Our Little Guy: Twelve Months Old (ONE YEAR!)

November 13, 2011 - the day our world changed forever!

Happy birthday, little man!

What has Cruz been up to?

• Big News: Cruz is a CRAZY man these days! He is crawling everywhere (and quickly!), pulling himself up on everything, walking behind his push toys, getting into anything he shouldn't and jabbering away. In addition, to "da-da" and "ma-ma," he now waves bye-bye, leans in for a kiss when you ask, gives hugs and says "moo" when we ask him what a cow says (and every other animal). This month we celebrated his friend Rocky's baby shower and his first Halloween! I also took him on his first flight/major trip to Houston...and he was a rock star! Last, but definitely not least, little man has FOUR teeth!

First flight!

Our little nerd. Not the old guy from the movie, UP

• Eating:  little man has been eating well...REALLY well.  He has taken to table foods like a champ and is lately loving grapes, cheeses, buttered toast, Italian food (go figure) and mashed potatoes. He still takes formula in a bottle, but less often than normal. Hopefully he gets to move to regular milk soon. 

Not quite what we meant by eating

• Sleeping:  this continues to be an area that hasn't changed much. Since early on he has slept through the night, which has been amazing for his mama and daddy. BUT it's the "getting him down" part that has been the hassle. Since he's not been interested in his before-bed bottle these days, it's hard figuring out how to get him to calm down and stay put long enough to fall asleep. It got to the point a couple times that we had to bundle him up and take him for a ride...the carseat always seems to work. He generally goes down at 9pm, but we are working to move our nightly tasks up an hour so we can get him down earlier. When he finally does settle down, I love how he "talks" himself to sleep, sleepily repeating "da-da" and "ma-ma." 

• Developments:  Cruz is weighing in at 23lbs 14oz (64%), height is 31 1/2in (91%) and head is 18 1/2 in (66%)...I have to say I'm surprised at the percentile of his weight. This boy is a beast! He has four little chompers - two on the bottom and recently two on the top, with a cute little gap. He is starting to "talk" a lot more and hasn't stopped moving since figuring out how to pull himself up on EVERYTHING and walk around with the help of his push toys. He soaks up every little thing his dad and I do...most recently letting out a big "ahhh" after taking a long drink of water, his bottle, juice, you name it. We are working with him on learning to point out his body parts and making animal noises. Right now he knows how to point out "nose" on our faces, but when we ask him he points everywhere but his nose. It's pretty cute. Toward the end of the month we've been working on him putting up one finger when we ask how old he is.

• Features:  Cruz still really resembles his daddy, but I've seen a lot more Fuchser characteristics recently. His hair is wild and thick - thankfully he got this from his daddy. It's definitely getting time for a haircut, I just can't bear to have scissors anywhere near his face. He has the most amazing smile, which can quickly turn when he's throwing a fit. He has started fussing when he doesn't get his way, I'm afraid he may have gotten this from me. 

Happy FIRST year, Little Mango!!