13 Months (And Some Change)

While I had no plans to continue my monthly updates after Dylan turned 1 year, I've realized that he's had lots of developments I haven't posted so wanted to share them with you!

After taking his first steps a couple of weeks ago, Dylan's had some "practice" daily but is far from being a regular walker. His preferred method of transportation is still crawling. Since he's really great and fast at that, I can't blame him. Why fix it if it ain't broken??

His vocabulary is also developing and in the last couple of weeks, he's definitely had his "first words." While eating, he'll tell us "Mo" (I think I even heard an "R" at the end yesterday) for more food. He points at one of his favorite toys, a ball, and say "Ba" and will say "Do" when the neighbors dog is outside. To be fair, pretty much everything he points at is "Do" or "Da" so we're not confident that it actually means dog. Mike tells me he's also working on saying book but I haven't heard that one yet (which means it's still unofficial). And even though he says da and ma all the time, it never seems in reference to us. So, I'm still looking forward to the day that he'll look at me and say mama.

Also, as of last week, Dylan is officially weaned.While I'm thrilled in many ways to have finally reclaimed my body after pregnancy and nursing, I'm also (very unexpectedly) sad about it. I've heard that there can be a hormonal shift afterwards that I can only presume is partly to blame. However, what I'm already missing is my snuggle time with Dylan. He's such the little man on the move that it's rare that he sits still long enough for a hug let alone extended close time.

I am so proud of the fact that I was able to nurse him for the recommended year, especially because we had a lot of problems from the very beginning that lasted a long time. Then, of course, there was the not so fun experience of pumping while at work. I did that up until about 11 months. The week after I stopped pumping, Dylan stopped taking a bottle during the day. Lucky coincidence! After that point, we tried to introduce more (cow's) milk to his diet but he was completely uninterested in it. So, before I could drop the last 2 nursing sessions (morning and night), we waited until his 1 year check up to talk to the doctor.

After a discussion about how to make sure he was getting enough calcium in his diet, we got the thumbs up to go forward with our plans. He very easily dropped the night time feeding a week later. Then, last week, we dropped his morning feeding without any drama. So, that's it...we're done with that phase of his life.

With the huge changes that have happened in the month since we celebrated his birthday, I can't help but notice that my little baby is not a baby anymore...he's a toddler. I am so excited to get to know my little boy and his personality better through his continued mobility and communication. However, I can't help but be a little bit sad that my little squeaking baby bundle is now only a distant memory. I guess this is why they say time passes too quickly....