One Year Old!

Wow, can't believe my little Dutchie is a year old.  I vividly remember what it was like driving him home from the hospital, feeling like he was super precious cargo and wishing we could hurry up and get home, away from all the crazy drivers.  We couldn't believe we were responsible for this tiny little helpless human, but we made a great team and took it one day at a time.  Here we were then:

 
And here we are now:

Our little guy has progressed so much over the past month.  His walking has gotten a lot better, and he switched to using it as the default, with crawling coming secondary.  He has learned to wave bye bye, point to mommy's nose, and sign for more food.  He is starting to process more complex ideas, like knowing to open someone else's hand when they're hiding something in it.  He's gaining a better understanding of how toys work, and oftentimes he just needs to be shown an action a couple times before he can repeat it.  He LOVES the remote control, our home phone, and pens.  If he sees a cabinet or a drawer, he has to open it.  He is pretty speedy going up the stairs, and knows how to properly go down them, and how to properly get down off your lap or the couch.  He says lots of things that sound like words, but we're still not convinced he knows when to use them correctly.

For his first birthday party, I didn't have a lot of free time to plan something big for friends and family, so I just had to keep it simple with close family.  Meezy and I made a bunch of cupcakes and cookies and then provided frosting, sprinkles, and candy for everyone to decorate their own dessert.

The other kids in attendance definitely loved the idea and Dutch did too!  Even though he was timid at first, and not sure he should be eating the cupcake, he eventually got the hang of it.

The activity we set up for the little ones was an inflatable swimming pool with 300 ball pit balls.  Dutch was hesitant at first, but he thought it was fun as the day went on.  It eventually ended up being mayhem, as seen below, but that just made it more fun!

We had a great time celebrating this special day, and we look forward to many, many more!  In keeping with previous posts, here are Dutch's 12 month pictures: