Paul's accomplishments - month 12

Paul is becoming quite the little clown. He loves making us laugh!

Some new things he's doing:

• Pointing out trucks (and any loud objects outside) while saying "guck!" 
• Folding his arms for prayer
• Pointing to things and enthusiastically saying "ooOOOoo! Wook!" (Look)
• Feeding himself with a spoon
• Mixing imaginary food with a spoon or a stick and "feeding" anyone nearby while rubbing his tummy and saying "yum yum yum"
• Shaking his head "no" when he's about to do something he shouldn't 
• He walks when we ask him to. It's till just a trick in his mind, not a mode of transportation.
• Pointing to dogs and "woofing". His "woofs" are quite impressive.
• Pointing to pictures of Jesus and saying "Deeeek"
• Pointing to clocks and saying "di dock di dock di dock"
• Pulling his books of the shelf and saying "gook"

... So basically, anything that requires pointing and making the "K" sound he's an expert at. He still says mama, dada, num num, dog, and he learned "go! go!" from his cousin James who came to visit. Blair and I think he's one smart cookie! :)

At the water park.

Here he is demonstrating the proper position for an Italian pas de chat. He must be the son of a dancer. ;)



He's putting the keys in his truck. He's determined to stick the key in that little hole just like he saw daddy do.



He can feed himself with a spoon! We're still working on aim. :)

Paul's growth (1 year)

Babies get bigger.

In one year, Paul went from this...


...to this.


I love this little guy so much!

First steps!

Paul always times things perfectly. He was born on his due date, he lost his umbilical cord exactly a week later, he got his first teeth on the day he turned 6 months and he's been following the exact averages on the development charts all along the way. 

Keeping with the trend, he chose to surprise us with his first steps on his first birthday! He also seems to choose the times when we're with a lot of family; we happened to be at my parents' house when this happened. He's such a good baby. :)

Even though we celebrated his birthday on Saturday, his real birthday was on Sunday (July 1st). He was waiting for the real thing. ;)

Paul's first birthday

I had invited Blair's and my family for an outdoor birthday party on Saturday because, hey, Paul's birthday's in the Summer! But alas, Oregon's true colors did manifest themselves with, surprise surprise, rain rain rain.

Undeterred, we had a blast squeezing everyone into our little apartment to celebrate.

I thought for sure Paul, being the champion eater that he is, would love shoveling fistfuls of birthday cake into his mouth, but he surprised us.

He sat there, smiling, for about 3-5 minutes before finally taking a bite. Once he tasted it, he got busy!



Paul needed a bit of help opening his presents, but it didn't take him long to realize that this was all about him! He was eating up the attention more than the cake.







His cousins loved helping him play with his new toys!



It was a lot of fun having everyone over to help us celebrate Paul's golden birthday! Paul had a great time too, which is awesome! (It's kind of hit and miss with babies.) I think he'll be even more excited for next year's birthday. :)