Biggest Little Boy.

Thomas is 1 year old today (though I started this post several days ago...it just takes that long to accomplish things sometimes). Our biggest little boy is really a baby no more.

As Jacob turned a year old,

(JDP at 1yr)

I recall being a bit baffled that parents could be depressed that their children were growing-up, hitting milestones at record speed, and loosing their 'babyness'.

With Thomas, I understand a wee bit more; he's too big to casually toss in the air, he wears 18m+ clothing (as in some clothes Jacob wore when he started preschool last year), and we're a back-break away from permanently retiring him to the stroller-which he is learning to hate- instead of the Moby wrap. Here, as he turns 1, he walks everywhere at the speed of light, points or waves and babbles at things of his choosing (dogs and footballs), and smirks at silly jokes that he shouldn't have understood.

When he's got an opinion, he's quick and loud at sharing (happily and not-so-much); when he's happy to go with the flow, he's just the silliest mellow and cuddly munchkin.

We've learned that physically and personality-wise, our children are distinct thus far. Jacob is a Daniel Pugh mini-me; active, competitive, curious, extremely clever, endearingly mischievous, and startlingly intuitive.

Thomas is a Chell. He loves to be loved and snuggled, has a very silly and unique sense of humor, is sly and muted in his mischief, wants to eat the food you're eating (veggie, fruit, bean, meat, nearly all are okay with him as long as you too were eating it), wants to explore the detail of toy (or not quite a toy) mechanics, and can hone-in on 1 person to explore rather than absorb the emotions of a full room of people.

Thosmos has had a chaotic year medically, but continues to bear with us on his daily breathing treatments and asthmatic issues during germs. He'll be seeing a pulmonary specialist sometime after the holidays as x-rays already indicate lung/air-way structure changes due to his asthma; but considering how well he's done last year, we know it will all get better and better.