one year.

Gunnar Douglas is no longer my little baby.  Just kidding.  He always will be!  But, I think he has officially crossed over into "toddler-ville".  He is up to a whole host of new things these days.  I will do my best to remember all of them... I knew I should have been writing things down as I thought of them.  But I didn't, and here I am with mommy brain trying to think of the adorably sweet (and witty) things I wanted to say about my baby. 

As you know, he's walking all over the place.  Running at times.  He climbs now too.  On the couch, up the stairs (that's right he figured out the gate).  He also taught himself to turn around and slid off the couch (or bed) on his belly.  Genius.

Speaking of bellies.  That's the first body part he learned.  Every time I ask him "where's your belly?" he comes running over to me, lifts my shirt up and pokes my belly.  Thanks, kid.  That's just what everyone wants to see... Ugh.  But it's so cute I don't even care (most of the time). 

He currently loves any kind of toy vehicle.  He gets a kick out of moving them back and forth, over and over and over and over... Then he looks up at me like, "hey ma! look what I can do!"  So freaking cute.  He always seems to know when he's doing something totally noteworthy.  Even though as his mom I think everything is noteworthy.  More toys he likes are balls.  Anything round, that rolls, or bounces, he's all over it.  He loves to throw and chase, and just yesterday he started kicking (on purpose) and chasing.  Way to go champ!

Now on to the birthday celebrations... My sweet angel and I spent it alone, since Dad had to report to jump school the day before his birthday.  Typical.  We hit up the aquarium, where he ran around and had fun poking at the fish through the glass.  He even got up close and personal with a shark!  We had lots of fun watching the otters and penguins too.

 Then I treated him to a nice grilled cheese, and hot cinnamon apple dinner.  Yum!

And when we got back home, we Facetime'd with Dad.  Gunnar loved it.  He kept hanging up on him because he was trying to pet Patrick's face. 

 He also tried cow's milk for the very first time!  He loves it, can't get enough.  Here he is giving it a go:

Speaking of milk... I don't talk about nursing often because well, I think it's a weird topic to discuss with non-parents, and everyone else really.  But I guess when you're a mom, nothing is off limits.  Plus, it's a cute story, in it's own odd little way... Gunnar is currently being weaned off of breast milk completely.  We are almost there, and he seems to be handling it fine.  But, he has started a new thing that's got to be the sweetest thing I have ever experienced.  When he gets fussy, or just to settle down in general, he has to put his hand inside my shirt, on my chest.  Right. Over. My. Heart.  It's like his security blanket. 

On our never-ending drive home last night he was in the middle of an all out, screaming at the top of his lungs, real people tears, head banging, leg kicking, temper tantrum, melt down.  It was bad.  I climbed in the back with him, he put his hand on my heart, and all was right with the world.

I could cry thinking about how sweet it is.  It's like he's telling me, even though we're moving on from this, he still needs me.  Just in a different way.  I could just die it makes me so happy.  Hopefully he will always need me... I'll just hold on to these moments for now.

And now, since this post has been a lot of writing, and not so much on the photography front, let me remedy that (and to catch up on almost 2 months of non-blogging):

Ta-Da!  My one year old!

 

We would also like to thank Mrs. Jane for this adorable peek-a-boo bear.  We lost our dear friend to breast cancer a few weeks ago, and we will always remember her.  Gunnar loves his bear and we love you, Jane.

Thanks for sticking with us throught that one, it was long.  Check back later for more on Gunnar's birthday party!