The Latest On Griffin

Here are a few of your 'latest' or new things since turning one year old. One thing we noticed is how much more excitable you are since your first birthday. It's been very hard to settle you down for much of anything. The world is just too much fun for you to explore. Here are a few things.
- Now you know two body parts. Your nose and your belly button. You are able to point to both of them when we ask you to. Your belly button (as well as mine and Daddy's) has become a new thing for you. You love to stick your finger in it, like a socket.
- You are learning to eat independently. We couldn't figure out why at meal times you were having major hissy fits. But then we discovered that if we give you your own spoon, and the bowl from which we are feeding you with, you are quite happy. You spend a long time trying to get food onto your spoon. You end up eating it all with your fingers anyway, but I think it makes you feel good to think you ate it all with a spoon.
- You raise your little arms in the air when we take your shirts off and on. And you step in and out of your pants when we take them off.
- You have started drinking homogenized milk. In the beginning, I couldn't refill the bottle fast enough. You LOVE it. Now, I think the novelty is wearing off a little bit.
- You also adore fruit (any kind) and cheese (cottage and cheddar). We go through a ton of fruit now, since you discovered it. All are your favorites, blueberries in particular.
- It sounds like you are starting to say words that mean something. Last night, you saw a picture of an apple, pointed at it and said 'apuh'. And often, you say 'dung', which we think you mean 'done'. And for banana, you have said 'ban'.
- You are definitely on your way to walking. You spend a lot of time 'cruising' the furniture to get to places you want to go. You could just as easily crawl as it would be quicker, but it really seems like you want to walk. You are quite obsessed with watching older kids run and walk, so we think it will happen soon. My prediction is by Christmas time.
- We have been in full mode trying to child proof our place. You keep discovering new places to explore. Recently, you figured out how to open my drawers and take my clothes out. The bathroom is the place that concerns me, because you seem fascinated by toilet paper, and the toilet.
- You seem to have a bit of 'organizer' in your personality. You like to dump your toys out of their box, and put them back in. We have watched you, and you do seem to enjoy putting things back into storage containers a lot.

You learn SO much every day now. It's astonishing for us to see how much you learn, and mostly by watching and mimicking us. You are a lot of fun, but you also are a huge bundle of energy that leaves us exhausted by the end of the day. A lady at Toys R Us told me that it will never get easier, but that we would just get used to it. I believe those are probably words to live by.