Where did the year (and my baby) go?

It's mid-May 2011. My last post was (I think) December of 2010. And it feels like the time since then has flown. I'm not sure where it has gone.

Suddenly my little baby is.. a person? 11 months old in 4 days. He has teeth (5 of them)! He talks (a lot)!, he throws temper-tantrums, he climbs and he cruises. Trips to the playground now involve mommy chasing him all over the jungle gym as he climbs & crawls under, over and through everything he can find, crawl-running from one end of the park to the other, chasing after the 2 and 3 year old toddlers he is (often) on eye level with; not to mention the intense examination of every blade of grass, leaf, flower, pebble and twig (inevitably ending in "NO JOSHUA NOT IN YOUR MOUTH!!!"). He has a definite personality now and does not hesitate to show it off. He hates spinach and cheese ravioli and chopped meat but eats just about everything else in sight. Most days proffering whatever mommy & daddy are eating to what's in the jar meant for him. Just this morning he learned to feed himself with a spoon (well a start anyway) I put oatmeal on the spoon, he grabs it and feeds himself and offers me the spoon when it's gone and says "nahh" (for "now") or "moa" (for "more") or sometimes just "AHHHH" lol.

It's scary thinking of the time that has past. I feel like it was just yesterday that Erik would let me ride around all day with him, the awkward NOT flirting that we used to torture each other with for 10 hours before I went back to my boyfriend of the time and he to his "companions". The verbal fencing we used to conduct. And then the emotional high when we found that connection together. The (what feels like) short period of time we spent just us 2; driving upstate for the weekend our out east on a whim; spending $80 on Sushi just because we could. Driving 50-60 hours and living in the moment. I can't help smiling at the memories of those 2 little lines on the stick, that first sonogram (I thought my heart was going to melt) and seeing that tiny little baby for the first time.. my heart didn't melt or break as I feared, it exploded and grew and fireworks went off inside my head, and the feeling of knowing "THIS is perfect" the first time we were together as a family.

But that's all the past, gone now except in memories. My little baby is a little man now, he will be ONE YEARS OLD in just 5 short weeks.

From April 2011