1 Year Old!

Daniel has officially turned 1! We can't believe a whole year has gone by already since we first met our precious boy face to face for the first time. On his birthday, we went & had pictures taken (I have attached some of them below). He got to open his big present from us & after dinner he got his first taste of cake & frosting (also attached below). It was so fun! We loved sharing the special day with him, even though he really had no idea what it was all about.
He has grown so much and in so many ways in that year. To sum it up, he:
- is walking
- loves to feed himself scrambled egg, banana, peas, Cheerios, fruit puffs, pretzel pieces, watermelon, apple pieces...the list goes on
- calls for "daddy" - he shrieks & then spits (we're working to get this on video)
- says mama (though sometimes not just for "mommy")
- can imitate "pee-yoo" (does this in a high pitch voice just like mommy)
- spits when we tell him something is "yucky" or "gross" - but sometimes still touches whatever it is anyways
- can sign "more", "eat", "cracker", & "all done"
- loves to shriek when he's happy
- loves to play "chase" with mommy & daddy - when we "catch" him, he cracks up laughing
- waves "hi" with either a closed fist or an open hand (he's working on putting them together)
- can knock on a door with a closed fist & call "uhhh?" if he's trying to find you & knows you're in a particular room that he can't get in
- is beginning to both kick and throw a ball
- loves to push around the laundry baskets
- loves to takes things out of boxes/baskets
- "helps" mommy with the laundry - he will follow me into the laundry room & stand between the washer & dryer while I move the wet clothes to get dried. Then he pushes the laundry basket full of clean, dry clothes into the living room.

Needless to say, he's constantly growing and changing in so many ways. He is truly a joy to us each day. He has recently started a nap transition, that is, he is beginning to take only 2 naps instead of 3. This has caused him to be quite tired, so he isn't sleeping as well as usual. We working with him to adjust his schedule, so hopefully it will be better soon.
Today, we went to an all church picnic. It was at least 90 degrees out with high humidity! Ugh! However, we hung out in the shade mostly, and managed to enjoy the time with friends. Daniel loved sitting on the picnic blanket playing with ice packs from the cooler. Then after a while, he ventured out (with mommy) to check out what everyone was doing. We didn't venture too far, but he still had a blast. While it was a lot of fun, I am hoping the next picnic will bring more enjoyable weather.
Now for the pictures :)

He was very anxious to touch the cupcake since he had seen me making the frosting earlier that day. He was ready to dig in, so he wasn't real thrilled that we wanted to get a picture.


Of course, once he dug in, he was very excited



After he had made great mess & gotten some good tastes of the frosting, he decided he was done. In fact, he hasn't been that interested in "sweets" since, which is fine with us.
Here are some of the pictures we got earlier that day.