The big "one"

For this month's picture, here he is with Trilby, his kangaroo (wearing the outfit Dex wore home from the hospital a year ago). And, as usual, Dex is gnawing at something -- a new gift that he needs to cover in saliva immediately.

He is now 20 pounds. That's four times his birth weight! We were at the doctor's yesterday for the weigh in and he got his one-year shots then, too. These ones were in the arms rather than the thighs and he felt the sting. Ouch!

He is definitely on the move now so baby gates have been installed. The cats are so confused by these additional barriers. Now they sit behind the other side of the gate waiting to be allowed up/down the stairs (Can't you guys jump?!!)

Other highlights for the month:
- self-weaned off the 3 am feeding and now sleeps through the night in his own bed in his own room
- eating a lot!
- now showing food favourites (loves bananas and would eat some every meal if I let him, sometimes rejects green veggies)
- more words, mostly food related: bananas, num-nums, hmmmmmm (for yummy, I think)
- signing for more food
- can point to the light
- if he notices that there is no music, he will look at the stereo and point me in that direction
- bounces to music
- can climb three steps
- has chewed off every corner of every book he owns
- understands the use of some things and can play pretend (see this story about the tissues)
- can follow simple directions like "kiss the bear," "give me that"
- now brushing his teeth with assistance from parental units

As far as new adventures:
- been to the dentist to get his chipped tooth looked at (just a minor one, said the dentist, and no cause for worry). Still a mystery as to how he chipped it.
- tasted his first bite of cake

As far as mortal fears/neuroses of mine, here's a partial list of things we managed to dodge so far:
- no cracked skull or major spills requiring stitches or x-rays
- no disfiguring scars
- no falls down the stairs
- no allergic reactions to new foods
- no choking on coins, toys or other small objects
- no cat food ingested (not under my watch anyway...)
- no visits from social services
Not a bad list of things he hasn't experienced at age one, I thought.