I have an almost one year old in my house

And that's such a weird thing to say.  But also so exciting.  In two short days our little baby will be one - 12 months - 365 days - I could count the hours but I don't think I want to.

We've had a good last week or so.  It's been hectic, but it always is.  This weekend was busy - or I guess Saturday was busy.  Today was the first day of the NFL season so it could only be busy before 10 am.  With four guests coming over the next five days, we have a lot to get together.  But I think we're mostly done and it we actually feel pretty good about it.

Jayden has been crawling like crazy.  He still falters every once in a while, but he is also super fast.  His number one destination downstairs is Jasmine's food/water bowl.  I believe that he thinks anything with water in it was made for him to splash in.  It's a nice idea, but not totally true.  Jayden also is falling in love with Jasmine more and more every day.  He's figured out how to pat her and hug her.  It's kind of amazing.

Hugging.

Not sure what this is - all I know is Jayden tried to lay down with Jasmine and Jasmine put her paw on his head.  It was hilarious.  And then we had to rescue Jayden's little head from Jasmine's giant paw.

We had our one year photo shoot with Ana yesterday and it was fun.  We went to a park this time, to get a little variety, and Carmen and I were in some of the pictures.  Ana already posted two of the pictures on facebook, so for those of you that don't have facebook here's the sneak preview:

Jayden is not used to grass since our backyard sucks so much.  So he wouldn't put his feet down in the grass for very long!

Jayden still won't pull up to his feet, but he is really good at kneeling.  Luckily lots of things in our house are kneeling height for him.  He kneels at the hearth, at our ottoman, at the couch, at the blue chair in the family room, at the swing in his room that I use for storage, at the bookshelves full of his toys in his room - basically at everything.  Every once in a while he starts to push up with one of his legs, but never gets farther than that. Hopefully this progress is enough to convince our pediatrician that we do not need to go see a physical therapist.  I don't know why a doctor would ever say such a thing to mom, let alone a first time mom, but luckily Jayden has started moving and is developing muscles and courage.

I read an article today that discussed the non-academic part of education that's so important, the courage and strength and persistence that children develop from trying things on their own.  Jayden is a little young to push him in this direction entirely - he still needs support and comfort and assistance so that he can develop the confidence to try new things on his own - but I try to let him struggle with things for a few minutes before jumping in.  And if I do need to help, I try to do just that, to help, not do it all for him.  Who knows if these things are really that big of a deal, but I really love the idea that I am developing this brave, strong, confident little boy who will try new things but be careful at the same time.  I just hope I'm doing it right!

Today we tried something new:

Jayden in a box!  (funny enough, he actually loved this, for at least 15 minutes until his toys started getting stuck and he couldn't move around enough)

Today we also suffered through some serious teething.  I think his upper fangs are really pushing through his gums, causing him all kinds of pain.  He was incredibly fussy, and would just cry out for no reason every once in a while.  I should have guessed, because when we got back from the photo shoot last night, this is what he was doing:

For 5 or 10 minutes he kept sticking his tongue and running it along the bottom of his mouth.  It was hilarious.  

He's asleep now, but has already woken up once since I put him down.  We'll see how the rest of the night goes - we hope for the best but expect the worst!