12 Months

Happy Birthday Milo! The first year of having Milo as part of our family has been quite the ride. There has been a lot less sleep and a lot more laughing. There has been a lot more laundry and lot less fretting over the inconsequential. It's been pretty great.

Writing this post, it is really hard to update the last month's progress (which has been the point of this series) rather than compare the little person we have now to the strange almost bird-like newborn we brought home around this time last year. My mind keeps going back to last year at this time (where with me 60 pounds heavier, Chris and I had just left for the hospital) and how much has changed since then.

However, quite a few things have changed since just last month too. Milo's babbling is starting to sound more like words. He has the cadence of speech down now. He just needs to fit in recognizable words. Both my Dad and I have heard Milo say "Cat" and he does say "Dada" in relation to Chris, but otherwise I'm at a loss for what most of his conversation is about. Usually with lots of pointing and vocalising, he gets his point across - at least enough for more Rice Chex to land on his tray. He knows the meaning of a lot more words now, which means for the first time he can follow simple directions - hands on the head, fishie face, hug.

Milo continues to crawl on all fours now, having one day a month or two ago decided to leave the army crawl behind. Several people have told me how much they miss his one-armed army crawl, but I think his butt-wiggling crawl is pretty cute too. He is just now starting to stand on his own (without support) for very brief amounts of time. He can also squat (when holding on to something) to pick up a toy. I guess walking won't be far behind.

With the nicer weather here in the past week, we've been able to play outside which Milo thinks is the best thing since Cheerios for breakfast. He loves playing in the mulch and scooting around my parent's deck. Now, that the chill is back in the air, he looks out the windows longingly.

Today for Milo's birthday, I'll be trying to make vegan cupcakes, we'll head to the Zoo and Milo will have lots of hugs and kisses. Last night before bed we told him today would be a day to celebrate him - the way he laughs, the way he points, how he gives hugs and most of all how happy we to have the little guy in our life.