ONE!

As hard as it is to believe, a whole year has passed by and our baby is turning 1! Amazing how much growth and development occurs in the first year of life! What a joy and a blessing to have this little bubble of energy in our lives! Matthew is going to be our more challenging child to parent so it seems and will be sure to keep us on our toes without a doubt.
At one year old Matthew . . .

~is crawling at mach speed! He currently doesn't have much interest in walking on his own, but who would when you can crawl so darn fast!

~has 2 bottom teeth that are visible.

~is sleeping 11 1/2 - 12 1/2 hours a night.

~is taking one nap in the afternoon and working through giving up his morning nap.

~is climbing anything and everything he can - for the last few weeks he has been showing off his monkey-like climbing skills by climbing the ladder on the play set in our backyard. Thus his nickname of "monkey" has been well used lately.

~still has his pacifier at nap and night time along with his beloved blankie.

~gives wet, slobbery kisses upon request.

~is waving "hi" and "bye" to anyone who will pay attention to him.

~is a social little guy who loves to watch other kids and be a part of the action. When at restaurants you can forget him eating as he is much more interested in watching the people around him.

~eats all table food and enjoys feeding himself, no matter how messy it is - surprisingly the clean-freak in me is allowing the mess-making.

~seems to like to be glued to mommy's hip, lap or leg and whenever he is pried off puts an impressive dramatic show involving a few tears.

~smiles and laughs whenever he is disciplined - for example when we tell him no as he throws food off his tray he just smiles as if that will make us change our minds and allow him to be naughty.

~LOVES to be outside! Now if he could figure out how to walk he would enjoy it so much more and we wouldn't have to buy new pants!

~LOVES water whether it's splashing in the bathtub, the sink or the kiddie pool.

~isn't shy when it comes to sharing his feelings.

~says, mumma (for mommy) and da dee (for daddy) but has no other words yet. He points a lot and gets his requests and points across with facial expressions and lots of noise.

We pray daily for our precious little gift! We love and cherish this little man and can't wait to see what God has in store for him!