ONE year!

How is it possible that I have a 1 year old? This past year went so quickly that it scares me to think how fast before my Brady is all grown up. I guess time really does move a lot faster as you get older.

I feel so blessed that I get to be his mother and I get to spend my days playing, teaching, and watching him learn. There have been some challenging times when I thought that maybe I wasn't cut out for motherhood, but there have been so many more rewarding times when I realize that I am SO lucky to be a mother, especially to such a darling boy. He really has filled my life with joy!

This past month has brought a lot of change for him. We've been in Omaha for just under a month and as soon as we got here he started doing all sorts of new things, including:

• He cut his second tooth just after we got here and his third and fourth (the top two) are ALMOST here.
• He started clapping.
• He'll hold on to our hands and walk now, and if we go really fast, he runs his little feet to keep up...and giggles the whole time. He LOVES to walk/run through the house, so we do laps in the living room. It's exhausting running him back and forth! When he can figure out how to walk on his own, he is going to be moving NON-STOP!
• If he has his balance right, he can stand alone for quite a while. He doesn't love doing it, and often won't even try before just sitting down, but he'll do it occasionally and it's so cute!
• Throws his food. This one is driving me CRAZY. I'm not quite sure how to handle it. I firmly say "no!" but he keeps doing it. Not sure if I end meal time (like some pros suggest) or just give him food that I know he'll like enough to eat instead of throw. Ending meal time seems bad because he needs the food and the calories, but giving him food he likes better feels like rewarding the food throwing. FRUSTRATING!
• Babbles a lot more. Yesterday he was flipping through a new book my mom bought him for his birthday and he was talking and talking...as if he were reading it. It was the cutest thing.
• Sticks his tongue in and out really fast to make kind of a "ldldldldldldld" sound. He does this all day long. 

• Climbs up and down the stairs. He's been going up for a while, but instead of just blocking off the stairs or grabbing him every time he made his way up, I started following him up and then showing him how to climb down backwards. After about 1 day, he got it and now he can play on the stairs in our family room (5 steps gated at the top to keep him contained) without me sitting right next to him. I wouldn't trust his ability on a full set of stairs, but so far, he's doing great.
• Also just climbs on anything he can climb on. We have baskets of DVDs under the TV and he pulls them out and climbs up on them to try and touch the tv.
• He loves Elmo. I really pushed for Little Einsteins and Ryan has been pushing for the original Muppets, but he has seemed to favor Elmo above all other characters. We listen to 'Elmo's Song' on YouTube a lot. And even though he's not totally into it, we still listen to the theme for Little Einsteins and The Rainbow Connection from the Muppets a lot too. Gotta love YouTube!
• Loves to sit in shopping carts but he wants to face the other way, so no matter how tightly I strap him in, he always twists around so he's on his knees (or has his legs tangled up somehow) facing out. It's kind of frustrating sitting him back the right way over and over, so if I know I won't have the patience for it, I just strap him into the baby carrier and wear him while shopping. He doesn't mind it and he can't squirm into any dangerous positions that way :)

• Still a very picky eater!
• Weighs about 20lbs. A few weeks ago he was still at 17.5, which he had at been for months, so I decided to incorporate a little formula into his diet since he was kind of weaning himself from nursing. It took some getting used to, but he likes it and he's gained 2.5 pounds in just 3 weeks. He's just a little bit squishier and I love it!
• in one year, he's been on an airplane 5 times  (tomorrow will be his 6th time!) and he's been to 4 states (six if you count layovers). I think that's more flights and states than I had been on/to by the time I was 20.

Anyway, so that's Brady in his 12th month. This was a big one, not just because of the significance of it, or because of our out of state move...he just decided to start doing lots of new things. He's such a fun kid :)

To celebrate his day today, we opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Brisco, via Skype, so they could share in the experience. He also opened some gifts from us and Aunt Courtney. He got some great clothes to help keep him warm in this freezing place! Ryan and I gave him a Big Bird and Elmo puppet, which he seems to enjoy. We had quesadillas for dinner, accompanied by his favorite sweet potatoes and peas...and he even tried some steak that Ryan and I had put in our quesadillas. For dessert, I got some brownies from a bakery and we let him dig in. I wanted to make cupcakes, but since we're going out of town tomorrow, it seemed silly to make a whole batch only for them to sit for a week getting stale. He seemed to like the brownie though :)

We'll continue the birthday celebrating this week as we head to CA to visit with family and friends and have a combined 1st birthday party with his cousin Rhys on Saturday. We're going with a Dr. Seuss theme and I'm pretty excited about it. 

So, that's my little man...we sure do love him!!