Your Royall Blogness: 12 month letter

19 pounds, 4 oz (10th percentile)

30.25 inches (75 percentile)

To our 1 year old (oh my goodness!!),

Our baby is ONE?!? How can it be? What a year it has been. Your first trip around the sun. I cannot remember a time now when you were not the center of our world, and you have rocked it in so many ways since you you made your fashionably late entrance into our family last June. A year!! It is such a short amount of time and such a long amount of time.

The day before your birthday this year was one of those stressful days. We had a lot going on, and you were not on your A-game. I handed you off to your daddy as soon as he got home from work, so I could have a break. Your daddy made you dinner, gave you a bath, and put you to bed. When I walked in the door and realized you were asleep, I burst into tears. They were happy and sad tears. Your first year was playing like a movie in fast forward before my eyes. It dawned on me that when you woke up, you were not going to be my little baby anymore, but a big ONE year old. I was happy that our family had "survived" the first year and I was so proud of the little nugget you were becoming. I was sad because it was all going so fast. Just like everybody said it would. I was worried that I hadn't captured the year well enough (ridiculous, I know!) and that we were going to forget something or miss something. I was also sad that I had not been the one to rock my 11 month old to sleep one last time and tell her the story about how she came into this world one year ago on June 11th at 3:38 a.m. weighing in at 8 pounds 14 oz and 20.5 inches long in Santa Monica, California.

You have had an amazing 11 month. You are learning so much everyday. The whole month you were practicing walking and standing. You had this ape crawl for awhile, crouched down on your feet with your hands on the ground. Towards the end of the month you started standing solo, then started standing from crouching in the middle of the room, and within a couple of days you started to take 1-2 steps! When you are feeling good, you are very happy to play independently around the living room and your nursery. You love peek-a-boo, flipping through your books and pointing to the pictures, pulling all your dolls off your shelves, giving your dolls hugs and kisses, opening all of your drawers and pulling out all of the items (pajama inventory), eat a snack, and playing with Leon. You and Leon remain best buds. He has started to realize that you two can interact with each other. He will lick you all over when you start pulling on him and you will giggle and look away, then you do it again. Usually, Leon will just lay there and let you pull and climb all over him. You like to sit on him in a straddle while he lays on the floor.

We survived another heat wave. Our house was too hot to be inside, so we went to the park, went to the beach, sat in the backyard, played in the kiddie pool, went to the Magic Forest (an indoor play area with AC!), and walked around the mall (hey…it has AC). We have continued playdates. You are very social and like to be with your friends, even if you are stealing toys from each other most of the time. You continue to wave to most everybody. Especially to strangers when we are out and about. Your wave is constantly evolving. It went from the whole arm wave, to the backwards wave, and now you to a dainty open and close hand flap. You wave bye bye and blow kisses to daddy (occasionally saying "mwah!") when he goes to work. You watch him walk to his car from the window and wave as his car pulls away. You have recently started to cry when daddy closes the door. You really love your daddy.

Your sleep seemed more predictable this month. You have started to appreciate your nap, and you let us know when you are sleepy. You take either one long nap (2-3 hours) or 2 short naps (1-1.5 hours) a day. You sleep in your crib. At bedtime, your daddy and I take turns giving you a bath and putting you down. Your daddy dances you down to a record, and I usually rock you and nurse you down. You are still nursing, somedays more than others. You always nurse right when you wake up and usually right before you sleep. You are eating much more food during the day, so you generally only want to nurse when you're sleepy, don't feel good, or bored. I do not think you're anywhere close to being done with nursing…and I do not mind one bit. Our philosophy on food is that if it is not a nut or a choking hazard…then it is pretty much game. You love to feed yourself food and feed your food to mommy and daddy! Your favorites continue to be meat and cheese. A new favorite would be cherry tomatoes. You will take these down! We discovered this when you ate our entire first harvest of tomatoes from the garden. While we are steering clear of sweets and processed food, you did get to eat a real cake on your birthday. You cried! But you loved it the next morning with your eggs for breakfast.

Your words (although not super coherent) to date are: mama, dada (all the time), bird (bah), bubba, yes (schlizzz).

One time words (words you said super clearly but only once!): belly button (she is obsessed with mine), baby (we were watching a birth video and you pointed to the baby when it was born).

You point to EVERYTHING and want to know all about it. You love when daddy takes you around the backyard and tells you about everything you see. You said bird constantly for a couple of weeks. Everytime you saw one or heard one (which is pretty much all day) you would point to the sky and say "bah". Your mouth curls up all on one side when you say "bah" so it is all just pretty cute.

You have a girly side. You love to play with my necklaces and point to my jewelry. You will put your necklaces on yourself. You love to hug and kiss your dollies. You brush your hair (and brush your teeth). You love sunglasses and you have about 5 different pair. You'll leave them on a smile.

You are hilarious. Your comedic timing with peek- a-boo still amazes me. You are constantly finding new props for your peek-a-boo addiction. the ottoman, the outdoor table, my legs, the couch, your tutu, a book, your clothes…really anything. You read adult social cues really well. When a group of adults start to laugh, you usually chime in with a loud, fake laugh to be part of the group. Well, that just gets the adults laughing even more.

You are a tom boy. Your best friend is Wilder, a boy. You are just as rough and tumble as he is. You can PALM a ball. This makes your daddy proud. You hate the bath…all of a sudden. You do not want us to clean you. Your eye hand coordination leads me to believe you'll be an athlete. You easily pass toys back and forth in your hands, have precision pincher capabilities, can see a piece of paper the size of an ant from across the room, and you can put your wooden rings on the pole. You love to fling your toys across the room and then go retrieve them, like a game of fetch with yourself.

You are a lover when you want to be. It is the best when you snuggle us back when we hug. You'll pat us on the back as if to comfort us. You will even give us kisses sometimes. They are open mouth peck kisses and I love them! The day before your birthday you kissed mommy 10 times in a row. I was about to burst!!

Your go to dance move is to sway side to side while shaking your right pointer finger in the air. Kind of a cross between Papa Shark and Happy's dance moves. When you are asked "How old is Breckin?" , you will hold up your index finger. You giggle and squeal uncontrollable when we tickle and wrestle you. You love the "I'm gonna get you" game. All I have to do is say "Breeeeeckin Adaaaaaair" and you squeal and start to crawl away from me as fast as you can.

You got your first freckle (on your right front shin). I guess this is significant since the name Breckin means "freckled". You are a size 4 shoe. You love to wipe things down like you are cleaning. You have started to point to the record player when you feel like dancing.