I can’t believe my baby is a year old! We had a big day, and here
are photos documenting all the events, from breakfast to bedtime.

Birthday chair.

Yummy breakfast.

Duplos from Uncle Josh.

Sweet ride.

More toys.

First time forward facing!

Closed carousel.

Playground bubble.

Birthday feast (cheese, banana, green beans).

Happy family.

Bath prep.

Bath time.

Jammies.

It was a nice Thanksgiving at The Gleeson House and Falco’s first! I
started cooking about 7 a.m. while Matt took Falco to the playground
to keep him out of the kitchen. The new kitchen served me well and
was such a pleasure to cook and hang out in. Our friends Michael,
Lynne, James and Ruby came over for an early afternoon feast. Falco
didn’t like much besides the turkey, mac and cheese, and Lynne’s
sweet potatoes, but it was very fun to make him his own Thanksgiving
plate with lots of different foods to try. He was a good boy at the
table and had a nice time despite the fact that he has been
struggling with teething lately. After eating we broke out the
Guitar Hero (I) for some fun and embarrassment for all. Good times!

The cook.

GBD.

Ruby looking thrilled about her Thanksgiving Kraft single feast.

Falco ready for some turkey.

The guests.

I realize that I have a tiny audience here, but I still want to mention this to get the word out as much as I can. I just read that there are US Soldiers accepting toys and winter clothes (new or used) for children in Iraq. If you are interested in sending anything over, you can read more about it here:

http://www.rookiemoms.com/send-your-used-stuffed-animals-to-iraq/
http://www.parenthacks.com/2006/09/spread_the_word.html

How am I supposed to baby proof to prevent this?

After another day of wanting all these pets to permanently get out of my sight and feeling like a horrible, hateful person for it, I decided to peruse the Internet to see if anyone else has experienced the phenomenon of having a baby leading to hating their pets. I found this great essay letting me know that I am not alone.

Edited to add: Yikes. Perhaps I shouldn’t admit my less-than-loving feelings toward my pets in public. Look at the comments about this article.

I just watched a video clip of someone’s baby’s first year footage, and I started crying. This is a person and baby whom I have never met, and it wasn’t brings-a-tear-to-my-eye crying but more like near sobbing. I think it’s partly because I am very sentimental about Falco’s birth and first days, and I get very sad when I think about how poorly we documented that time. Seeing the video of that woman holding her newborn immediately after delivery makes me wish so badly that we had recorded that with Falco. I can never get that experience back, and I feel like we have so few pictures and videos, especially of the three of us together. We were so caught up in the excitement and chaos that we just weren’t thinking about photo ops.

Also, I just can’t believe how fast the past year has gone. At the same time, it seems like forever ago that Falco was a helpless little newborn. I can hardly remember what he was like then, and when I look back at his old photos it’s hard to believe that it’s him. Take this one for example:

Is that really my child? Now he’s about to be a toddler and soon after that he will be walking and talking and dating and moving out and not calling anymore. It’s enough to make anyone cry!

Allow me to share this excerpt from an email I got about my baby’s twelfth month:

“Your baby’s vocabulary will have a growth spurt. You’ll notice that she responds to questions and commands. Ask, “Where’s your nose?” and she’ll point to her face. Say, “Get your shoes,” and she’ll toddle over to her booties.

It’s normal for your baby to know from three to 100 words. Most 12-month-olds recognize between 20 and 50. Kiss, dog, car, bottle, come, and sleep are examples of common words. Asking your baby to sleep might not get much response. But asking your baby for a kiss is usually a win-win proposition.”

Ask him where his shoes are and he’ll toddle to his booties!? Is this for real? Either I am a horrible parent or my kid is slow or something. That would mean that he not only understood what I was saying but was also capable of following instructions. After reading this, I thought maybe I just wasn’t giving Falco enough credit. I asked him for a kiss (supposedly a win-win proposition…) and couldn’t even get his attention enough to look at me. I asked where his nose or feet or hair were, and he either ignored me completely or just looked at me with a blank face like I was speaking gibberish. I do know that he understands some words like mommy, daddy, water, milk, light, etc. He just doesn’t really do (or not do) much on request. This email would have been more fitting if it said something like:

At eleven months, your baby loves to wreck everything he can reach, and if you tell him “no” he wants to do whatever it is all the more. He is especially drawn to unrolling toilet paper, climbing in the dishwasher, putting fingerprints on the TV screen, and putting shoes and dog toys into his mouth. He manages to be unbelievably cute through it all.

Now THAT sounds like Falco.