Ollie at one year

I'm posting these almost two months late, but I have to post about Ollie at one-year-old, and the joy that he brings to our lives.

 This little guy is so friendly and full of smiles.  He has absolutely no stranger anxiety (I think it's because we don't leave him with babysitters because we worry about him having a seizure while we are gone).  We will walk up to anyone and lift his arms up, begging to be picked up.

 We visited a new ward a few weeks ago, and he reached and reached for the woman sitting behind us until she picked him up.  He continued to reach and be passed back about five rows, and I had to crawl over people to get him while he kept smiling and charming everyone.  One of the cute older ladies he visited said she called dibs to be his adopted grandmother.

 He's still very tiny, between the 10th and 25th percentile but his pediatrician thinks he will shoots up soon.

 Just after his first birthday, he stopped talking and didn't say or sign anything for a few weeks.  His doctor wasn't worried because he was still so social and happy.  Now he's started talking again and has a completely different vocabulary.  He doesn't say things like "hello" or "bye-bye" anymore, but he says "doggie" and "uh-oh"

 Ollie happily goes to bed at night, and is usually asleep within minutes. He still wakes up once or twice a night though so we're looking forward to Creed and Ollie having separate rooms where they won't disturb each others sleep (and more importantly, our sleep ;) )

 It amazes me how much he understand what we say to him.  If we mention going outside, he is waiting at the door or bringing us shoes within seconds.

 His favorite time of the day has got to be bath time.  He frantically tries to get in the tub while we fill it and undress him.

 Ollie is a climber.  Creed was always timid, but Ollie is fearless.  He is an amazing climber and has no fear of falling.  I'm not sure when he will start to get it and not walk off high surfaces because we always catch him, for fear falling with cause another seizure.  Any advice?

 He loves to share big slimey kisses with us.

He's becoming a better eater than Creed but he will not touch raspberries or strawberries. He has an unfortunately love in Cheez-its and even recognized the box in the grocery store the other day and strained to grab it off of the shelf.

He loves making us laugh and will do the same thing over and over if it causes us to giggle.

He's found his love for books and is constantly bringing them to us so we can set him on our lap and read each book over and over.  His current favorite is Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell.

He's becoming fiercely independent and gets upset when we try to help him with things.  He wants to climb and eat and drink by himself, thank you very much.

He's not grumpy very often, but when he is, you can whisk him outdoors and he's as happy as can be.

Creed has always been a Momma's boy but Ollie has a special bond with his dad.  He sprints to the door when he hears Larry come home from work and flaps his arms with joy.

He LOVES I-phones and gets upset if we try to pass him the I-touch instead (how does he know the difference?)

I know this post is crazy long, but I couldn't resist posting the rest of these pictures to sum up the last few months of Ollie's life.

He likes to wander the house exploring on his own, getting into everything possible.

He loves to color and gets desperate to get a hold of any crayon or pens he spots.

He's such a terrific little person!