1 year

Keenan's first year
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

I’m posting this a little late as somehow there only appears to be 40 minutes in each hour now. But Keenan my dear boy you sure know how cram as much activity as physically possible into an hour! You have become a very busy little man in these past few months and you’re giving your parents a run for our yennies! Thankfully you are not yet walking but that’s gonna happen any minute now. You’ve earned your wall and furniture cruising badge and you’ll go forever if we put a walker, stroller, shopping cart, high chair or other similarly wheeled object in front of you. I must admit I half expect you to wake up from the nap you are having right now, crawl out of your crib, walk across your room, slide open your door and say “yo mummummum, where’s the apple juice at?” Speaking of talking, you’ve made serious progress on “bye-bye”. You’re starting to understand that you say it when someone goes away and that it’s paired up with the waving action. You have several ways of actually saying bye-bye which include “da-da”, “dai-dai”, “nyai-nyai” and “ba-e-ba-e”. Hopefully soon you’ll be able to put it all together AND do it before the person leaving is less than 500 feet away!

Books continue to be a favorite pastime for you. You more than doubled your collection of board books on your birthday and you’ve been in page turning bliss ever since. Apart from books you’re really into activity-based toys. If the toy doesn’t “do” something it doesn't’ even attract your attention. You love things that require a bit of brainpower like stacking rings or puzzles. I bought you the Cone Sorting toy by Plan Toys out of Thailand for your birthday and you’ve already played with it for hours. You are also really into your Duplo and can already stack two blocks together. But you really love ripping apart anything your dad or I make. It’s become a bit of game for us to try to construct something before you lean in and pull it apart. Your dad and I have also had unofficial competitions where we try to make the most Keenan proof structure. For the record, there is no Keenan proof structure.

I haven’t weighed or measured your height just yet but I do know that your feet are a Japan size 12. You’ll get your first pair of shoes this week apart from your leather slippers. And I’m going to make sure we get you outside walking everyday. It’s good for you and honestly it makes you sleep like a baby afterwards! We’ve had some good success with getting you to sleep in a bit in the morning. We tried pushing back your meals, snacks, naps and bedtime by an hour and (knocking on veneer) now you get up around 6:15 am. You’re fed and back in bed around 9 am and then I try to get you down for an afternoon nap around 1:30 or 2. The bedtime ritual starts around 7:15 pm and you’re off in la-la land by 8 pm.

Changing your diaper has now progressed into a full contact sport. There is nothing you hate more than receiving a clean ass. I may have said this before but you have more temper tantrums over diaper changes than anything else. The other day your father put a new diaper on you while you were standing up. He got many “creative diapering points” for that stunt. Although the diaper was crooked you were quiet and I didn’t see any veins bulging out of your fathers forehead when he lifted you down from the changing table. The only other progress we’ve made is that we know we can distract you from freaking out by giving you something you don’t usually get to play with while we’re changing you. We bought you your own baby cell phone toy for this. Other things that work are empty yoghurt containers, my watch and your father’s glasses. All easily replaceable items offered up for a peaceful butt wiping.

I guess I should say a bit about temper tantrums. You throw them. In many forms. And they’ve lead us to the realization that you need discipline now. Nothing hard-ass we just don’t give in to your temper tantrums. So wait, I guess we’re disciplining ourselves. Frig.

One of your other loves is personal hygiene! Now that it’s warmer here I run your bath, strip you naked in your room and then set you down on the floor. You can hear the bath running and you crawl lightening fast towards the bathtub, screeching all the while. Then you stand by the edge of the tub until I lift you in. It’s one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen! Once in you splash until I’m nearly soaked. It’s just so much fun and I’m very pleased that you’re turning out to be a water baby just like I was. Brushing your teeth is still a joyous activity for you and you are now the proud owner of two toothbrushes, which you put to good use. You still generally don’t like to get food on you and are a pretty tidy eater. I thank my lucky stars for this paragraph. These things go a long way to offsetting the diaper changing exploding forehead veins!

Food is also very popular with you and you’ll eat pretty much anything other than broccoli and carrots. Apart from those two you prefer most veggies to fruit. You’re just like me and you like sour things like plums and cranberries. We’ve recently introduced you to ice cream and you love black sesame seed and strawberry the most. String cheese is right up there as a favorite also. Last week I discovered that you love raisins. That was ok until your horrified father opened your diaper to find a dozen or so of them totally re-hydrated and nearly in their original grape form and size. Sorry babe, no more raisins until you can digest them. You have started protesting against any form of baby food. Nothing pureed or bland gets into your mouth anymore, which is great for us because you can more easily share our meals.

All these things added up the good, the adorable, the sometimes bad/frustrating make you the sweetest little boy ever. You’re very thoughtful of others and share your toys and food. You are so incredibly social and a total pleasure to have around our friends. Some of which have commented that they would consider having children since they’ve met you! There is nothing better than watching you roll around naked on our bed, eat dozens of peas one at a time, playing hide and seek in our apartment or watching you sit and carefully play with your books. As a mother I cherish the 3 times a day you fall asleep in my arms. You look like a tiny sleeping doll with your blonde hair, apple cheeks and long dark lashes. I love laying in bed in the morning listening and waiting for your morning whinging to turn into mummummummum. It’s fantastic watching you discover fun like on the slide at the park or riding on your dad’s shoulders. Getting our family to this point has been so mentally, physically and emotionally all consuming to the point that I can’t believe it’s been a year since you were born. It all just seems so fresh (unlike most things!) in my memory. I am the kind of person who feels nostalgia for the past in the present and that’s what I’m feeling right now. I’m watching you sit on the tatami in our bedroom. You’re running your fingers up and down on your lips and making that “bbbbbbbbb” sound. It’s another of my favorite things and I know I’ll miss it when you do it no more. I know for sure that some other tractor beam of cuteness’ll replace it and I intend on cramming as many minutes into every hour I can so I can enjoy every second of you now and forever.