Nicholas Noodle!

Nicholas turned one this week. I can't believe that my baby is one year old.  It's weird to think that this is very likely the last time I celebrate the first birthday of one of my children.  So to commemorate, here is a post to remind my posterity how cute the baby of the family was.

Nicholas is the happiest baby I have ever seen.  He loves his big brothers and sisters and always wants to be playing with them.  In grand tradition of my other babies, he isn't very cuddly, but every now and then when he gets tired he gives me loves and it is so sweet.  He is always smiling or laughing and is very vocal, even though he doesn't have many words.  Just like any other kid, he is really busy and squirmy.  He likes to try and climb on things.

Some milestones: He army crawled around 6 months, but didn't regular crawl until between 8.5 & 9 months.  His first word besides mom and dad was bye-bye.  By his first Birthday he has 6 words which he doesn't use often but it is super cute when he does.  Mom, Dad, Bye-Bye, No, Uh-Oh and Peekaboo.  Like his brothers and sisters he has been a late bloomer in the "teeth" department.  He just cut his very first one in the past few days.  It is barely poking through the gums on the bottom, so if you aren't looking for it, you wouldn't notice it.  Also like his siblings, he was a major baby food snob and getting him to eat solid foods was like getting a kid to clean their room.  And since he doesn't have any teeth, he just recently started eating "real" food.  He had a whole doughnut this morning!  He hates to be fed, he wants to do it himself, so he mostly eats a lot of finger foods.

Nicholas hates the bath tub and the shower! He doesn't just fuss, but screams bloody murder every time we get him in.  So imagine my surprise when we took him to the beach in November and he kept crawling into the ocean!  Over and over, right into the surf.  He loved the sand and was not at all discouraged by the waves lapping up on his hands and feet.  He even got completely submerged once, just for a second because I was standing there to lift him up.  I snatched him in the air and he looked at me like he was petrified and whimpered a bit.  But he didn't cry. I put him back down on the sand and he turned around and started to crawl right back into the water! In the freezing November water no-less.  Hates the tub, but loves the beach.... who'd have thought?

He also loves Disneyland.  He will go on all rides without crying or being scared.  Including Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion!  (which is more than I can say for Zachary).  He is very good at going up the stairs at home but sucks at coming down them.  At least he has now fallen down the stairs enough times that I don't have to worry that he will try to come down on his own.  But he has this funny game where he crawls to the top and then sits at the top yelling "mom.....mom......momomomomomooooom" until I come to get him.  When I show up he claps & laughs hysterically, then I take him down and he crawls right back up to repeat.

In grand baby tradition, some of his favorite past-times are playing in the kitchen cupboards and pulling out all the Tupperware, crawling under the desk and unplugging/eating cords and scavenging under the bar, table and through the 'sweep pile' for left over cereal and other goodies (edible or not).  I'm pretty sure he considers the toilet is his personal jacuzzi. Again, hates the tub, but loves the toilet?

He started walking around the furniture around 9 months old but didn't venture into the middle of the room until 11.5 months.  He started walking pretty solidly a few days before his birthday, but now he walks everywhere and figured out how to stand up in the middle of the room with no assistance this week too.
So far, re-arranging Christmas ornaments hasn't been as big of a draw for him as unwrapping presents and stealing bows off the top so he can use them like a chew toy.

I decided not to find out the gender of the baby during my pregnancy with Nicholas and I really thought Nicholas was going to be a girl.  I wasn't disappointed when he came, but really surprised that he was a boy. But I am so glad that Heavenly Father sent him to us! He is perfect just like he is!