This Little Boy is Still my Baby (Year One Retrospective)

As we near Nathan's first birthday it strikes me repeatedly that he's becoming less and less of a baby and more and more of a little boy. I am simultaneously dismayed to see him grow out of his babyhood and proud watching him discover his toddler self. It's little things, but they seem huge. It feels like all of a sudden he is climbing stairs, cruising on the furniture, TALKING, feeding himself, imitating, using his sippy cup like a pro, and exerting more and more of his will on us.

The first year has been, at moments, unbelievably hard, wonderfully delightful, and everything in between. Now, at a year, we're in a definite routine, and it's lovely. For posterity, here's what our days look like right now (obviously there is great variation, but this is the ideal that we hit about 60-80%% of the time):

7:00 - Awake and nurses
- plays, gets dressed, we get ready while he gets into trouble, and coffee (for us).
8:00 - Breakfast for us all and play until;
8:30 - 8:45 - (weekdays - Brian takes him to the other house or Cathy comes by)
9:30 - 10:00 - first nap (from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours)
11ish -bottle
12:00 - lunch
1-2ish - second nap (from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours)
3:00 - bottle and food
5:00 - 5:15 - (weekdays - Brian picks him up or Cathy leaves)
5:45 - 6:30 dinner
6:30 - Bedtime starts (bath every other night) nurses, books, and a song
7:00 - 7:15 - Asleep
(up once or twice just needing a pacifier - sometimes he sleeps right on through!)

At each stage he's become more interactive and more fun to engage with. While a tiny part of me misses the tiny baby who would stay where I put him and fall asleep on my shoulder, I am so tickled with who Nathan is becoming. Life is good.