He's ONE!

Well next Saturday is October 1st, and that means that our baby boy will turn one.  It has been such a busy year!  We have really enjoyed being parents of two.  Of course it's not the easiest job in the world, but I think Mikey would agree with me that it is definitely the most rewarding.  Seeing our two children interact with each other and with us is pretty much as good as it gets.
Marc had a rough start, once we got him home he was a typical newborn.  He was up at night a lot.  We didn't know if he was gassy or hungry, colicky?  And actually he's still not a great sleeper.  Now, at a year, he is up at least once a night.  I think we got pretty spoiled with Emmery, and most babies have trouble sleeping in the first year or so.  As much as it sucks getting up in the middle of the night, I do my best to remind myself that it won't always be this way, and I'll be wishing for just ONE more middle-of-the-night cuddle with my baby.  
I remember in the hospital, Mikey was holding him on his chest, and all the sudden Marc just lifts his head up like he'd been doing it for months.  Mikey's eyes popped open and he goes, "is that normal?"  I was like no.  Once he was home he was holding his head up pretty often, before he was even one month old I believe.

At six months, Marc was rolling over, sitting up on his own, he had two bottom teeth, and he was constantly smiling and laughing.

What he wasn't doing.......eating solids.

We started trying cereal at 6 months or so, and he was NOT having it!  He always got this same look on his face and would spit it right back out.  We continued to offer and he continued to hate it for what seemed like forever.  Now he's eating anything and everything, including any teeny tiny scrap of whatever he can find on the floor.  I don't think I have ever known the inside of a mouth like I know Marc's.  I have to dig around in there at least 3 times a day.  I have found pieces of plastic, crumbs, hair balls (gag), bugs (double-gag!) and many many unknown objects.  Every day I wonder to myself, "how much longer is this phase going to last??"  And on any given day you can hear me say, "what the #%* is in your mouth child?!"

By 8 months he was crawling and pulling up, and he said his first word, "uh-oh."  It's so funny because this was Emmery's first word too.  We have a book that is called "What Does Baby Say?"  and one of the pages says... "What does the busy baby say.... uh-oh!"  It's so fitting that both of our kids' first word was uh-oh.  We have some BUSY children.

So lately he has really started to communicate with us, which is so nice because it really does make things easier.  Just recently I'll ask him where Emmery is, or where Daddy is, and he'll point to them.  And he does the "more" sign in sign language.  When he's finished eating he'll put both hands out like, "all done!" since I don't know the sign for that I made it up.
He's so close to walking.  But he really has no desire to do so.  He'll stand, and then take like 3 or 4 steps towards me, and then fall into my arms.  He thinks it's hilarious.
So we're not having a party for his first birthday.  I'm thinking I'll make some cute little monkey cupcakes and let him (okay Emmery) blow out a candle and call it a day.