12 Months

Leo is 12 months and 2 weeks today!!
A one year old!
What?!

He is such a lively, rambunctious child... haha, that's a mom's sweet way of saying my kid is WILD.
From sun up to sun down he's on the go and into everything, exploring and climbing.
He is so much fun though.

He turned 12 months while my sister Molly was here visiting and we had a party for him with a lot of our friends.  I'll do a post about the party.
For real.  The second this one is done (and as long as Leo is still napping....).

I was reading back over Leo's 11month post and right after he turned 11 months old he said Mama!! January 29th.  I wrote it down.  Sorry Lee... no idea the date of when he said Dada.
For a couple weeks he said it all the time and has regressed to not saying it again. Grrrr mean kid!
He is babbling and they say boys talk later than girls... but come on Leo!  Talk to your mom!
His favorite thing to "say" is this weird lubalubaluba sound he makes while sticking his tongue out. He and Lee do it to each other but I can't make the noise properly... so it's "their thing" haha.
He's also getting some sign language now!  He can sign milk and he tries to do more and all done.  The milk is the cutest thing of all time.

We're practicing body parts and he touches his ears, nose, and eyes!  It's so sweet! He also figured out his finger can go up his nose right before his party and I have several pictures of my sweet baby with a finger shoved up his nose. awesome.

He is following commands really well these days.  I can tell him to go get his Elmo and push his foot to make him sing and he can do it.  It's so amazing watching him figure things out.

I think this has been in the past couple days, so technically on his 13 month post... but he now knows how to sit down on his little bike or train and make it move while sitting down!  It might not sound like much but after weeks of watching him climb on and then push the handles and have the bike slide out from under him makes it a big deal! haha!  He "walks" it with his knees bent.  So cute.

His cousin Rynnlee (17 months old) was here for a few days and it was really fun to watch them play.  Leo would put his hand on her back, sort of gently, and guide her around to where he wanted her to go.  It was so funny.  He was like come on Rynnlee we're going to go play with the trucks now.

He still loves music, drumming on everything, playing his ukulele, piano, and whatever else he finds.
He loves trying to get into the fridge.  When the door opens he darts for it and always goes for my vitamins and salad dressings in the door.
Actually, weirdly, his favorite thing in the entire kitchen to play with these days are these packs of instant oatmeal that someone left here when they were visiting (because ugh gross instant oatmeal...) and he gets them out of the box and scatters them around the kitchen, tossing and kicking them.  And I'm not sure how I know this............. but he thinks its hilarious if you throw them at him.

Let's see what else....
Basically he can do anything physically.  He can climb (even on top of and stand on the toilet while I'm putting on make up as I found out the other day), he can go down the slide at the park now - as long as there are two people  with him, one to send him and one to catch haha, he can run, even though he sometimes gets ahead of himself and trips, he can dunk ANYTHING in his basketball hoop, he is crazy strong - like as strong as me I think, he is a big kid and can play at the splash pad, and he can easily get off the couch and bed now!

He knows how to open doors and thankfully at our house the door knobs are just about an inch too high for him.  He also knows that keys go in the door and tries to unlock everything when he gets his hands on the keys.  It's precious.
He figured out his car track tower and can put the cars on the top and watch them go... sometimes he sticks them wheels down and they actually make it to the bottom. haha.

He's eating well.  Still loves yogurt, guacamole, grapes, oranges, and hummus the best.  He likes macaroni and cheese a lot, but I'm really trying not to have that be like my go to food because let's be honest it's not that healthy.  When I make it at home I just do noodles, sprinkle some cheese, and then sneak in some black beans and peas or something with each bite.
I'm finding that restaurants do not have healthy kids options at all...  it's like grilled cheese or mac and cheese, oh or a cheese quesadilla. lol.  And unfortunately I tend to like weird or spicy things when we go out so it's hard to share with him!  I have to decide what to order based on what I can share with Leo... dude's cramping my style. haha. jk. I love you Leo and will let you eat whatever you want off my plate. promise.
It's also really hard to have like snacks constantly in my bag and not buy crap.  Like Leo loves peanut butter crackers and it's super convenient to just buy the premade packs, but those are actually like full of crap.  It's annoying.  But whatever.
We eat a lot of grapes, avocados, strawberries, peanut butter, cheese, beans, pasta, potatoes, chicken, yogurt, sweet potatoes, peas, broccoli, and apples around here.

And with all that eating my baby is up to 26.5 lbs and just a little over 32 inches.
Off the growth chart for both height and weight now!!
His 12 month appointment went great and the doctor said he's as perfect as we think he is.  Well that's sort of what she said.
We switched doctors since his 9 month appointment and I'm SO happy we did!  It was much, much better.  And it's in Lee's office so we were able to have him come join us for part of the appointment and visit him at work looking all handsome in his white coat... like maybe a little too handsome, but anyway.

I'm still nursing Leo.  I've tried giving him milk (cow and almond) and he hates it.  He dislikes the almond milk a little less than the cows milk but he doesn't prefer either... so we'll keep trying.
My doctor recommended pumping and doing like half regular and half breastmilk but I haven't pumped in months and months and seriously nothing comes out.  So.... scratch that plan.
Any other tips?  I've tried all temperatures.
I'm not set on weaning him soon, but it would be nice to have the option, you know?

Alright so here's some pictures of this sweet boy!!

and a special little Valentine's Day photo shoot

And his 1st Birthday Photo Shoot