Tidbits About a 12 Month Old Colin

Colin loves fruit. He LOVES fruit. He loves oranges (navel and mandarin), watermelon, peaches, plums, honeydew, cantaloupe...loves fruit. His favorites are oranges and peaches. I can always count on him to eat every single piece I give him.

Colin will eat absolutely anything that I place on his tray. Now, he might not love it...it may come back out...he may eat two bites and be done...but he will try anything. And he will try it every single time I give it to him, regardless of the fact that he tried it the day before and did not like it.

Colin thinks that Chickipoo and Fluff are hysterical. They are a short little cartoon that randomly comes on during the day on the Noggin channel. He laughs every time he sees them. And they are not doing anything funny...they just are funny to him. He also thinks that any face I make at him is the funniest thing he has ever seen. He will laugh uncontrollably if I tickle his neck under his ears and chin. He laughs when I come in to get him from his naps...he laughs all the time. He is the happiest little man you ever saw.

He knows immediately if I leave one of the gates open and runs to it with a quickness! He knows that he has to step over the little railing on the floor and he pauses before each gate, puts one chubby little hand on the side railing and carefully steps one foot over and then the next before taking off. I am always right behind him to bring him back to the living room, but I always stop and let him do his little gate steps. This is partially because I think it is good practice to learn to step over things in his way and partially because it is frankly the cutest thing I have ever seen. It gets me every time.

He loves to be out and about. Even during the worst day...no nap, teething hell, after shots...he will cheer up if I take him somewhere. He loves the grocery store and adores the plastic bags for produce. As soon as he sees me tear one off, he starts kicking his legs and clapping. I hand him two of them and he whips them around his face like a crazy man. I am fully aware that other mothers in the store think I am crazy. (I am pretty sure plastic bags are not acceptable baby toys. But I am standing right there! I swear I don't let him take them home!) He thinks it is too funny to whip those babies all over the place. He shows his dimples to anyone who looks at him. And even those that don't. He also loves the pool. We have discovered three pools in our neighborhood with the beach areas and splash parks for the babies. He adores them. I don't know what I am going to do when fall rolls around again.

He adores our mean cat, Ferris Mewler. And Colin is the only member of this family that Ferris does not bite. Colin laid down on top of Ferris yesterday. And not a scratch. Meanwhile I walked past Ferris on the way to write this post and he bit my ankle. Just because.

Colin thinks whole milk is the greatest thing ever. He drinks every single drop I give him every time. He actually gets excited for his bottles now. I hate milk with a passion, so I can say for sure that he got this trait from his father.

I serve Colin his milk warm in a bottle. I wanted to ensure a flawless transition from formula to milk, so I serve it exactly the same way that I served the formula. He loves it so much and I am in no hurry to get rid of those bottles. He drinks his ice water and juice perfectly out of his sippy cups all day long, so it is fine with me if he hangs onto the bottle for some warm milk a few times a day. This is probably different than other moms feel, but it works perfectly for us. The whole "weaning from the bottle" thing is not stressing me out at the moment. Don't worry...he won't be going all "Suri Cruise" and drinking from his bottle at 2 1/2. At least not in front of the paparazzi. ;-)

When Colin is tired, getting rocked, feeling bad, falls down or just plain gets upset, he lays his little head on my left shoulder and wraps his arms around my neck. It is the single greatest thing that ever happens to me. I love that more than words could ever describe. I can smell his baby scent of Johnson's Shampoo and whatever fruit he was last eating with a splash of Goldfish for good measure. If I could bottle that scent, I swear I would.