1 year with jay!

i know this is so cliche but i seriously can't believe it has been over a year since we had jay! i don't even know how that happened. so here's a little update on where he is at (in case i never get around to writing in his baby book like i have been meaning to).

jay has been crawling since 9 months and pulls himself up on everything. he is almost walking. the most he has gotten is four steps. whenever he decides he wants to try to walk somewhere you can see him building up his courage and almost puffing out his chest getting ready to go. its hilarious. he is obsessed with opening and shutting doors and would and play with a door for ever. he used to not care for any of his toys and would just play with anything else i had around my house, but i guess we finally found some that he likes. for the most part though whenever he goes through his toy bins he goes for the books first and sits and looks so intently at his books. he is constantly going for any outlet or cord he sees and it drives me crazy. whenever he goes for the cords in his room i put him in 'time out' for 10 seconds in his crib and then he hops out and thinks it's a game and goes right for them again and laughs as i chase him. except for the one time he threw a tantrum from being put in his crib and could not get out of that funk for an hour. so i guess we have started the tantrums phase? i'm sure this is only the beginning.

he has always loved food and only loves it more and more. he will seriously eat anything. the things that have surprised me most were mozzerella and tomatoes drenched in balsamic and spicy sweet potato fries. somehow he always knows when i'm eating the really good stuff even when he hasn't ever eaten it before. he whines when he sees me pull out the ice cream and lusts after my diet cokes every day. oh and his lips when he eats actually kill me they are so cute. i could sit and watch them all day. plus he gets really in to his food and closes his eyes and says mmmmm. it's a joke.

while we have been through our fair share of sleep troubles, i feel like we are finally in a really good place! he went down to two naps a day a few months ago and i don't think he is anywhere close to switching down to one. he is a really hard sleeper once he falls asleep. i can transfer him from the car no problem (even with our parking spot that is far from our front entrance). i can change his diaper or his clothes while he sleeps. and he even slept through our thanksgiving family games where about 25 people were yelling at the top of their lungs. we are so lucky in that way! he generally takes pretty good naps too (1-2 hours). his only pitfall is that he is a freakishly early riser. before the time change he was consistently sleeping 7-6 am, but he still hasn't quite adjusted and wakes up between 5 and 6 every day. jarman and i cannot figure out how we got such an early riser when we both would sleep in till 10 every day if we could! He moves a lot when he sleeps too, every time I check on him he is in a different corner of the crib. He usually sleeps with his face straight down, on his knees with his booty in the air. And he loves having lots of blankets in his bed to wrestle while he sleeps. Such a boy.

he pretty much has to be in the same room as me at all times. he can be playing nicely by himself with me sitting nearby but the second i get up and leave he follows me and gets in to whatever i'm trying to do. he doesn't really watch tv on his own, with the exception of frozen and the gruffalo (which is on netflix and is so cute). he is entranced by both of those movies and stops whatever he is doing to watch them. with any other kids show he has to be sitting on my lap to watch them. he falls asleep on me while watching his shows most afternoons and i love it more than anything. i know it's probably not a good habit but i don't even care. he still falls asleep in the car about half of the time, which often ruins his schedule if i don't catch it soon enough. he loves to get out of the house and go everywhere, but doesn't love the car and fights getting in his carseat as hard as possible. he still takes a pacifier and i am not planning to get rid of it any time soon. he has 8 teeth and i think he is working on some more. he has the most personality when we are at home, but when we leave the house he is too busy trying to figure everything out around him so he hardly smiles or waves at anyone (though he does do lots of staring).

he is constantly breathing really hard and working on exploring everything around him. he loves to wrestle- people or things. he sleeps cuddling with his blankets and loves to smash them in his face and bite them during the day (which is weird right?). right now he takes everything he can and puts it behind his head and drops it. whenever he is done playing with something or drinking his cup he throws it. he has always had a really loud voice and can yell super loud, though right now when he needs attention he just whines until he gets it. over thanksgiving break we learned that he doesn't do very well when there are too many people in the room/house, he gets shy and just wants me or jarman. he is kind of rough with other kids and i am worried he is going to be a bully. he is starting to get angry when he doesn't get his way and frustrated with people when they try to stop him. he gets really sad when we tell him no and usually angry crawls away (his form of stomping). he loves to climb up the stairs and is learning how to go down backwards without falling. he went through a phase of constantly having bumps, scrapes and bruises on his face but has finally figured out body control and doesn't have as many any more. he loves to push and lift things. he has pulled most of our furniture over and is kind of freakishly strong.