Ok um … Johnny turned one last month. He’s almost 13 months now. I feel like a slacker blogger mom for waiting so long to write about his birthday! In my defense, we were in Indiana for the celebration and I wasn’t spending much time on the computer.
Anyway.
We started his birthday by going to Great-grandma Norma’s church, where the children put on a Christmas pageant. It was precious.
His birthday party was held at Grandma Carol & Grandpa Steve’s house (Shane’s parents). In attendance were Uncle Shawn, Aunt Whitney, Grandpa Bo & Grandma Susan (Kacie’s parents), Great-grandma Norma (paternal maternal gma), Great-grandpa L.D. (paternal paternal gpa), Great-aunt Mary, uh…first cousin twice-removed (?) Kaitlin, and of course Shane and me. I love how there were so many branches of the family tree represented there.
We enjoyed an array of finger foods and other nibbles, including veggie and fruit trays (home-prepared), spinach balls, chips and dip, hummus, and a home-prepped deli tray so folks could make their own sandwiches. It was all pretty yummy and reasonably healthy.
We ate this while Johnny took a big ol’ nap. The nap was important — we wanted him to be in a good, social mood for presents and cake!
Once he woke up (ok ok, my dad and I woke him up once I decided he had slept long enough. Hee!) he opened presents.
He opened a few birthday presents a day or two in advance so that he’d have some toys to play with at his grandparents’ house.
All told, he got some Mega Blocks, a Little People bathtime boat, Little People farm blocks, an Elmo Encore Live robot doll, a gorilla driving a banana car, a “Jonathon” shelf, and some books.
The shelf has a funny story behind it. Gifted from his Great-Aunt Mary, she didn’t realize his name is spelled “Jonathan.” She spotted it at a thrift store and bought it knowing that I love thrifted items. We’re in the process of trying to swap the “o” with an “a.”
One of the books he received was really unique. Aunt Shannon made book from the blog posts I wrote when I was pregnant! She includes all of the weekly updates and the birth story. It’s fantastic! If the blog ever conks out, it’s great to know I’ll always have a hard copy of the nonsense I came up while pregnant with him. 
Johnny seemed to have fun opening his presents and tearing the paper into tiny bits.
And then…cake! The cake was chocolate with chocolate icing. I was originally going to do some cutesy monkey cupcakes, and then I realized the birthday boy would not actually appreciate their cuteness. So then I was going to make a cake from scratch.
Nixed that idea, because I didn’t want to test out a new recipe and have it turn out bad. So…a boxed cake mix it was. I do think homemade cakes (even from a mix!) taste a lot better than store-bought.
I was *going* to decorate the cake and write “Happy birthday” on it, but the icing didn’t have a writing tip. Thought it came with one. Oh well.
I plopped a square of cake onto his high chair tray and he touched it a little. He wasn’t quite sure what it was, as this was his first piece of cake.
I put a little into his mouth and then he was like, “!!!” and dove face-first into the cake. He used his hands a little, but the face-first method was how he ate most of it.
He also had a little bit of vanilla ice cream and washed it all down with a sippy of whole milk.
He needed a bath after all that fun, and wouldn’t ya know, but he just doesn’t like baths. Cries and tries to get out of the tub. Every time. He does enjoy splashing at a water table or at the sink, but he just doesn’t like being bathed. I really hope he’ll grow out of this, otherwise we’ll have to call him Pig Pen.
We all had a lovely day. Since Christmas was just 5 days later, he got even more presents then. All of the attention, gifts, cuddles from family, and delicious food amounted to Johnny’s Best Week EVER, I’m pretty certain.
So what’s this 12, almost 13-month-old doing these days? Well, he’s gotten a lot faster at walking. It’s not a run, but that boy can really book it across the room.
He enjoys kicking a ball around and he can manage to keep it under reasonable control. If it gets stuck behind something, he’ll just knock it loose with his hand an keep on kickin’ it.
He loves playing with cars or toys that have wheels. He’ll push them around and make a little “vroom” sound effect for them.
The “gorilla driving a banana” toy is a hilarious little thing. You shake the car and set it down, and then it rolls across the floor while making gorilla sounds. Recently, he figured out that he has to set it down and let go so it’ll actually move. Previously, he’d shake it but hang on tight.
If I say, “Go get your ball” or “Go get your car” he knows what I’m talking about and will go get those things.
He’s now tall enough that he can turn the TV on and off. We have an ottoman in front of the TV to try to discourage that, but he grew and it’s now within reach.
We play hide-and-seek. Sorta. I do the hiding, and he does the seeking. He thinks it’s hilarious, especially if I jump out of my hiding spot and surprise him.
He had his 12-month checkup a few days ago and weighed in at 23 lbs 5 oz and was 31.5 inches tall. For percentile-minded people, that’s the 90th for height and 50th for weight. He went up in height and down in weight, and the doc said it’s common for the weight to go down once they’re superduper active.
He’s all healthy and doing well!
He loves laughing and making us laugh. He’ll do a little silly thing, look at us, and if we laugh then he’ll just crack up and keep on cackling for awhile.
Johnny enjoys flipping through books, unstacking blocks, and making huge messes.
He says “mama,” “bye-bye,” and “baby.” The first two words are used correctly, but when he says “baby” he just randomly says it.
He does the baby sign to tell me he wants to nurse, and that has been fantastic for our communication! I haven’t put a lot of effort into teaching him other signs but I would like to do “eat,” “drink,” “sleep” and maybe a few others.
He is such a hoot and a fun guy to be around. We love him so much! Can’t wait to see what this year will bring.
