RUS 12 months

Dear RUS,

I am still in shock that my baby is 1! Looking back over this year, you have been the smiliest baby ever. You still sleep through the night. In fact, you are a perfect angel when it comes to nap times and bedtimes. When you're tired, and we carry you into your room, you are practically lunging for your crib. You roll over, put your thumb in your mouth, and put yourself right to sleep. For awhile--when we were trying to transition from holding you until you were asleep and laying you down, back when you were 9 months or so--I established a good night routine that involved reading Good Night Moon and occasionally Baby Cakes or Jamberry, and then laying you down. But you don't really need the routine. You're tired when you're tired, you recognize your angel dear zebra lovie (we have the tiger one at day care), and you're ready. If you're not ready for a nap, you signal your displeasure by crying the minute we try to put you in your crib. I don't even fight it, because I know you'll sleep when you are ready, so if you cry I pick you up immediately.

You've got seven teeth now--four on the bottom and a third one poked through on top just a week or so ago. The way you've been gnawing on your toys, we think a fourth one on top is about to come through.

During your well-baby check up at the pediatrician's office, you were 20 lbs. 4 oz. (about 25th percentile) and 30.25 inches long (about 50th percentile), and he pronounced you in perfect health. We also had a check up with the pediatric cardiologist about your VSD. The hole is still there, but the cardiologist is not concerned at all. He still expects that it may close on its own, hopefully before you start school, and there is nothing we need to do differently--you don't even need prophylactic antibiotics before dental work (which was a previous practice for children with heart defects that I think is being discontinued because of lack of proof that it is effective).

You are babbling and talking more and more and more every day. You sign "more" regularly at the table and say "na-na-na" for banana although this is inconsistent. You babble ma-ma-ma and da-da-da all the time and it never ceases to melt my heart. You use exclamations--"DA!" or "BA!" in reaction to your toys and to us, and you love to blow raspberries. Grampie taught you to stick your tongue out, and to say "uh-oh!" both of which you do all.the.time. We always know exactly when you're angry or don't like something, because you immediately start crying, and once we give you what you want, you are our little angel again. This happens most often in two situations: when you want a particular food that you can see in front of you or when you do NOT want your diaper changed.

You are cruising like mad, although when you want to get somewhere you immediately start crawling. You're a regular Speedy Gonzalez on all fours! You love to crawl all the way down the hallway and start banging on one of the bedroom doors--usually R's bedroom, because you know there are lots of toys in there for you to get into. But if we were given 3 guesses as to where we could find you playing at any given moment, our first guess would almost always be in front of R's play kitchen, opening the cabinets, pulling out the sink, and dumping out all the play food. You could entertain yourself for hours with that thing!

When playing, your favorite things to do are to climb and to open and close doors. If there's something you can try to climb, you are trying to do it, like a fearless alpiner ignoring potential obstacles ahead. And if there's a door that can be opened or closed repeatedly, you're on top of it! You continue to love the Roll-A-Round Dinosaur, and we've recently been pulling out stacking blocks and duplos which you are really enjoying discovering. One of your favorite toys is this book--a vtech Rhyme and Discover book that R received from Great-Grammie and Aunt L for her first Christmas. You push the buttons and open and close the different pages and just seem absolutely enthralled with it.


Happy birthday, sweet, sweet boy!!! We are so looking forward to another year with you and continuing to watch you grow and change.

Love,
Mama