7 Quick Tuesday Takes - Nate, t-1 and counting

Nate's birthday is one week from today.  Oh. My. Goodness. When I say that, my brain doesn't compute it. "Oh yeah, Nate's going to be one" sounds like "ish kabibble hoobity doo" to my brain. It means nothing, like I can't wrap my brain around the concept of having a one year old. I can barely handle calling myself a mom still. (I'm kind of slow sometimes, what can I say.)

So today, one week out from Nate's 1st birthday (what??), here are seven things about my Peanut that I don't know if I've mentioned before.

1 - I love to watch Dancing with the Stars with him and dance around the living room with him. It's usually with him in my arms, but now sometimes we hold hands and do some deep knee bends (you've gotta love that baby dancing). The day he was born was the season finale of DWTS for that season, so I like to joke that he's been watching it his whole life. It's kind of true (I did watch the finale in the hospital that night).

2 - While he's a very happy and relatively secure baby, he's doesn't seem to attach to things. He never wanted a pacifier, hasn't ever had a blanket or toy that he was extremely attached to, or doesn't need a particular object in order to fall asleep. He isn't even crazy about his bottle. He likes his bottle, sure, and his sippy cup, too. But I can't think of anything in his life that we could take away that would wreak havoc. If my niece lost her little pink monkey, there'd be hell to pay. (My sister actually has a back up one at the ready in case that ever happens.) And my nephew remembers not just everything he owns, but who gave it to him. Crazy. Nate? Just not that kind of kid, I guess. Sometimes I worry about it (because I worry about everything) but at least we don't have to go crazy fearing the loss of a favorite object.

3 - That said, he's clearly attached to us, the hubby and I. If he wakes up in his crib, he wakes up crying. If he wakes up next to us, he smiles as soon as he opens his eyes and starts babbling happily. When Kate came over the other day, he took a few looks at her and started crying; my only guess is that he thought she was there to babysit and that we were leaving. (I'll be happy when separation anxiety is over.)

4 - For some reason, Nate loves to put himself in downward-facing dog position.

(That's a veggie crunchie, not a Cheeto, on the carpet. I promise.)

He does this a hundred times a day and I don't know where he gets it from. He's never seen anyone do yoga or a somersault, so it's just something he decided to do one day and finds funny. Fine by me since I find it funny, too.

5. Nate takes 4-5 steps now on occasion and takes 2-3 steps many times a day, but I don't consider him "walking" yet. Is that right? I feel like he needs to be just walking around all the time to be walking.

6. Nate's favorite characters are Mickey Mouse (which is on a blanket our friend John gave him for Christmas), The Wonder Pets, and Moose A. Moose (the latter two from Nick Jr.). He'll say "Uckey" or "McGee" for Mickey and every night we read a Wonder Pets book at bedtime. He knows that when the credits roll on a Nick Jr. show, Moose is about to come on so he speedily crawls over to the television and waits. He also speeds over if he hears the Wonder Pets.

7. Saturday night we went out to dinner. The hubby told Nate he had to eat more chicken before he could have more apple juice, at which point Nate picked up three handfuls of chicken, dropped them on the bench next to him, and then grinned and clapped his hands. Can that be a coincidence? Did he really just try and pull one over on us?? Either way, we were hysterical.