525,600 minutes of Judah

525,600 minutes...how do you measure, measure a year?

Our little Judah Mitchell (so longed-after, so prayed-for, such a gift) is one. How did this happen? How are we already here? How has life sped up so quickly that in the blink of an eye our once hope-dream is now a little boy?

And what an amazing little guy he is. Last week we had his 1 year well-baby visit. Judah is just at 21 lbs, he is almost 31" tall and he is in great health! He is talking more and walking and he laughs all the time (Pic. below is Judah and Daddy at his 1 year doctor visit)

He was taking steps last month but really starting rolling the week before his birthday. He's got the cutest little wobbly walk. He still chooses to crawl sometimes because it's faster and when he's tired his balance goes to crap.

He's picking up words quickly all of a sudden (he now has 7 words that we understand) and he also tries to imitate our phrases/emphasis. He babbles constantly (seriously...it's constant) and we are looking forward to when we can understand what he's trying to communicate. There are times when he will look us in the eye and say something and wait for a response. The other night he sat up from nursing, looked me full in the face and said "Momma, awoosh." Very matter-of-fact, and I had no idea what he meant. Poor little guy.

Something we discovered on his birthday is that he loves cards. We think he thinks they're little books, he keeps them all with his toys and will bring them to us to read. He'll spend time opening and closing them and looking at the pictures. He is learning how to draw/color...he's also learning that those bright things (crayons) aren't for eating...well he's not got that down yet.

Not everything is cute however, with a baby. For example, every night before bed our routine includes naked time in his room (he's naked not us). He loves the freedom and hides behind the rocking chair when it's time for a diaper. For us this is a daily game of roulette. A few times he's peed on a book or the carpet...no problem, pretty easy to clean. Well the other night he went over to the closet during naked time (he's back and forth between us and playing while we're reading to him so we didn't really think much of this). When he left the closet we saw that he had deposited a tidy little pile in there. The good news is that while his room is carpeted, the closet has wooden floors. So at least it didn't happen on the carpet! I guess this is the risk we take with naked time.

Well, what else can I say? He's an amazing little guy and we love watching him go through these stages of life. We have a one year old!

525,600 minutes...how do you measure, measure a year? Measure in love.