Happy Birthday Dash!

I know I have been super lame with the blog posts. In my defense, Dash had his first significant flu at the end of June, and then I caught it, and was miserably sick for over a week. Anyway, to make up for the long hiatus in posts, here is one long video/photo montage in celebration of Dash turning one on July 1st...more Dash than anyone could ever want! (Feel free to skip forward as it was made for the Dash superfan.)

It didn't seem to be streaming great when I tried it so I am providing a link directly to the video on Youtube as well.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P12Gaa_eCLI

Where to start with an update on Dash.....developmentally he is doing well. He is not yet walking (kind of glad about that) but cruises along furniture and he can stand for a few seconds here and there without holding onto anything. He can walk pusing his plastic toy walked and likes that. However, he seems to prefer crawling as his mode of transportation as he can get where he wants to go pretty quickly. Seriously, the kid sees the cat bowls full of dry food and he's there in a flash! Luckily Kevin baby proofed most of the cabinets months ago. Dash now loves to go through the drawer that has all of our kitchen accessories. He will reach up and pull the drawer open, then proceed to take out the grater, the lime squeezer, the muddler, the measuring cups and throw them on the floor. He hasn't quite learned to put them back yet!

Dash has managed to master crawling up and down the stairs. He was a quick study with learning how to come down safely and hasn't had any major falls. I also showed him how to try to get off the bed safely by coming down with his feet first while on his stomach. He does surprisingly well with that although one of us is always there to give him a little assistance. He has the general idea and even has tried to get off the changing table that way. He doesn't quite get the difference in height from the bed to the changing table!

While Dash is vocalizing a lot, I can't say that he has much of a vocabulary. He can say "dadda" and "momma" somewhat discriminately. Besides "agua", "Dora" (and no, that is not Dora the Explorer but Dora, his friend that shares his nanny with him), and "no" (Not sure he really knows what it means....he says it with a Frenchified emphasis which is pretty funny), there aren't any new words to report.

Dash has a bunch of teeth. I have lost count. I can't say he really lets me get in there to have a count. All I know is that they are sharp suckers! We are working on some problem behavior.

Dash has certainly slowed with the weight gain. He continues to have rolls although I'll swear that his belly is not hanging over the elastic of his pants as much as in the past. He was just over 26 lbs at his 12 month well child exam, and he was about 31 inches in height/length. While Dash 0nly really had one mild stuffy nose during his first 10.5 months, he has been sick several times since the end of May. First he had what I thought was croup. Then he came down with a virus and his first fever; he was miserable for several days, whimpering and unconsolable. Then he had an ear infection. And now he has a cough. For some reason, I thought since winter was over, so was cold and flu season. Apparently not.