The Adventures of Mr Handsome/Mr Furious: August 2012

Colin had his 1 year check up and he doing great. He's small but growing fine. He's got his little chubby legs and baby gut (which he's not afraid to show off as demonstrated in the pictures). We tried out a peanut butter sandwich which made him itch his cheek where he was smearing the sandwich. A welt formed later on. He was breathing fine, playing happily. He was just itchy. We gave him some benedryl and called the doctor. We were just sent to 911 and they all came out. We had the ambulance, fire chief and 2 cop cars. Middleton is slow for crime and danger. They checked him and and said he was fine. The next day we went to the hospital to have blood drawn to test for the peanut allergy. That was an experience we don't care to repeat. I'm sure Colin would agree. Today we saw an allergist so we are all caught up on what needs to happen. Soooo, on a scale of 'peanuts are delicious' to 'for pete's sake, that peanut across the street looked at me', Colin is moderate. That means we just need to make sure he doesn't eat or touch peanut products and we need to clean up after we do. He can eat foods that are made in factories that make peanut foods and peanuts can be in the house. We just have to be careful he doesn't eat or come in contact with them. We'll go back next year and see if he grew out of it. We are glad it's not severe but we're hoping it will go away.

He loves getting on his motorcycle and listening to its radio.

Other than the peanut excitement, he had his 1st birthday, went to baby play group, goes outside to play. There was all sorts of excitement this month.

He loves exploring outside. Bunny is very interesting and so are Hobie's toys. Colin is improving his ability to use stairs and move around in shoes and move on uneven ground.

One of his baby OCD quirks is that all doors and gates must be closed. The diaper pail door, bathroom door, gate to the stairs.... He doesn't try charging through open doorways and won't leave a room, willingly, if a door is open somewhere in that room.

His communication is getting more clear. He will shake off things he doesn't want like a baseball pitcher to the catcher. He's pretty good at that and luckily it's usually without noise accompaniment. He will point to food he wants as well. He also recognizes a lot more than we thought he would. He knows outside, upstairs, his room, kitchen, where to eat, where to take a bath and a bunch of others. Quite the smart little boy.

Next month we have a trip to California planned, so that should be a lot of fun.

Mr Furious

Mr Handsome

Colin had his first birthday today. He didn't know what to make of the pile of presents we put in front of him this morning, but he managed. He seems to be a pretty neat/organized boy. Every scrap of wrapping paper torn off needed to be handed to mommy or daddy. Things out of place, to him, needed to be moved. His ginormous bear grew on him as the day went on. He was tackling/cuddling with it by the end of the day. His tent and tubes also gain popularity as the day went on. He had a pretty good day.

He's definitely getting better at everything. He understands what we say more. We can ask him for a new object and he sometimes will know what we mean or he figures it out with a few prompts. Walking is getting better as well. Obstacles are still tricky but he's getting better at avoiding them. The step into the kitchen and bathroom are being tackled more boldly now. He communicates his ideas a bit better with his signs. A big smile will show up on his face when the stereo is turned on for either his music or ours. Not really an improvement on anything but worth mentioning. He is more confident with Hobie, he'll go up to her and give some good pats. Colin's temper tantrums have improved as well. He will sit and push himself around in a circle with one leg while crying. It's quite cute. Sometimes he'll listen to us and sometimes he'll ignore us. The ignore part usually is followed by the tantrum. Poor Colin, life is rough.

For those of you that would like to see him open his presents here is a chopped up version of the video to watch with commentary and theme music:

Some of the comments are a bit early so they may not make sense.