Rodrick Royal is ONE

One year ago today I had the most beautiful baby boy. Oh how my heart jumps when it sees Rocky boy. I am completely besotted with him. He is pure joy in a tiny, squishy body. I'm addicted to him and his sweet personality. 

I'm not sure what his one-year stats are because corona virus means our appointment is pushed back until the craziness is over. He's our smallest still at this point though. He is in 12 months onesies, but the pants are usually too long so he has to wear 9 month pants. It's so strange having a baby so small. Both of the older two just tore through sizes. Despite starting crawling, climbing and standing so insanely early, he only just started constantly using walking as his main mode of transport this month. Honestly, this week has been big for him walking. I love watching those wobbly, chubby legs move his smiley self around. 

He can say a few words right now, mostly ones that start with the letter B. Ball (oh how he loves balls), baby, bye-bye, balloon, binky, Dada, Momma, Lyra and he calls Rowan Dada too. He can kind of say dog and gets SO excited when he sees any and every dog. He was signing a whole bunch last month, but once he started making more clear sounds, we both got lax with signing. He still uses all done, milk, open, drink, bird, dog and cold. All animals that are not a bird/chicken/dug, are dogs to him. I really should brush up more so I can expand his vocabulary for him.

He loves to go in Rowan and Lyra's room. They both have this little kid chairs that he sits on like a little King. It's pretty cute. He also loves to be part of the action with his sibs. His favorite game is still chase. I'll chase the big kids and hold Rocky facing-forward so he feels like he's running with them. He breathily giggles and kicks his legs back and forth a whole bunch. He's probably bonded with Lyra more over the last few months and spends more time playing with her than Row. I hope he'll jump right in their little pack as he gets older since it's mostly the Rowan and Lyra club right now. 

He has a highly nutritious palate (not). His favorite entrees include suckers, Cheeto puffs, applesauce, oranges, apples, cucumbers, blueberries, pizza bananas, Chick-fil-a nuggets, broccoli, water, suckers and suckers. We have not pushed vegetables enough with him and now, he just doesn't really want them. He'll eat the occasional green bean or sweet potato, but he really, really hates things that are squishy. He'll just drop them disgustedly out of his hand. In terms of nursing, he will either go a good portion of the day without it with the exception of nap time OR he'll kind of snack a bunch where he'll latch for a few seconds at a time then become distracted. This mostly happens when he was recently hurt. He likes to have me trace his hand when he nurses and he'll trace mine. He loves his binky so much. When I get him out of his crib in the morning or after nap, he'll have one in his mouth and one to two in each tiny fist. He arches and freaks out when I try and put them back in the crib even if I'm not taking the one out of his mouth. he also does this super cute lip smacking things when he wants a binky or to nurse. 

The kid is social. I see a lot of similarities in his personality to Lyra. He'll smile and chat with anyone that looks his way and has recently started to maneuver himself toward them now that he's more mobile. He loves other kids, babies and animals. He does this funny thing where he will ask for a drink, but then stick his hand in my cup to steal my ice. He also does this cute things where he lays his head down on the ground and just lays facedown for a minute or two. He'll also eat like that too if he drops something. No hands, just face. He will throw his head back when he laughs and it kills me. He loves being chased and will squeal with delight when I say "I'm going to get you!"

He sleeps pretty well right now. He sleeps through the night about 70 percent of the time, so I count him passing with a solid C+. We are still in the two nap cycle for the most part, but we just sort of take it as it comes. We don't follow a super rigid schedule which has it's pluses and minuses. Plus being less stress if things don't go according to plan, minuses include getting overtired.

I felt before he was born that he would be a happy, fun kind of person and he most certainly is. I couldn't love him more