Captain Adorable is ONE YEAR OLD!!!!

My little boy is ONE YEAR OLD today!! I remember how excited I was to be in labor with Captain Adorable and how ready I was to be done with my pregnancy! I have come to love my little mister SOOO much!! One of my favorite things that he does is when he reaches his arms out to me when I walk by him. And then I pick him up and he winds his little arm around my neck and squeezes me close. I LOVE it! He is such a sweet baby. He doesn't cry very much, so when he does he gets my attention pretty quickly. I mostly get this from him:

Captain Adorable is a smart little cookie. He loves to anticipate what you are doing. If you are picking up toys around him, he'll start to hand you toys. When he was in the bathtub he was throwing toys over the edge of the tub, but then I started putting them in the toy net. He decided that that was more fun, so he spent the next little while studiously putting all the toys into the toy net. All the while he was grunting and blowing air and sounding very boyish. He's a busy, busy boy. Captain Adorable likes to make noise. He clicks his tongue sometimes. And when he's really excited he'll let out a big yell/scream. It's startled me more than once. He does his snuffle face and I think he does it because it makes people laugh. Below: the Snuffle face

He's got a great overhand throw. He loves hunting down balls, tossing them and crawling after them. He loves to explore, ESPECIALLY outside. He is always getting into dirt and chewing on sticks.

Captain Adorable has enjoyed our daily outing to the park where he's had the freedom to crawl in the grass and get dirty. It's a good thing he's my third child because I wouldn't have let him get so dirty if he were my first! (I was using him as a test subject yesterday as I played around with the exposure of my camera) He's always grabbing on to everything, many times it is my glasses or my face.

Captain Adorable LOVES stuffed animals. He especially loves the big 5 foot bear in his room and he'll crawl over and hug it. There are a few soft stuffed animals that he really loves and he'll crawl over and bury his face in them like he does with his favorite blanket. Below: You can see the big bear in the background.

Captain Adorable is a quick crawler. He can also cruise along furniture. He can pull himself up to standing on almost anything and very occasionally he'll let go and try to balance. But he definitely prefers crawling. When sitting in one place he will sometimes use his feet to spin in place. His new favorite thing is to stand up in his crib and bounce.

He also has a fascination with toilet bowl brushes. Handsome Husband found him crawling down the hall with one in hand. I have caught him with his hand in the toilet bowl (and I think Sweetie was helping him because she was holding the seat open while telling him not to put his hand in there). Ballerina showed him the big coat/food storage closet under our stairs and he loves to crawl in there now. He also loves to play in the dishwasher or fridge (below he is sucking the clean water from the dishwasher door).

He still doesn't have any teeth. All my children have been late teethers.

He sometimes gets night terrors. It's a little disturbing since he doesn't normally cry much unless he's hurt. So he'll wake up screaming and crying harder than he ever does and I'll try to rock him and soothe him and it's almost like he's unaware that I'm there. He won't make eye contact and he'll fuss himself back to sleep and then start screaming a few minutes later. Poor little guy. I read that it can be caused by exhaustion and that I shouldn't try to calm him down. Below: I love those cheeks!

Captain Adorable is an independent little guy. Most of the time he's off exploring, crawling and discovering. He loves playing with Ballerina and annoying Sweetie. If he pulls up to the couch or chair that Sweetie is sitting in, Sweetie will protest and try to rock the chair so that he'll let go or she'll try to push his hands off. He loves to reach over and touch her because she always makes a stink about it. I think he likes getting a reaction out of her.

The girls got these rubberband pop-gun type toys with a ball attached to a string and Captain Adorable just laughed and laughed whenever they shot the ball up. It's so cute to hear him laughing at something that the girls are doing.

He squeals if he is hungry and he sees you making his bottle. It's more of a demand for the food now. Last night as I was holding his bottle out to him I think he was trying to sign "more." I hope that he starts signing soon. He loves watching his Baby Signing Time DVD (good thing since he's getting more today for his birthday!).

Below: Cpt. A crawling towards the swings. He likes when I swing with him.

I love my little mister baby. He's the cutest little boy I've ever seen. :) I love to squish him and hold him. Sometimes I just rock him while he drinks his bottle, even though he'd be perfectly happy to drink his bottle in his crib or on the floor. Most of the time he likes to be off, doing his own thing, but there are those times when all he wants is to be held by his Mommy. And I'm just fine with that.

Happy Birthday Captain Adorable!