Gosh, would you look at that sweet face? I am so, so thankful to be his mama. He is so expressive and brings me so much joy each day (and I get a front-row seat to watch him light up the faces of many others, too!). Here's what Finch is up to at 12 months!

GROWTH

Weight: 24 lbs 2 oz (86%)
Height: 30.25" (62%)
Clothing size: 12-18 months
Diaper size: 4 during the day and 5 at night
Teeth: 6

FIRSTS

Incident report at daycare
Birthday!

LOVES

Mommy
Eating
Nursing
Baths
Being chased
His Nod Chair

DISLIKES

Swinging at the park
Diaper changes
Getting cleaned up after meals

EATING

He is on 100% table food now (no more purees) and will eat almost anything we put in front of him! I love it, even though it's quite messy.

Some of what he's been eating the past month:

Mexican rice
Black beans
Peaches
Chicken
Black olives
Strawberries
Watermelon
Tomato
Apple slices
Raisins
Whatever sister leaves within his reach ;-)

We are also still breastfeeding! It is surreal to me that we made it a year. That was my goal, and we did it! I'm really proud that we persevered through the tough early months. Since then, it really hasn't been hard, just takes time and dedication! It's actually one of my favorite things. I'm an introvert, so it's nice to have a dedicated time to sit down in a quiet place a few times a day to process. Of course, every now and then I would like a break and have someone else do it just once. When he wakes up at 5:00 am and I have to drag myself out of bed, my first thought is usually "I'm ready to be done with this!" ... but by the end of the feeding, I'm thinking, "I never want to stop doing this!"

I was feeding him 4-5 times a day (every 4 hours), but the day before his birthday he went almost 7 hours, and he was fine (he is really good with table food)! Now that he is almost 12.5 months, we are already down to 3-4 feeds per day. I envision us doing this for at least a couple more months, possibly longer! Who knows!

SLEEPING

Takes 1-2 naps
Bedtime: 5:00-7:00 pm (depends on his naps)
Eats once in the early morning (between 4:00-6:00 am), then goes back down
Wake-up time: 7:00-8:00 am
Longest sleep stretch: 13.5 hours

WORDS

oooh (this is his favorite)
oh
dat
hi
dada
nana
baba
mama

None of these really mean anything, except sometimes he will point at something and say "dat" like he is asking "what's that?"

HEALTH

He was healthy this month!
We bathe him once a week

PARENTING

We had a scary moment a few weeks ago when Finch trapped himself in our guest bathroom. He went into the bathroom and somehow the door got shut behind him (I think Rooney shut it). Then Finch opened a drawer inside the bathroom, which prevented the bathroom door from opening. He wasn't in there very long (maybe 30 seconds) - thankfully he just eventually shut the drawer. But what if he hadn't? And what if he had fallen or something while in there? I don't know how I would have gotten to him. It was scary and we have now baby-proofed that drawer!

LOOKING FORWARD TO...

Using sign language instead of screaming when he wants more food :-)
Dropping to 1 nap in the next few months (and hopefully napping longer than 20 minutes)

Finch at 1 year!