12 Month Update

Our 12-Month Well Baby visit last week went well. Oliver weighed in at 25 lbs 8 oz - 82 percentile, and measured 33 inches - 99 percentile. 

I got my official permission to stop breastfeeding. Bitter-sweet for sure. But we went a year, and were down to barely once per day. And no one really seems to miss it too much. So, I'm free! And Oliver likes his whole cow's milk just fine. Now we have a little extra time at night, so we've started being better at reading several bedtime stories. 

Other than that, Oliver is crawling like a champ. He's begun to "cruise" along the furniture. And we practice over and over again crawling in and out of the back door to the patio. He did the same thing with Grandpa in Sunriver. Cute, but exhausting. I think all of this activity has made him more tired, because we're sleeping a long night (7pm-8am most nights) and then taking two good naps. He can't really function for more than 3 hours in a row. We'll take the breaks! 

He loves his pacis in bed, and will have one in his mouth and one in his hand. Working on keeping those only in bed and hoping that can stick. He's also gotten pickier with food textures, but he gets to try most everything and is still a great eater.  

Still loves beating things to make music, but he has also been enjoying reading to himself, and will sit through most pop-up books. We're now members of the zoo and have been a few times. It's fun now that he sees and acknowledges the animals. He's still more interested in the fish than say a hippo or giraffe, but it's fun. 

We're still swimming. He's really come into his own in the past few weeks. He FINALLY started holding onto the ledge of the pool, which all of the other kids have been doing pretty much since the start. He started putting his whole face into the water in the bathtub and "blowing bubbles" and now he'll do it at the pool. He's pretty solid with the flip over and float. So now they've just started taking him to the bottom of the shallow end of the pool to try to grab a ring. The next step in survival, since apparently most kids actually fall into the water head first and then need to get up to the surface of the water. The only real negative is that he's discovered the relaxing feeling (I can only assume) of going poo in the pool. And generally waits until about halfway through class before filling his *reusable* swim diaper. Nothing gets in the pool, but it's a disgusting mess to deal with once you've gotten the diaper off of him and I dread it. I've taken to bringing two, so we can at least finish the class. Need to work out of that little habit. 

More fun that that, we started music class. Just once a week at a community center, but they get to play with all sorts of sticks and shakers and things. And of course meet new kids and hear new songs. Pretty cute. We just started last week, so hopefully we'll have lots of fun with that. 

Looking forward to Halloween soon, and possibly our first night away for our wedding anniversary?? Ah, the possibilities!