Changes

Well, Rusty is just two weeks almost to the day from his first birthday, and I can't believe the little man that he is becoming. He is such a joy right now, even with the sleepless nights that seem to be accompanying his teething. The kid has FIVE teeth that are just sitting there, waiting to pop through. We can see them just waiting, blistering up and ready to go. Poor guy...I don't blame him for crying for over an hour in the middle of the night. I would too! In fact, some nights I almost DO cry with him, simply due to lack of sleep and feeling sorry for him. Thankfully, last night was a reprieve for some reason and he decided to sleep from 11 to 6. I'm not counting on it happening again tonight, but I am thankful for the break. I actually haven't had any coffee today because I woke up feeling refreshed!

Rusty has changed a lot...even since my family saw him in the end of July. He is now full on walking. He just does it! It's funny. We were visiting some friends the other night for a BBQ and there were five other kids there, all older than Rusty. One is a little girl who is about five months older than him, but they are about the same size. He watched her walking and I could practically see the wheels turning in his head. He had only walked a few steps here or there up to that point, but that night just started walking! Now he is cruising all over our house. From time to time he still drops down to crawl if he is really in a hurry, but the walking is happening more and more.

He is also finally starting to eat a few more big boy foods. This has been a struggle for us. I read all the books and tried to feed him such a great variety of food from the start to stop him from being a "picky" eater, but once again realized that my preconceived notions went out the window! He is a texture freak, and getting him to eat things that are not pureed has been a struggle. I think he is going to pass right by the mash up food stage though. Today we went out for lunch at Taco del Mar and we got him the cheese quesadilla because it was free. He munched it right down! I was so happy! He just kept eating the pieces that we ripped and put before him. Yesterday he ate pieces of my pancake and pieces of Kev's chicken sandwich. It seems that he is much more likely to try food that comes off of our plates than food that we give him that has been ground up or pureed. I hope that this is a trend that continues, as eating has been one of the biggest struggles for us.

He has started regularly going to the church nursery, and this is a place he loves! Today was the first day that he clung to me when I tried to hand him over to the workers, but I just took him in, started him playing with a toy, said goodbye and then he was fine. It is nice to once again be able to go to church and hear the message and sing and snuggle up next to Kevin in the pew. I also know that Rusty is being taken care of really well, so I don't worry about him.

One of the cutest things he does is this adorable squinchy face. I keep trying to catch it on camera, but have yet to do so. He squinches up his little nose, squints his eyes and grins a big grin. He does it when he thinks something is funny and he wants you to think it is too. The other day I said, "I wonder where this face came from?" and Kev replied, "From you! You do the same thing!" Funny how they mimic us from so early on. I think it must look much more adorable on him than it does on me though!

We sure do love our little monkey!