Blake's 12th month

Blake is one!
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

To Blake:

It's hard to believe that it was just twelve months ago that you entered the world. To us, it seems like you have always been a part of our family.

The last month has been a whirlwind for all of us. The bulk of the month was taken up with Christmas and all the fixing's. We managed to keep you from toppling the Christmas tree this year, although you liked to sneak past the giant rubbermaid container we kept in the living room to block it off. You started getting smarter after a few tries and would crawl around to the back of the tree to play with the ornaments. This gave you a precious few more seconds before I could move the plastic container and reach around to drag you out, which you thought was hilarious.

For you, Christmas itself was very much about the boxes and the paper. You loved the toys, of course, but ripping through the piles of paper and boxes left over in the living room was much more fun.

You have become decidedly more mobile in the last weeks and have now turned your skills to opening and closing the doors in the kitchen. The lock is on the doors under the sink, but everything else is fair game right now as we can't get the locks to fit. So, as we have an open concept floor plan, this means that I'm constantly listening for the tell-tale banging of doors. Once you figure out that you can get away with this if you're quiet, I'm not sure what we'll do.

Your other big fun lately has been pulling your sister's hair. Faith used to be fairly patient about the hairpulling, but now she just gets ticked off. Until today, I thought you were just pulling it accidentally, but this afternoon you cruised right over to her and yanked on her hair. Just to see what she would do. Oh goody.

She does like helping to teach you to walk though. Faith and I spend time each day letting you try to walk back and forth between us. The first time you actually took a step was on January 7th and I'm not sure who was more surprised, Faith or I. You just thought it was funny. Now, you're up to about four steps, but they are pretty wobbly still. When you're crawling around, however, you never just stop. You have to fall back on one knee with the other foot on the ground. It looks like you're about to stand up or race away. To me, this means you're getting ready to just jump up one day and start walking on your own.

The biggest change this month in our lives has been my return to work on January 7th. I'm off in the mornings by 6:30 so Daddy gets to experience the craziness that is the morning routine. You guys drop Faith off at school and our sitter, Karen, picks you up at the school as well. So far, you've sailed into the new routine with no problems, other than scaring Karen with the copious amounts of food you eat during one meal. When we get home at 3:00, you practically jump out of my arms to crawl into the living room and make sure everything is still the same. Then you usually crawl back over to me so I'll pick you up and give you some lovin'.

Our first year has flown by. I can't wait to see what the next one brings.

Love,
Mommy