Macario is 1 Year Old!

Dear Son,

As with all other updates, I am beyond belief as I sit here and write this one. I can't begin to explain to you how wild it is for me to say, "you are 1 year old". It's almost beyond comprehension. This year has completely flown by.

Opening presents from Mommy and Daddy on your birthday!

I'm happy to say that I have savored every last minute of your life thus far -- never in a rush to usher you through the next phase. You have changed so much in this first year and I am so proud of you for accomplishing so much in 12 short months.

Birth to 12 Months!

There really is no slowing you down now. You're growing like a weed and moving as fast as a race car! You're such a busy body and it's almost impossible to get you to stop for any reason -- even to eat! At your most recent well check I discovered you were up to 31.5 inches in height (92nd percentile), but only 21 lbs 5 oz (26th percentile).

Pushing your rocking chair all around the house!

I expected your weight gain to be minimal because you are so active and because it is so hard to get you to stop for a bite to eat, but I wasn't expecting less than 1 lb of weight gain! It's ok though, Dr. C says that it's normal at this transitional period for your weight gain to dip a bit (in your case a lot). He also said that you would likely find your balance and that hopefully by next check (at 18 months) your weight will have picked back up.

You're off of formula now and are coming off of the bottle as well. We are giving you only organic full fat vitamin D milk. So far you are having about 18 ounces of milk each day in three servings: 6 oz in the morning, 4 oz in the afternoon and 8 oz after dinner. Dr. C says he'd like to see you having at least 10 ounces a day, but no more than 24, so I think we've found a good medium ground there.

Bedtime has been switched up a bit for you. Though I have loved feeding and rocking you to sleep every night, I have had to move the last feeding up so that your bedtime sequence is as follows: feeding, bath, brush teeth, stories/songs/snuggles, crib. I know this is best for you at this age, but it makes me sad that I don't get to feed you and rock you to sleep anymore. I have loved holding you for a little while after you drifted off, but you don't let me brush your teeth after you're asleep, so I had to change the order of events.

Speaking of teeth, your still working on that top right tooth. The lack of teeth is I think part of the reason I'm having trouble getting you to eat. Over the last few months I have not been feeding you a lot of "baby food" but rather I've been serving you a lot of table foods. The table foods are fine, but you seem to take in less food that way than you do when I feed you baby foods, so I might have to go back to the baby foods until you get more teeth.

Your sleep is going great. You still have your regular bedtime, and it's been an adjustment getting you to bed without the bottle, but once you're asleep you are pretty good about staying that way. No more dream feeds, however you do sometimes wake up for a snuggle at the time you would otherwise be having your last feeding. I have not tried to discourage you from doing that because I do still love to cuddle you, but I know I will have to start trying to break that habit as well. We'll work on that in time. I don't want to made the transition hard for you.

As you have gotten older your personality has developed further and gotten more fun by the day. I just love watching you interact with others and watching you play with your toys. Recently you've grown very attached to one of your stuffed animals (the bear we made together at build a bear). You love on him and kiss his nose and take him to bed with you. It's really adorable.

Pretty much everything you do is adorable in my eyes, but I know it's not just me being biased because every one agrees that you are so cute!

You've been a huge blessing in my life -- the greatest blessing actually. I am so happy that you've grown into a healthy and happy little guy and I am so honored that I get to hold your hand every step of the way.

Happy birthday, son!

Love,

Mommy