Thursday, June 10, 2010

Dakota is 1!!!!

Our Baby Boy Banks is 1 today!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Birthday Dakota Paul!!!
I really can’t believe it!!!! I can’t believe how fast the year has went & that my darling baby is 1 and I can’t believe how much joy & love Dakota has brought us! He is absolutely the most amazing, precious life I have ever been blessed to be part of! I’m so glad he’s ours! He's certainly stolen my heart & I've never been happier!

On April 25, Dakota took his 1st step-not holding onto anything! Since then he has been working hard on walking! His balance is quite good these days, and he actually prefers to walk over crawling. Though if he wants to go real fast, he will still crawl! He is very strong and can go from his crawl position (1 knee down & 1 knee up) to standing up w/o holding on to anything or pulling himself up with his arms, it’s crazy to watch, but takes good balance and strength to accomplish!

Month 11 has brought lots of firsts for Dakota!
He tried his 1st strawberry, yummers!
He has learned to climb onto and into anything and everything he can reach: chairs, stairs, boxes, toys, car seat, the oven, dishwasher, the slide at Playland, etc!
Dakota finally broke 20 pounds! As of 6/7, he now weighs 20.3.
He learned to say Emily this month and he started saying his 1st 2 word sentences, “Hi Dada” and “Hi Mama”!!!!
He went to Dow Gardens for Aunt Emily’s Prom pictures. See the previous blog entry for those wonderful photos!
Dakota stood up in his high chair for the 1st time this month & was SO proud of himself, not good.
He played in our tent and our basement for the 1st times, Woo-hoo!!!!
He celebrated Memorial Day with us at Mary Jo’s house! Where we spent the night and he took his 1st tractor ride with Dan, he was amazed!!!!
Dakota claps at church now & at himself!
He now thinks ALL animals make the “woof” sound, so he “woofs” at dogs, cats, bunnies, squirrels, birds, cow and more. Dogs are his very favorite animals, and he likes bigger dogs best. Small dogs are okay, but he is thrilled when he sees bigger dogs. I thought he was going to jump out of his stroller when our neighbor’s Golden Retriever sniffed and then licked him a few weeks ago. He was so happy that he was bouncing and woofing like crazy!!
Dakota rode his 1st ride, the train, at the mall, very fun!
He touched my fizzing pop & thought that was very neat!
He likes to help me fed him, by grabbing on the spoon about 1/day and moving it to his mouth with me.
When we tell Dakota no, he shakes his head no, along with us and then usually goes right back to doing what we asked him not to do, lol!
He learned to press his music board to keep the tunes and sounds going!
He wore his summertime PJs for the 1st time!
Dakota laid on his tummy in the bath tub!
He wore his 1st sunglasses!
He got his 1st and several more Swing rides, on dada’s lap, of course!
Dakota finished his Eating Therapy this month. We have some work to do yet, but he’s eating quite well now.
He loves to sleep on his slides, especially the left side, but I did find him on his tummy 2 times this month.
Dakota has begun having “Stranger Anxiety” this month. He does not like strangers’ right up in his face these days. He also has started to fuss when Andrew leaves for work in the morning, and if he looks around the room and can’t locate me.
I am shocked at the things Dakota remembers, like on our walks he looks & woofs at certain yards where we have seen dogs before. There is also a certain location near the Middle School where voices echo and as soon as we get near it he starts to call out a particular sound and listens for the echo, then does it again and again!!! Isn’t that amazing?!?!
He has learned to bounce a ball (in addition to rolling it), which delights him very much!
His feet touched the grass this month and did not like it.
He loves the Horsey back rides mama gives him!!!
Dakota got to see Baby Einstein DVDs & Elmo for the 1st time and loves both!
He got his 1st injury that involved blood. He feel while walking and bumped his lip, very upsetting for all of us!
He knows to be quite when sneaking with one of us to find or surprise the other! He loves it!!!!
He stands on his tippy toes to reach our counter tops!
He got to eat his 1st Muffin today, Chocolate!
He has had lots of visitors including: Aunt Emily, a few of her friends, Taylor & Kayla, Heather, Great Aunt Julie & Breeann, Abby, Lauren & Daniel, Mary Jo & Dan, and Joe & Willi
Dakota also stayed busy this month with lots of walks, visits to the mall’s Playland, attending Babytime, and playing in the house and our back yard.
He does defend his own for sure. He has a few favorite toys that he doesn’t like any other kid to touch and he tries to pull those toys out of their hands, lol! Usually he plays well with other kids his own size/age, but he prefers to watch bigger kids & sometimes, if they are too fast or too loud they scare him.

Dakota seems to have a real sensitive heart. He loves to give hugs and kisses. Last week on one of our walks, I was holding him and he reached over with 1 arm and wrapped it around Andrew’s arm & we walked that way for a while, it was so precious!

So as you can see Month 11, in addition to building up to his birthday was busy for Dakota, and full of lots of fun and the people he loves!

For his birthday today, the bad news is he had to get a shot, I can’t even believe this and I’m ticked about it! Poor D!
But the great news is that Aunt Emily is here and we are going to celebrate all day. And Dada is getting out of work early and we will continue the celebration with cupcakes, gifts and lots of play time!!! D’s day so it’ll all be D’s way! LOL! Woot, woot!!!

Happy Birthday my precious boy! I love you my Dakota Paul!

The pictures below are random shots from newest 6/10/10 (today) to oldest, 5/10/10. There are a ton of them, but we just have so much fun together I have to take tons of pics of my D!!! Check them out & Enjoy! To maximize the cuteness you can click on any photo .
Wow, while looking at these, I am shocked that he actually looks bigger and more like a boy from 5/10 compared to today!

Thank you for checking in on our wonderful 1 year old son!!! TTNF