make him sound like a fussy baby because he isn't, but there are a few things that set him off. The baby gates being one of them. Also, when he is hungry or wants his sippy and I'm trying to clean/fill it he will cling to my legs or follow me around fussing, "Mama, Mama, Mama." He also fusses if he is tired/cranky and he knows we are fixing to leave. He doesn't really have separation anxiety, but he starts fussing (always, "Mama") when we show signs of leaving him when he isn't preoccupied with a toy or is clingy/tired/etc.

Oh, and speaking of clingy... my sweet little man is letting me rock/cuddle with him on occasion now. Not often, but sometimes when we're doing his nap/bedtime routine he will let me rock him while he rests his head on my shoulder. It doesn't last long. The second he's ready to go to bed, he starts squirming for his crib... which is a blessing, too. He knows how to put himself to sleep, and he prefers to do it that way. While I rock him I sing to him. When he was about 4 months old I was putting him down one day and had him swaddled tightly. I was doing the usual 'bouncy ball' thing to lull him to sleep/drowsy and I was in our lovely "world wallpaper" room at our home here in Korea. Looking at all the maps of the world I started singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" as I bounced. I sang it slowly, and rhythmically to the bouncing and it stuck! It's now Caden's little lullaby song. If I sing something else I sing "You are My Sunshine."

Caden is still on two naps a day. We go through phases when I think he's going to drop one because they get shorter and shorter, but then he will surprise me and snap right back to two, two-hour naps per day. He can do one nap a day, but usually I reserve those for special occasions when we are traveling or something. Tuesdays and Sundays he only gets one nap because of Bible Study and Church. Most other days he gets two. His bedtime routine is the same: read books, turn off light, sing and rock for a minute or two, then down he goes. His naps vary from 1 to 2 hours. At night he goes down around 7 or 7:30 (or earlier if he's really showing signs of being tired, usually on a one-nap day) and sleeps until around 6:30am. He hasn't made it sleeping until 7am in a while. But, I can't complain about 11-11.5 hours of sleep!

When he turned a year old I switched him from formula to whole milk. I thought I might have issues with the switch but I didn't. I was planning on a week or two long weaning process, but instead it took about a day! The first bottle I did was 4 oz formula and 2 oz milk, then the second bottle was 3 oz of each, then I just went all whole milk to see what he did and he took it! He could care less what it tastes like I guess! Over the next day or two I heated them less and less. Then I dropped the mid-morning (11am) and afternoon (3pm) bottles and offered sippy cups of ice-cold milk instead. He didn't really like it in the sippy cup at first, but took a sip here and there. Then I changed cups (using a brand new, totally different type to distinguish between milk and water) and he took right to it. After a day I dropped the nighttime bottle, but I'm still holding on to the morning one until I feel he has totally mastered the sippy and is getting enough fluids. He actually prefers milk in it now to water. Once he is drinking at least two full sippy cups per day (we are down to about 1.5 right now) I will replace the morning bottle with a sippy cup, too. Probably by the end of the week we will be 100% bottle weaned! Yay! I can't wait to have the space back in my kitchen!

Caden can drink through a straw now, too. Thanks to his two grandmas! Grammy introduced it to him first with a chocolate milkshake. Then a week later Nonnie introduced it with a homemade Baskin Robbins Cappuccino Blast. Now, anytime he sees a straw he wants some of his own. We have some straw sippy cups by Nuby we really like, but he prefers to do it the big-boy way. Chili's has these great kids cups with lids and a straw that we have been collecting! Oh, and Caden loves to eat ice cream. Nonnie spoils him when she gets ice cream. She either shares with him or buys him his own.

Now that he knows how good "adult" food is, that is all he wants. He still eats his baby food like a champ, but if we have something, he wants some of it, too. I am not really sure when or how he figured this one out, but if we are eating anything at all he is at our legs, "dancing" and fussing and begging for some of his own. And it usually works.

A typical day for Caden looks like this:

6:45- out of bed, bottle of whole milk 6oz, then diaper change and playtime

7:30am- breakfast (yobaby yogurt, and oatmeal made with a stage 2 applesauce soon to be replaced by jarred applesauce)

7:45am- playpen time (a challenge right now but we are sticking to our guns on it)

After playpen time he plays until about 8:45, then we start his nap routine and put him down.

9:00-11:00ish- morning nap

11:00- lunch (stage two green veggie, stage two fruit, and a jar of meat and gravy and a sippy of whole milk)

11:00-1:00- play around the house, run errands, etc... varies from day to day

1:00-3:00ish- afternoon nap

3:00- sippy cup of milk and a snack (sometimes offered in the stroller a little later if we are out)

3:00-6:00- play and run errands, eat his snack

5:45 or 6:00 is dinner time- Either a Gerber graduates meal or something I made for him and a stage two yellow veggie, and a sippy cup of whole milk

6:30- bath time/books/rock and sing/ bed at 7pm-ish.

We let him have a sippy cup of water throughout the day, but like I said, he prefers milk right now. We also replace some of the baby food veggies and fruits with real fruits and veggies but only if we have them on hand. He really likes Mandarin oranges, watermelon, peas, and carrots. Other favorite foods are toast with a little tiny bit of grape jelly. We also have a Munchkin Snack Catcher (like a Snack Trap cup) and he loves to eat Cheerios out of it. We've also found that he really likes limes. We discovered this in a desperate attempt to get him to stop begging for our food at Chili's.

I can't remember if I ever mentioned this on the blog before but about two months ago he cut his bottom two teeth. His top two are coming in soon! He's growing up, too fast! Everyday he does something new and cute. It's impossible to capture and record it all but this is my attempt at documenting his latest and greatest milestones. More (lots more) to come in the days and weeks ahead....