One.

Our baby boy turned one on March 19th. Oh, my.

Here are the stats on our sweet little dude:

Mobility: Jo can stand holding onto something with one hand. He's great at pulling himself up onto things, cruising back and forth while holding onto furniture, and crawling as fast as the wind. He also loves walking with his walker toy, but he has yet to take any steps by himself. He doesn't really seem all that interested. Sometimes I will hold his hands and have him walk, but he inevitably drops to his knees and starts crawling. He can crawl up stairs easily and SO badly wants to be able to crawl up onto our fireplace. Luckily, his little legs are just too short.

Eating: He still eats a lot of purees, but he's been more adventurous with solid food. He likes ham, cheerios, fish crackers, oranges, and shredded cheese. He is similar to his mama in regards to food texture sensitivity.  For example, he inhales blended bananas but refuses to put a bite of unmushed banana in his mouth. I can get him to take sips of cow milk each day, but no more than that. His favorite foods are whatever his parents are eating and whatever is on the floor. Runner up would still be Gerber's chicken and apples, and pieces of oranges.

Sleep: Siiigh. For a while he was sleeping through the night until about a month ago. Then he had about three weeks of waking up in the middle of the night, standing up, and crying. At the risk of jinxing anything, I am happy to say that I think we are back on track to sleeping through the night since his birthday. Over the last few days he has been able to be put in his crib at night awake and fall asleep on his own. This is BIG news, as he has been rocked to sleep for nearly a year.

Body: For a one year old boy, he's fairly bite sized. Most of his clothes are 9 months size. He wears size 3 diapers. He height is 29.5 inches, which is around the 32-35th percentile. He only has two tiny bottom teeth, and just finally his top teeth are starting to break. HIs hair, however, grows like a weed.  He has now had three haircuts.

Social Skills: He has yet to develop any type of stranger danger. He still lets anyone and everyone pick him up and hold him. He doesn't care if Jordan and I leave. Maybe he is just trusting? He is fine with adults, but he has grown VERY fond of children. He loves to watch them and laugh and laugh! He desperately tries to keep up and play along with the big kids at playgroup. Poor guy should have been a younger brother. His only flaw is he still loves loves loves to pull hair. One time I was at a play group with Joand we heard a 3 year old boy yelling, "OWWWW!" I looked over and sure enough, my little guy had both fists clenched with the poor 3 year old's hair. Oops. As soon as I pried Baby Jo's hands off the kiddo's head, he yelled, "That baby's CRAZY!" I know, kid, I know.

Hobbies: Jo is becoming so much more interested in toys. He loves to "throw" things (i.e. drop things rapidly), and roll cars back and forth on their wheels. Sometimes he loves to sit and have 4 books read to him, other times he slams a book shut after three pages. I usually take him to library "BabyTime" classes once or twice a week, which he seems to enjoy. He LOVES the librarian who runs them. I think it is because she talks like a cartoon character. "Heeeeeelllllllllooooo, everyone! YAY!! Hi! I'm SooooOOOooOOOoOO happy to see you!" You get the idea. Shout out to Miss Rhonda! He also seems to enjoy shopping with me. He tolerates the shopping cart seat now, and gets excited to look around and try to grab anything in reach. Usually this ends up just being my hair. I admit that sometimes I let him watch tv when I am super exhausted or trying to get something done. He only watches for about ten minutes or less. Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood seems to be his favorite.

Tricks: Recently he started playing peek-a-boo where HE is the one who is covering his face with something and popping his little head up. On a scale of 1-10 in cuteness, I would rate it an 11.He can also wave, clap his hands, give high fives, and blow raspberries on command. He likes to mimic us with sounds, such as clocking his tongue when we do, making high pitched squeaks, and saying mama. Which leads into the next category...

Talking: About a week after Jo turned 10 months old, he started saying "MAMAMAMA....MAMA...MAMAMA" repeatedly. However, he never once looked at me when he said it. We weren't sure if this was his first word, or just a noise he liked making that sounded like "mama". I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be excited or not. After about three weeks of "MAMAMA" we decdied to declare it his first word. It's actually pretty funny, Jordan and Baby Jo would have this conversation a lot:
Jordan: Say DADA!
Jo: MAMA
Jordan: No, say DADADADA!
Jo: .....MAMAMAMAMA!
Needless to say, I loved it! However, he was occasionally made the sound "DADA" a couple of times. We still don't know if he knows what he is saying. Oh, well.

Toys: Jo loves musical instruments. His favorite toys seem to be his xylophone, my casio keyboard, and his little Baby Einstein "MP3 player". It's not real- just a toy that plays lots of different songs. He also loves anything with wheels. He is getting good at pushing around his toy cars and trains. Much to my dismay, he has absolutely zero interest in stuff animals. I hope that one day he was a cute comfort stuffed buddy. In the meantime, he falls asleep in his crib with a plastic train that he got for his birthday.  He also loves real cellphones, my wallet, and sunglasses.

Nicknames: Jo Willy, Puppy/Pup, Bubby, Joney, Jo (obviously), or as my niece likes to say, "Ho-due". My other niece calls him "Jo Willy the First" (like Sofia the First)

We just love this kid!! Here is a look at our boy less than one day old vs one year old: