THE BIG ONE!

Emmett Charles is officially a YEAR old!! We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, May 1 (May Day) to remember this day last year, but are looking forward to a get-together at the end of the week with friends and some family.

Here are the stats from a Dr visit earlier this week:
32" long (still above 97th percent)
26lbs 7 oz (unbelievably only at 90th percent. I pity the 10% of mommies whose babies are heavier than him... and their backs!)

Emmett has a handful of words: bottle (bobble); mama and dada; dog; car; door (this is new - he says it when he wants to go out on our screened in porch, which is constantly). Also, earlier today he said "bye bye" when Teresa was going to the store, but we couldn't get him to repeat it. He also makes 'yummy sounds' like in Young Frankenstein when he eats something that he likes, and sometimes repeats animal sounds.

Appropriately, he took tentative steps this week!! One occasion was on his actual birthday - the other was earlier in the week while Mommy was in Vancouver for a work trip. His motor skills seem to be developing just fine - he points to everything, crawls, does a bear walk when he doesn't want his knees to touch down.

In general, he's very into exploring everything with his hands and examining objects. He puts his nose very close to the page to investigate books. Since he was able to grasp things, his number one way to get to know them is to shake them, or drum on them. He still does this, but also works more delicately, emptying a box of Q-tips one by one, etc.

Here are some pictures of our man this past weekend. Love to all, and thank you for the phone calls/text messages and cards - we all appreciate the thoughts :)

1 year old, wanting to walk to Daddy:


Playing with his BFF Juddy on his birthday:


Sitting in his chair: