One Who Is One

Oh, Nolan...

What to say about you and those biggest blue eyes turning one?

(Cake coma.)

You like to play with balls and anything with wheels. Watching the cars go past out our back windows is one of your favorite activities. You have an enormous appetite, and there's not much that you won't eat.  (Except cheese. You're iffy on cheese. I didn't know I grew kids like that.) You are crazy good at walking, and amazingly fast. You walk just about everywhere now, dodging minefields of toys all day long. You're long but skinny, a string bean, and your height surprises everyone when they find out that you are just now turning one. You've learned how to scream recently, and enjoy doing so at every opportunity. You are the most ticklish baby I've ever met. They say babies aren't ticklish until a certain age, but I swear up and down that you've been ticklish since day one. Your brother and sister adore you, and you adore them. Playing with them (well, as much as you can) and watching them run around, jump about, and make silly sounds for your amusement gives you so much delight.  You'll never turn down attention but are often just as content to explore and play on your own.

You are determined. You know what you want and when you want it and there's absolutely no deterring you. You get mad when you don't get your way. You've reached every physical milestone early, rolling over, crawling, climbing, and walking before most of your friends. You love books, so much so that "book" was your first word. Despite quitting, cold-turkey, the sucking of the two middle fingers on your right hand nine months into your first year, you have figured out how to sooth yourself to sleep through the night again. You're not so sure about naps, though. You took three naps for the vast majority of this past year, took two naps for a hot second, but aren't quite sure how to transition to just one, or how long that one nap should be.  Let's work on that one, huh? Your enormous blue eyes are the first thing everyone comments on when they see you. Like your big brother and sister, you aren't a bit shy, and the 40 people that were here for your first birthday bash didn't phase you a bit.

That you were born a year ago seems both completely possible (it has been a long year, after all) and absolutely impossible, both at the same time.

(Wookit dat smoosh-face.)

(Family squeeze!)

You get lots of attention because you're the baby, yet you can also get lost in the shuffle.  A million times yesterday I realized with a start that, "oh, right, it's your birthday tomorrow", since we already celebrated a couple of birthdays just the day before.  Like your brother and sister, it's a bit surprising that you are turning one just now, since you've hit so many of the big milestones already: walking like a pro, a word or two under your belt. But less so. You are still the baby, after all. That you're growing into an actual toddler is still incomprehensible, in a way. When we make future plans it's impossible to think of you as 18 months, or a two-year old in your own right, able to keep up more and more with your siblings. I can understand having a couple of toddlers and a baby around, but a couple of kids and a toddler? That makes no sense to me. You'll just be a baby forever, right? Besides that nap business, I'd be content to keep you here, right where you are for awhile.

Of course, you're ready for more.  You're not shy about pushing your way into any situation that your brother and sister or other playmates are in. You want to be right there with them.

Go get 'em, you big one-year old.

(You know it's been a good party when everything is a bit blurry by the end and you find yourself wandering around without pants.)

I'm still going to call you Baby Nono, though.