Growing Daniel Week By Week

Easter

Hey look! It's some bubbles!

I wonder what's in this tree...

I've got my bag and I'm ready, mom...

Right here! Right here!

Labels: Daniel and Em Playing at the Field

Talking!

OK, so Haloween pics might take a bit longer...but I had to post this!

Daniel has started to TALK! He is saying "Mommy" "Daddy" "Cookie" "Bye" "Bless You" and, when the Simpsons are on, right before Homer says it, "D'oh!"

It's just so neat to see his personality develop, too. He is a very thoughtful, happy, and sweet boy.

Bedtime is also getting easier. It's 8:30 right now. Bedtime, no long crying fit, just gets his stuffed animal and goes to sleep. :) Hurray!

Of course, he's also quick as a cheetah and wiley as a fox, so I now need several eyes on him when he's awake and reflexes to match (or at least be only a little behind) his.

Daniel is One!

Last Sunday, Daniel had his very 1st birthday party. It's so neat, and I can hardly believe that a year has gone by already. He was very happy to have so many people paying attention to him, and he really liked the cake (see below) and all of the presents. We have some video of the whole event, and I am looking forward to showing him when he turns two.

It's weird: I can't wait for what's next with him, but I also find myself looking back and kind of missing the little baby days. He's definitely a boy now, even if he is small. He's even wearing his 1st shoes.

OK, I have to go before he grabs the computer.

-Dad

Thanks for the cupcake, Mom!

That was a really good cupcake!

Daniel and Kira have grown up so much!

Daniel's girlfriend Kira :-)

A starry-eyed Daniel.

Rub his belly for good luck.

"Teething is hard! More things to chew on, please."

Daniel scamping in the kitchen.

Almost a year old now....

Tomorrow Daniel turns 11mos. old and it's time for us to start planning his first birthday party! Matt and I have already agreed that he's going to have a big chocolate cupcake and we're definitely going to film the whole thing. I might even invite a couple of kids from daycare because I want there to be little friends for him to play with.
We're going to try to hold out until his first birthday to cut his hair, but as you can see from the pics, it's getting pretty long. His bangs almost fall into his eyes! And, speaking of his eyes, he caught pink eye at daycare a couple of days ago :-( He's fully recovered now, though, and back in business :-)
Daniel is becoming quite a scamp. He's a fast crawler and thinks it's a funny game to go into the kitchen or up the stairs whenever we take the gates down. In fact, under Matt's supervision the other day, he climbed up the entire flight of stairs to his nursery! Daniel can also climb onto the sofas and when he wants to get down, he just dives off head first. Usually we can catch him, but he's taken some falls - we mind it more than he does.
Like many others in his family, Daniel also seems to be quite musical. He likes to bounce in time with music (especially bluegrass) and babbles songs to us. It even seems that he can mimic tunes in ryhthm. We're encouraging him to play with a large, soft "keyboard" for babies, but mostly he chews on it. At least Matt likes to play with it ;-)
We're gradually starting to wean him and are still introducing him to solid foods, but he's quite picky. Daniel seems to be experimenting with standing on his own and taking a few steps - we just hope we'll have the camera ready when he gets the hang of it. I'm sure he'll be chasing the cat the first time he walks.
When he turns one, things will be getting really interesting for me because I'll also be going back to school. This time, I'll be armed with more babysitting resources, because I had to miss a lot of school last spring when Daniel got so many ear infections. We will have to see how my study time goes, though. He's already a handful and I can't imagine what it will be like when he's ambulatory!