One Year Check Up

Woo! We made it! We returned to the peds for Julian's check up and for some blood work. We are still waiting for the results but I had them do an allergy panel for him since he had a reaction to both eggs and strawberries and I'd rather know before I give him anymore. Anyways, without further ado, here are his current stats:

• Height- 30 3/8 inches. 75% percentile. Look, folks. Of course he's going to look really tall when I'm holding him. When Thad holds him he looks like an actual baby.
  
• Weight- 23 lbs 11 oz 70% percentile. He's slowed down quite a bit despite eating everything in sight these days.
  
• Head Circumference- 18 1/8 inches. 50% percentile. Put him next to daddy and they have the exact same head shape. It's crazy.

No, he's not walking yet. He'll walk if I hold his hands although the past couple of days he has refused to do even that. He likes pushing his toys or walker across the floor, but when it comes to actually trying to WALK, heck no, he'd rather crawl. When I was at a friend's house a couple weeks ago for a play date, he did take 2 steps and I about fell over. He raised his hands up in the air and was so proud of himself! Thad's mom comes back from New Zealand in exactly two weeks and I was hoping he'd be walking by then so he could walk to her at the airport but I don't think that's going to happen. Only time will tell, right? I keep telling myself that he's a big boy and his legs have to be quite strong to hold him up...but I don't think that argument really holds any water.

In true Filipino fashion, this kid likes to EAT. Favorites? Grapes and cheese. He loves them so much that we have taken to referring to them as "G" or "C" if he is around so as not to make him too excited. He loves noodles, bread, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese....so basically anything starchy and heavy. That's my boy! He does love his sweet potatoes, carrots, and pineapple, though, and he loves salmon. The more flavorful the food, the better!! He loved some curried cabbage I was eating as well as some gyro meat. Go figure.

He is also a talking machine! Endless baby babble interspersed with actual words makes for very entertaining days. Following words/phrases spoken by Julian:
-Mama
-Dada
-Dog/Doggy
-Cat/kitty
-Touch it (says this when he points to things he wants to touch, like the leaves on trees, or possibly our glasses)
-Glasses
-Brian (as in 'Uncle Brian')
-fountain
-cheese
-more
-shirt
-what is it?
-what's this?
-sun
-turtle
-horsey
-birdie
-some
-danger
-dirty
-truck
-train
Now, I can't guarantee that you'd understand him when he says these words, but we sure do and it's just great. Amazingly, he does not know how to say "no." Included in this list are words that he may have only said once or twice but quite clearly.

Part of our night time routine since he was about 5 months old is the viewing of a "Signing Time" DVD. It has been WONDERFUL. He currently signs "More," "Milk," "Dog," "All Done," "Hat," and has done "Fish" but not consistently like the others. He definitely recognizes more signs than he can do which has been very helpful in asking him what he needs/wants.

He also is a tidy boy. He loves to brush his hair, brush his teeth, and put toys away. Oh, and shut doors. And open doors. And drawers.

He continues to awe us everyday and we are just so excited for the next steps in his development between having clearer words and walking. We're so lucky!