11 months already!

I can't believe it... as of yesterday, Jay's 1st birthday is now less than a month away!

Holy cow!

Where did this last year go?!

Well... in the last month Jay celebrated his 1st Christmas and 1st New Years.

He took his 1st few steps, but would rather crawl or cruise along furniture instead.

He likes to make my family room and kitchen look like a small hurricane went through it at some time during the day.

He can stand and balance without holding onto anything now (although half the time he does it, he doesn't realize he's doing it).

No new teeth although those 1st year molars sure are taking their good ol' time coming in and it hasn't been fun!

Jay's had his 1st illness, getting both a stomach bug and a cold right around Christmas.

He's gotten very good putting the rings on the pole in the right size order too and he's a pro at feeding his Cookie Monster that eats the cookies which he got from his aunt, uncle and cousins in the Quad Cities for Christmas.

He definitely needs another haircut (I guess I should probably see if my mother-in-law can bring her hair cutting stuff with her next week when she comes for her weekly visit).

He also regularly eats "real" food now, often getting small portions of what we're having, otherwise he eats the Gerber Nature Select 3rd Foods if mommy's not around to do the cooking or we're not eating out.

He recently discovered Whole Wheat Goldfish crackers and LOVES those things!

He has issues with the word "no" too - it gets his attention, but he'll look at you and go back and do or touch what you told him not to.

He also tries to be sneaky by tricking you into thinking he's going for one thing when his goal is to distract you so he can go for something else (ie: the remote or phone or computer cords).

Can't believe in less than 1 month from now he'll be 1!

In other Jay-related news - I just learned tonight that his pediatric urology specialist switching from Madison to Milwaukee was a bit of a blessing. While Milwaukee is a bit further drive, his doctor and the hospital he's now at IS in our healthcare network! Yay! That'll help us out a lot in about a year or so when he has to have his surgery. I liked the children's hospital in Madison a lot, and since there's no pediatric urology specialist in our network within 30 miles our insurance was giving us a discounted rate, it was still out of network which mean more out of pocket expenses and every time he goes for a visit (now every 6 months) he also has to have a renal ultrasound to check on the status of his kidney and ureter tube so the doctor has something to discuss with us. And that ultrasound isn't exactly cheap! So good news for us! I just need to call and setup the appointment in Milwaukee and cancel the one with the specialist's associate he referred us to in Madison.