Happy First Birthday, Jack!

One year ago, I had a one-week old baby boy.  We lived in in a rental house Stamford, CT.  Tommy worked for Freeman Co. and I reviewed SEC documents for Deloitte in our National Office.  Obviously, a lot has changed in year.  We moved to Frisco, TX and bought a house.  Tommy now works for Microsoft and, while I still work for Deloitte, I'm back to auditing again.  By far, the best change has been our amazing little boy.  Yes, he has brought many challenges to our lives - we've been sleep deprived, frustrated, and worried more often I can remember.  He's also brought more joy to our lives than I thought possible.  I love his chubby cheeks, his giant smile and his huge dark-brown eyes.  I can't help but smile when he giggles while I tickle his feet or toddles towards me, arms outstretched for a hug.  I love watching him learn and explore the world around him and I can't wait to see what the years hold for him.

So on November 16th, we celebrated Jack's first birthday.  I bought cupcakes to take to daycare, and made cupcakes to celebrate at home.  Yes, it was probably a lot of sugar for a little boy who has never really eaten sweets, but you're only one once, right?

Here's our smiley man, excited about is cupcake:

Having fun with his birthday cupcake:

If you think he had fun with the cupcake, just wait until you see him with his birthday party smash cake.  Stay tuned!

Jack had his one-year checkup with Dr. Le on Thursday.  He wasn't happy about his two shots, but he didn't cry for long.  The doctor says he's a perfectly healthly, happy little boy.  We are going to start transitioning him from formula to whole milk soon - wish us luck!  Here are his one year stats:

     Height: 30 inches (50th percentile)
     Weight: 21 pounds, 4 ounces (25th percentile)
     Head: 18.5 inches (65th percentile)

And a little bit about Jack at one year old:

• He's been walking since a few days before he turned 10 months old.  At a year, he is still a little unstable, but almost always walks (or runs) instead of crawls
• He is always babbling.  Mostly still just noises, but he knows a few words.  He says "Mama," "Dada," "Baba" (bottle), "Nana" (banana), "Mumum" (when he wants to eat), "ball", "dat" (pointing at something he wants to know about), "bubble," "uh-oh" (usually holding something in his hand and getting ready to drop it).  He understands "bye-bye" and will start waving as soon as anyone says the word.  He waves bye-bye to Daddy every morning as he leaves for school.
• He loves music.  Whenever there is music playing, he rocks back and forth to the rhythm, dancing to the music.  Just recently, he's starting spinning in a circle, too.
• He's a good eater, and will eat pretty much anything although his favorite appears to be any kind of pasta, especially with tomato sauce.  He also really likes bananas, yogurt, and squash.  He takes after his Mommy and will suck on a pickle or a lemon without even making a face.  Of course, he also has his cajun roots and seems to like spicy foods as well!  He has six teeth, four on the top and 2 on the bottom.
• He's a great sleeper and usually sleeps through the night from about 7:30pm to 6 or 6:30am.
• He loves to play with his puppies.  He will hold toys in his hands and play tug of war with Albert.  He also tries to give them hugs.  At this point, he is a little rough with them, so they spend most of their time running from him, but I think they will become great friends as he grows up. 

Finally, a couple more shots of our birthday boy in his birthday shirt: