Mr. Special Turns One!

Peter (aka Mr. Special--he has a LOT of nicknames in our house!) turned ONE year old! How did that happen?

For Peter's birthday we decided to buy a family pass to Hogle Zoo. We took him on the day before his birthday (for weather reasons we couldn't go on his birthday) and he enjoyed it.

 We also bought him a balloon on his birthday, which he loved more than the zoo.

 On Saturday we had a combined birthday party for Peter and his cousin Brigham. It was a shark party and Peter enjoyed both the attention and his two mini cupcakes!

Afton helped me make the shark cupcakes during Peter's nap.

The birthday boys getting sung to at their party.

A few things about Peter as he turned ONE:
-The week of his birthday Peter began drinking cow's milk and was weaned from nursing a few days after his birthday. He was just ready!
-Also the week of his birthday Peter started saying a few words. Banana, hot, Achoo, and a pig sound. He will also imitate a few animal sounds and other words sporadically. He started signing "more" and "all done" and sometimes nods his head yes (very exaggerated). The following week he began waving bye-bye. So he has really started taking off in the communication department.
-During the same week he also began pulling himself up to his feet on furniture. And that continues to get more and more frequent each day. He is getting more brave and will be cruising around in no time!
-At his 12 month appointment, Peter weighed just over 18 lbs and was just about 28 inches long. He is definitely on the smaller side but doing good developmentally and we hope his growth will take off and he will get more average size for his age (just as big sister Afton did) here soon.
-As he understands more and more, Peter has started to tease Afton. He will take something from her and then try to turn around and hide it, or attempt to crawl away with it. He will also attack her by burying his face in her lap and softly bite her. It is so fun to see him understand teasing and to reciprocate since he has so often been on the other end of the teasing!