1 Year Old

Baby Joe enjoying the Ath Winter Carnival parade

Our little Belgian town had a parade to end their winter carnival, which we took the baby out to see before we had cake to celebrate his first birthday with a cake and a Google Hangout with the family.  He enjoyed being outside with the bands going by and was pretty indifferent about his opportunity to get messy with his birthday cake.  He managed to get blue icing all over his face and our laptop but it wasn't the all-out food fight that I had imagined when we planned it.

He got a lot of new toys from the family, including his new favorite thing in the world- a little sit and push motorcycle that my mother gave him.  So far he can only go backwards on the thing, but it plays music and he enjoys scooting around the living room and bouncing to the music.  He has also learned to stand on his own and unsupported and has done it for up to about 2 minutes at a time, but still hasn't made the move to start walking just yet.

Baby Joe also has a number of teeth coming through at the moment - two of his front teeth and two molars on the top, so he's been a bit miserable with it at times and drooling quite a bit.  He's been trying a lot of new food on his own now and is able to eat things like pizza crust, bread, chicken, orange slices, and soft vegetables on his own without us cutting it up for him.

We finally got him sleeping on his own, although he's still adjusting to it.  Last night he slept for about 6 straight hours without waking, which is by far the most he's ever done.  We're hoping we've turned a corner on this and that the Baby will start getting more restful sleep in the future.