Man, 1 year goes by FAST!

[N2Advnture]

Well, Brandon turned 1 year old Sat!

The whole year has been crazy with adjusting to a baby. Sold all the motorcycles, moved to a single family home from a town home, prepared for his arrival, etc...(ie stress)

Then there is the figuring out what the F to do with a baby. Figuring out how much to feed him. It turned out we weren't feeding him enough at first and we couldn't figure out why he was crying. All the baby books, friends and doctors were all wrong in how much to feed him, we just figured it out. The sleeping, or lack there of sleep plays a huge factor as well. (ie more stress).

I'm not even going to mention the sudden "communication" issue with the spouse that seemed to come out of no where (ie even more stress). :biggrin:

In any case, here I am 1 year later and can say that over the past 3 months things have started to get really fun. Don't get me wrong, the first 9 were cool (minus the stress - LOL!). Watching him change on a daily basis is fascinating.

Each day is a new adventure for him and you're there to help him figure stuff out, even if it's something as simple as opening a box or a cd player. Watching his eyes light up and smile when he figures something out is pretty awesome and happens all the time.

He's first words (bird, dadda, momma, bus (for "Buster") and ball - btw, anything round is "ball". An onion = "baaalllll", an apple = "baaalll", etc.

He sees and hears a plane fly over and he looks up to the sky with wide eyes and points - that's pretty cool.

When he gets excited about something his whole body tightens up and shakes and he lets an "eeewwww!" - it's a trip.

A few weeks ago he started taking his first steps, now he's taking 6-10 steps between pieces of furniture to get around the house (he's quick, so you can't take your eyes off of him for a second or he' playing in Buster dog bowls).

He seems to dig (and figure out) mechanical stuff pretty quickly. Locks, switches, doors, anything that latches or slides. I have a feeling that a lot of stuff is going to get broken in the near future - LOL!

He also seems to understand a lot of what you're saying even after only hearing it one time. If you say what an object is once and then ask him where that object is hours later, he'll turn and point to it. That's pretty neat as well.

Anyway, we're had his b-day party on Sat and planned on enjoying an RA Estupendo from the cab I picked up with an "OCT 07" date code as well as an 80s Part 898 that AllanB was generous enough to gift me this week (thanks again Allan!).

I don't feel like I talked to anyone with running around grilling, taking pics & video.

He started taking a few steps a few weeks ago (about the 11 mo mark) now he books around averaging about 10-20 steps.

Thanks for letting me share a little bit of what has started out to be the coolest milestone of my life.

~Mark

ps - notice the DWSC shirt that Bob & Dale sent (www.dogwatchsocialclub.com)!