First Birthday party (and more)!

JJ had a great birthday party yesterday with family and friends. We were joined by Poppa Henry, Gramma Laura and Poppa Lyle, the Rosenaus, and the Callisons. Gramma Laura made a great Curious George (banana flavored) cake. He greatly enjoyed that! He also learned that Oreo cookies are fabulous! JJ had lots of fun playing with bubbles. We discovered that toddlers enjoy pouring them out of the pan more than blowing them as the pan was dumped by Collin, then JJ, then Ashlyn (twice!). Oh, what fun! And JJ appreciated his friends pouring them out because then he could play with the bubble solution and lay in it! It works out for me...his shirt is going to need all the soap it can get after his Oreo and cake mess!

Along with turning one, JJ is meeting the normal milestones. He enjoyed his first car ride facing forward the other day. He has also discovered the entertaining properties of putting things inside other things. I gave him a small tub to put things in this morning so he would stop putting his paci-and other toys- into the garbage can. I guess this sorting includes himself! I was quite surprised to glance down to see him climbing into his bucket. I guess he figured it was a good size for himself!

The weekend was full of fun other than his birthday party. We also went to the Irish Heritage Fair at Harriet Island on Friday. He and Ally both enjoyed the music. In an effort to get a shorter video to post here of them dancing, I was dancing and bopping around. Click on the second video to see his reaction! I do believe my son just called me a loser! Ahh, well... I knew I wasn't that great of a dancer!

More teeth and other adventures

JJ may be done teething for a little while! Yea! He now has four teeth on top and three on the bottom-we still think one might be coming on the bottom. He's also walking more and more. He likes to take us "bye-bye" down the hall and gets mad when mama tries to do laundry without him. He turned 1 year old yesterday! I can't believe it has already been a year. It went by so fast. At times I miss holding his tiny little body and staring at his tiny little hands as he sleeps. He's not so big that this is a far gone occurance. He's still pretty little and still very cute when he sleeps! He really is a lot of fun right now. He's learning so many new things. His laugh is infectious. He is quite mischievious. All these things were only hinted at when he was a tiny baby. He's come so far in a year! We're having so much fun!

Finally, Teeth!

7/31 ushered in a new front top tooth. 8/2 brought a new top tooth next to that. From the looks of things, the other top front tooth will break through in the next day or two! On top of it all, the poor little guy has a very runny nose! I hear that teething can bring on a runny nose, but I've also heard that it's a "wives tale" or some such thing. All I know is that JJ is having quite the week. He's becoming braver with walking, but still insists on holding a hand as he goes. He ushers us around the house with a vice grip on our hand! Even Poppa Henry gets to travel around the apartment as JJ practices his walking. Even so, he's doing more and more walking all by himself!