Here for a Year

The big day has come and gone, and Joshua Andrew Maple is now a one-year old. Yikes! Heaven knows where the past year has gone, but it has definitely been an amazing one, unlike any year we have ever had. A year ago today we were still sitting in a hospital, ready to go home, even though we had no idea what we would do once we got there. And now here we are, hardly experts at this, but definitely much more comfortable with it than a year ago. It all sort of comes by second nature now, although there always seem to be new things popping up that test your skills (and we haven't even reached the speaking stages yet!).

His birthday was a good one. We didn't do too much out of the ordinary on the actual day. Brenda took him to the mall to play on the indoor playground they have, and he went in a pet store for the first time. He says "ga-ga" in a distinct way when he sees doggies, and apparently he was very excited because he just kept shouting that over and over. He also had a warmup for his birthday party; we gave him a whole cupcake for the first time. He stared at it for about 15-30 seconds, then started leaning over and eating it without using his hands. Very cute. His birthday party is this coming Saturday and we are very excited. It will be at Gymboree, and in addition to family, there will also be 8-12 kids of varying ages there as well (most closer to his age). Should be fun!

Not a ton of developments over the past month. He still has no interest in walking, although occassionally in the backyard we can hold his hand and he will walk along side of us. If he really wanted to he totally could, but he's just so good at crawling that he has no interest in it. He is also becoming a somewhat picky eater, very picky about the textures. He loves crunchy food, probably because he has TWELVE teeth to use now. But getting the kid to eat fruits or meats is a test. He has begun to show us how smart he is. He knows where our tummys and toes are, knows what "put the binky in the crib" means, and in the past few days learned to tell us what sound a cow makes. Sure, he doesn't know what a cow is, but he knows what they sound like!

There are tons of new pictures on the web page, be sure to check those out. I will post again after his birthday party and will post pictures of that as well. Until next time...