One

Max turned one year old this last Thursday, August 29th. He got his annual physical on the 29th and after four shots, got a clean bill of health--growing and developing well. He's moved on to drinking real milk instead of formula. I'm going to miss making his bottles, I don't know how Amy feels about this but I'll miss it. We've been making them for a year.

He had a great one year birthday party and received wonderful gifts. One of the funnier gifts was given to him by his great aunt Trini. It was a blue remote controled car. It's funny because he doesn't understand remote controled toys yet. All he knows is that this toy seems to chase him around the living room. He runs for cover while looking back to see where the car ended up. At one point, he seemed to attack the car while it was moving toward him, grabed it by the top and dumped it on its side. Then he ran for cover and looked back. When someone repositioned the car and chased him again, he repeated his previous action but this time, he dropped it twice to make sure it was really down. I can only imagine the courage that it took Max to approach something he didn't understand and dealt with it. I was impressed.


He's getting much better at walking but it still looks awkward--like a penguin. But he's got a pretty fast waddle. He doesn't fall as much and when he tries to run, he raises his arms and waves them around. He likes to play peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake in Spanish (Tortillitas). He's still bumping into things as I'm sure his depth perception is still maturing. When he watches Teletubbies, he still bangs on the screen as if he's trying to grab them. I understand that this actually continues to three years old. But he can concentrate on a particular TV show, smile and cheer if he's enjoying what he's watching.

I'm not seeing too much in the way of language yet. It may be too soon. He mimics certain sounds but he's been doing for the past three months. He growls more when he dissaproves of something, that seems new--funny. It doesn't seem like anger, but more like frustration. He does these complex little sounds when he appears to be thinking or investigating something. The sounds are hard to describe and I've been trying to record them.

I'd like to recap the previous year but it's all on this blog. It's fun to go back and read some of the things that Max developed into throught the month. I like going back to the entry that I made after Amy told me that Max was on the way.

I'm going to continue to update this blog throught this year but I don't think it will be every month or I may do it several times a month pending significant milestones. I'll be watching for developments like real running, significant sounds, primary art skills--everyone in the family is artistic in one way or another and Max's grandma' is an art teacher so... Probably be looking for computer "mousing" skills soon. Dancing, pushing scooters and solving complex linear algebra equations (jk).

One will be fun for us to watch as he develops new skills.