goodbye infancy, goodbye Boston

Well, it looks like we may never get around to that 1 year photo, with guitar. It may not happen for the 13 month update, either, since we won't have our stuff quite yet when we hit that milestone. Before that happens, though, I wanted to write a few words about what Elias was up to during the last month of his infancy. For starters, not much has changed in the nap department. Last week we experienced a bizarre but welcome return to two almost effortless naps each day, the first around 9:30 to 11 or so and the second, shorter nap happening around 3:30 to about 4:30. But as of Saturday Elias is back to his nap-resisting ways. It's not that he doesn't nap, he just fights it, occasionally by fussing, or babbling/playing, or both, sometimes for 45 minutes before finally getting quiet, usually just as I'm about to throw in the towel. I guess this transition from two naps to one takes awhile. And I'm pretty sure his first set of molars have been working their way up for a couple of months now. The drooling is pretty ridiculous the past few days. But his nighttime sleep is still, knock on wood, pretty good. Occasionally he'll fuss a bit as we leave the room but even then he's usually asleep within a few minutes and stays that way until, on average, 6:30 or so. This week he's been sleeping in a bit, waking up between 7 and 7:30, so I wonder if that little bit of extra sleep is contributing to his daytime routine being off.

Otherwise, as you know if you keep up with this blog, the main event of Elias's 12th month has been walking. He's still got a bit of that zombie walk going on but he's getting steadier and more confident every day. He even tried to run a little earlier today at Gymboree. In addition to that, it's more of the same, I guess. He seems to understand the words for various things pretty quickly but hasn't added any new words to his very limited vocabulary. There are a lot of hand gestures, and pointing, and grunting and other such noises to alert us to an airplane flying overhead for example, or the fan in a room we walk into, or a dog walking by. He waves hello and goodbye to just about anybody and anything, including my personal favorite, the flowers that line our walkway.

He continues to tolerate various dairy products pretty well, although I've yet to give him milk, waiting until he finally gets in for his one-year check-up this Friday. Other than milk, eggs, nuts, and fish, he's pretty open to trying new foods but his appetite is incredibly inconsistent. Some days he can pack away a decent portion of three or four different food groups in one sitting for all three meals, plus his formula and a snack or two; other days I can barely get him to finish his lunch leftovers for dinner. I guess this is life with a budding toddler. And at around 25 pounds, he's more than tripled his birth weight over the past year, so I guess I shouldn't worry too much.

I leave you with a couple of random photos from the past few weeks, first with his frog friend, Frankie, who has a diaper on thanks to Neal:


And sitting outside Sullivans, the meeting spot for our Castle Island walks with friends Henry and Maggie.


I think Elias will really like his new digs on the other side of the country, but we sure will miss our Boston area playdates.