Ant diary: Twelve months

Growth check: Weighed Ant twice today and got the same result - 20lb 10oz, exactly what he was last month. He hasn't been eating quite as well, and I also realized that I may be feeding him more of a low fat diet than I should (I tend to eat low fat things, so that's what I'm feeding him. Need to start putting butter on his waffles, things like that). Also measured his length at 30.75 inches. Still around 30% for weight and 90% for height.

Talking: Just a day or two after his 11 month birthday, Ant said Mama for real, for sure. His next word was "clock" (or as he would say it, 'caw' or sometimes 'cawc'). He loved playing with the digital clock that was on our headboard; one afternoon we were playing with it and it seemed to me that he was saying 'caw' 'caw' too often for it to just be coincidence. So I asked him to say clock, and he repeated it! When he did it again when Mark got home, I knew it was for real. Since then, he's added an astonishing number of words - he definitely says boom (when he drops something or falls over), clock, car, closed, cold, dada, dog, eight, hat, hot, light, mama, nana, night-night, poop, and up. Words that we think he might say, or that grandparents have suggested as possibilities but that we haven't confirmed yet include balloon, circle, duck, diaper, hi, letter, papa, prunes, red and truck. Finally, just today he started saying high chair!!! I am amazed. He doesn't quite get it right, he says "highch", but he said it a bunch of times through the day and again when I got home, and when we asked him where his highchair was, he walked right over to it, and said "highch" a few more times!!

Movement: Lots and lots of walking. Everywhere. Inside, outside, bare feet, shoes... the only time Ant crawls these days is when he sits down in the middle of the floor and doesn't have anything to pull himself up on to get back to standing. He also started climbing the stairs this month, going all the way up about ten times the day he really figured out he could do it. We therefore now have the gate at the bottom of the stairs in addition to the top.

Mental: Talk about communication. Ant is so pleased with himself when he learns a new word. He'll use it over and over again for a little while, until it becomes part of his lexicon. He also says it over and over when he's excited - like when he was playing with the clock (not so much fun anymore), or inside a car. Or when he sees a bunch of cars, like in a parking lot. He also figured out how to stack things and put blocks together. With the walker from Kate's family, he also knows to back up when he runs it into something. Much more squawking when we denied him something he wanted.

Toys and games: The favorite things to do this month were carrying toys or other items around while walking in circles around the first floor, and getting into cars and pushing all the buttons and levers. This included desperately wanting to get into all the neighbor's cars!

Teeth: We've now gone longer with no new teeth than we had since he was born. Four months and counting, still no real indication of those molars.

Feeding: Ant is fully weaned as of last Thursday (the last time I nursed him). He had the last of the frozen breastmilk for his bedtime bottle tonight. So I'm counting that as having nursed him for a year. Yay me :-) We haven't added much in the way of new foods over the past month, except lots of the jarred fruit halves or quarters. Peaches, pears, mango and pineapple. All big hits. We're still on the pureed veggies as he doesn't seem to eat much of the real thing. Although he had a decent amount of green beans I flavored with Newman's dressing.

Sleeping: Same as last month - bedtime around 7:15-7:30, am wakeup at 5:45-6, two naps of either 40 min or 1h20min at 9:30 and 2:30.