Aaron is a year old!

It’s been a full year now since Aaron joined our family.

Aaron newborn mad face (sm)It’s amazing how fast it feels.  And yet how long ago it seems at the same time.  In only one year, Aaron went from this:

IMG_1132To this:

IMG_3507Yes, it is blurry.  And yes, that is a good representation of him.  :)  He was standing but as soon as he saw me across the room, he was down and coming to greet me.  :)  You can kind of see his smile.

IMG_3513Aaron loves exploring his toys.  He also enjoys throwing them.

He loves playing peek-a-boo and will cover his own eyes.  Though sometimes he misses and covers his cheeks or ears instead.  :)

IMG_3517He stands quite confidently now.  He’s been pulling to stand for a few months but kept it there for a while.  His first “standing on his own” happened about a week and a half ago.  I was laying on the couch, sick, and he came up and stood by me.  Then he started playing peek-a-boo.  He didn’t realize that when he covered his eyes he was standing without any assistance.  :)  But then it only took him another 5 days before he realized he could stand on his own even without using anything to pull up.  And now he does it quite often.  And last week he started cruising confidently as well (previously he wouldn’t really move around once he stood up – he would get down, move, and then stand up again).

I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he ends up running by Christmas.  Don’t get me wrong – I have no problem if he doesn’t.  :)  But at the pace he’s going thus far I could definitely see it.

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He’s having a great time playing with the cabinet door.

He has four teeth – the two front ones on both top and bottom.

He is definitely a momma’s boy.  Even though he’s quite active in general, he’s still happy to be strapped onto me in the carrier, as long as I stay standing (preferably walking).  But he does not like sitting on my lap for very long.  He doesn’t like being kept in one position.  But as long as he can roam a little he’s happy.  This makes diaper changes very interesting.

He isn’t fond of strangers.  He’s generally happy if kept with an older sibling (the three girls all ask to play with him – that’s only partly to get out of other chores).  We have a good friend who holds him while I play the piano at church.  He gives her a hard time (thankfully she understands!), though I think he may be warming up to her.  But I’ve left him with the YMCA childcare a few times and he always makes me feel like the worst mom ever for that.

IMG_3564He doesn’t have any words yet, but he has quite a loud happy shriek when he wants to.  And he definitely has his own little chatter

He loves sticking his finger in my mouth, especially when nursing.  Usually the pointer finger.  That or grabbing at my face.  He seems quite interested in faces.  Thankfully he isn’t into pulling hair.

He loves playing the piano – both the real one and the little toy one we have.  He also loves the bathroom and finds the toilets fascinating.  He does not love getting his hands washed.  I hope the connection between the two sinks in soon!

IMG_3525He enjoys emptying the dishwasher.  Onto the floor.  And emptying the cupboards.  And the bookshelves.  Much thanks to some good friends for giving us extra cabinet knobs they had so we could better keep him out of the bookshelves!

Thankfully, he’s still pretty cautious around stairs.  Though he did climb one or two steps about a week ago.

He still sticks a lot in his mouth (so the legos are still out of commission for now).  But now he’ll usually spit it out if I tell him to.  I guess he’s figured out that doing that is a lot easier than having me fish through his mouth.   :)

IMG_3533He loves eating with the family and eats basically whatever we do.  But he doesn’t want to be fed.  Spoons don’t go over very well either.  He prefers eating with his fingers.  Even oatmeal (which he very much enjoys!).  Needless to say, we haven’t given him soup yet.  :)

He loves fruit.  Especially grapes and fruit cocktail, though he’s enjoyed baked apple as well.  He also does well with peas and corn.  He inhales black beans.  Those are a big favorite of his!  He also enjoys fried egg, cheese, graham crackers (or crackers of any kind), chicken, and penne pasta with marinara sauce on it.  He will eat oatmeal squares, cheerios, and kix if he is really hungry.  But he’s much more likely to throw those.  He’s had peanut butter sandwiches but tends to prefer opening them and painting with the peanut butter (or just throwing the sandwich) to actually eating them.   He sometimes enjoys cheese pizza if I cut off the crust.

And he does throw a lot of his food, even things he enjoys eating.  I don’t like that part.

IMG_3535I tried to think of some of his favorite foods for his birthday dinner. He wasn’t very impressed.  He’s probably thinking, “She forgot the black beans!”  :)

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This shows off his semi stand that he’s been doing for a few weeks now. Last week he finally started using this position to go to fully standing.

He’s entered an interesting stage where he realizes he’s being held back from things and gets frustrated.  For instance, the kid room (where he is in this picture).  We have a gate there and try to keep it closed.  This makes it even more appealing to him!  And we also try to keep pencils up and away from him.  He found some left down and was overjoyed.  :)

IMG_3549I chose to let him keep playing with them for a bit so I could actually get a few pictures of him standing, as I’d been trying to do for a while.  He was quite pleased!

IMG_3560Hmm.  Maybe I should let him play with colored pencils more often (under close supervision, of course).

IMG_3566IMG_3567Of course, then Abby had to join in the fun.  She posed, but then started digging through her bag before I could get the picture.

IMG_3562This is what she was going for.  :)

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We kept the cake simple.  I let him “choose” – held out two cake box possibilities and he touched the one on his left, a white sprinkle cake.  Then I did the same with the pudding topping and he again touched the one on the left, vanilla.  It’s quite possible he was just going to grab whatever was on the left.  But I’ll still count that as choosing.  :)

IMG_3568We had to back the cake away a good bit.  I put it in front of him, just out of reach (I thought).  But he leaned forward, grabbed the edge (getting pudding on his hand), and then was about to pull it toward him and off the table.  Yikes!

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He was trying to grab the cake again.

Thankfully he stopped trying to grab the cake once he realized it actually was out of reach now.

He found the singing interesting but was mesmerized by the candle.

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Bryan and I both blew the candle out together.  That wasn’t planned, but it was fun.

And then on to his cake and ice cream enjoyment.  :)

IMG_3585He loved the ice cream.  I’d cut it into bite-sized pieces and it was still pretty firm at this point.

IMG_3595He preferred painting in the pudding part of the cake rather than actually eating any of it.IMG_3613

I broke the cake into smaller pieces to encourage eating that.  But he still preferred the ice cream.  He finally got to the cake only once he’d finished off the ice cream.

IMG_3629And here he shows off one of his favorite activities – clearing out the cupboards.  This is his second favorite cupboard – his favorite one is full of small containers for the kids’ lunches.  He loves scattering those everywhere.  But for now he was happy with the bowls.

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And finally, his presents.  His favorite by far is the activity table from Grandma and Grandpa.  :)  He enjoys the other presents (a peek-a-boo book and wonderfully soft hand-made blanket) but he keeps going back to the activity table.  I think he loves using his new standing skills while playing.  :)

IMG_3635 IMG_3639 IMG_3642Such a sweet boy!  We are so glad to have him in our family.  :)

2 Responses to “Aaron is a year old!”

  1. Seeing those big eyes gets me every time! Thanks so much. Love, Gramma

  2. Your blog is awesome. It makes my eyes leak. I miss you all so much!

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