One Year Update!

Otto has changed so much so quickly! Much quicker than my blogging can keep up with, that’s for sure.

Today is his first birthday! I can't believe that he is a year old. He is eating three meals a day, taking two naps, and just reduced to nursing 3 times a day. He started sleeping through the night the past couple of nights, but I'm skeptical to put it in writing in case it doesn't stick. 

He can stand independently and has taken just a few tiny first steps. He mainly crawls at this point, I think he knows that that's the fastest way to get around! He signs "all done",  "eat", and had signed “more."  He enthusiastically signs “all done” all the time, even when he’s not all done with something, but just if he runs out of something (no more cheerios on his tray) or if something is gone from him (ball rolls under the couch.)

He can also say a few words at this point! He says "ah-da" for all done, "a-LA", or "la" for Ayla, and for the word boom, he makes a muffled noise kind of between "brr" and "boo". He refers to a tower as a “boom”because that’s what we say when he knocks it down. He calls Jake “Dada.” Finally, he has started referring to both of the dogs as "Ay-dee" for Lady. He says “dada” for “I did it.” He repeats a lot of sounds and words we say as well, even if he doesn’t know what they mean.

Random cute things Otto does

-He will make a little circle with his mouth and say "oh" and "ooo." Along with that, he can whistle (by sucking in.)

-He will open books and talk gibberish as though he is reading them! “Diggle diggle.” I think he even refers to a book as a “diggle diggle.”

- He will sit on the floor and use his feet to spin in a full circle on his butt.

- If you say "big strong!" to him, he will lift his arms and put both hands in the air. 

- He makes cute little noises that sound like made up words, such as "diggle diggle" and "lottle lottle."

- If you ask him a question, he will do a cute little shrug as if to say "I dunno!" He does the same shrug if you ask him where someone went.

He had his first pizza for dinner in his birthday, as well as cutting his 7th tooth. He throws his food on the floor while he’s eating and likes to lean over and let Lady lick his hand also while he’s eating. He leans his forehead against Rosie and makes a squeal of affection, he just loves her. 

Another funny part about Otto is all the crazy nicknames that we give him. By the time he can talk, he won't even know his own name! We call him Chonny (pronouced ch-ah-knee or ch-own-nee), Chon-adon, Chunk-a-Munka, Baby-da, Bubba-da, Big strong chonk, the Buhbuh-doo, and many more that I can't even remember. 

That's all for now, Happy Birthday to the littlest boy! We are so thankful you joined our family. :)

In case you need a laugh, you should know that I (Ayla) wrote most of this because mom was too busy too lol. Guess I'm pretty good at impersonating her writing.