Damien is 1 Year Old

Wow, hard to believe that our little pumpkin, munchkin, monkey, boo boo is one year old. Boy time flies when you are having the time of your life. What an incredible journey this has been. Damien's 12th month was filled with lots of exciting developments. Mostly in the way of language and mobility. He learned how to pull himself up onto furniture, how to "cruise" (i.e. walk while holding on to such furniture), he learned to push a walking toy by himself, he learned to blow kisses, and he learned to stack blocks. His words now include walk, shoe, cracker, aqua, baba, avocado, more and bye (in addition to his first words of ball, dada and mama). He's pretty good at imitating now, and likes to mimic what the adults do - sometimes to hilarious results. He LOVES to walk assisted. He is quite clear about this desire, as he will scoot/crawl over to you grab one hand to pull himself up and then reach for the other hand and either start moving or say walk. Then off he goes, saying "walk, walk, walk." He loves to go up and down stairs both assisted on his feet and unassisted on his hands and knees. He has really come to love his blanket and monkey, and often wants to take these two items out of his crib after waking up. He finally loves to go for walks in his stroller - making many trips to the park and Berkeley Bowl. He's not so interested in his toy pit anymore, and prefers to walk, walk, walk - and play with rocks and dirt and water. We continue to explore new foods, and he is generally a good eater, but will occasionally reject the usual favorites - by spitting and throwing. But, you usually can't go wrong with yogurt, avocado, raspberries and goldfish crackers. He's a true delight.

Obliging Momma with his birthday crown and bib (Thank you Grandma Linda)

He's all smiles on his birthday.

Especially if he has his comb that he loves (and knows how to use!).

Damien got to go to a special sushi restaurant for his birthday dinner, where he enjoyed edamame, tofu, fruity yogurt (with sugar!) and french fries (in duck fat).

Hey guys, it is time to get out of here!

Back in his birthday suit.

Thanks to the fruity yogurt, D was able to stay up WAY late until Papa returned from his business trip at 8:45pm. Papa was thrilled.

Damien managed to stay up till 9:09 PM to celebrate the official time of his birth. A real party animal.