One year old!

It was a year ago today that Tim and I became two of the luckiest people on earth when we were blessed with our baby boy, Aaron Gregory Coenen. In some ways, it seems like yesterday and in other ways, it's hard to remember life before Aaron was born!

Aaron is such a blessing and keeps us very entertained! At a year old, he is an active and spirited young man with SO much to keep him busy! He loves to move and is in pretty much constant motion from the minute he wakes up until the minute he goes to sleep! Aaron has mastered the art of walking and has moved on to running now. He loves to play at the park, throw balls, and climb up on things. Aaron has no fear, so he has to be watched pretty carefully at the playground or when we're way from home. Because of his activity level and lack of fear, he gets at least one new bruise, cut, scratch on his body (generally his head) everyday! He's pretty tough and often times we don't even know when he got the bruises/cuts/scratches. People at the park always comment how amazing it is that he falls down and just picks himself right back up and takes off again. If he cries, there's probabaly going to be blood involved!

Aaron loves to get into everything and is getting more mischievous every day! He likes to take all of the pans out of the drawer under the oven and carry them around the house. Then he likes to get into the drawer and throw his toys in! He tries to picks up the vent covers off the HVAC ducts and toss things in. Aaron loves to tear everything out of the drawers in the bathroom that he has access to and brush his hair, put on mommy's headbands, brush his teeth with the toothbrush, and try to open up the contact solution bottles. (We have a few drawers that we can't find baby locks/latches to fit!) Aaron likes to get into the toilet water, so we've had to get toilet locks for some of them! He loves to read books and points at everything so that you'll name the pictures for him. Aaron enjoys playing with toys, opening the garbage can and throwing things in, "talking" on his phone, dancing to music (he dances mainly with his arms and it's hilarious!), taking baths, and playing outside. He does not like having his face and hands washed, coming inside from playing outside, or being told 'no'. He can be found throwing tantrums by throwing himself on the floor and screaming/crying when he can't have/do what he wants.

One of his more charming behaviors right now is the screaming. Aaron screams at the top of his lungs (ear piercing, high pitched squeals) for a variety of reasons. Usually these screams are to communicate that he wants something or that he's mad or frustrated that he can't have/do something. We're hoping that this habit passes quickly, but it has to be mentioned, as we're explaining what Aaron is like at a year old.

Aaron gets up at anywhere between 6 and 7 in the morning, takes a morning nap from about 9-10:30, takes an afternoon nap from about 1:30-3, and goes to bed at night around 7:30 and generally sleeps straight through until the next morning. Aaron loves to eat. Some of his favorite foods include: any fruit (especially strawberries, grapes, oranges, bananas, watermelon), green beans, gold fish crackers, toast with jelly, pasta, and tacos. He eats pretty much anything; there are not many things that he has ever turned down! Aaron drinks water and juice from a sippy cup and just has one bottle of formula at night after his dinner and bath.

Aaron is saying quite a few words now and communicating with us in a lot of ways. He says mama, dada, dog, woof woof, duck, hi, and uh oh. He signs more and all done and waves hello, goodbye, and night night. Aaron has a lot of things that he wants to communicate, so when he can't think of any other way to do it, he will scream!

Aaron understands SO many things now that it's impossible to list them all, but some of the early ones were: get a book, go outside, go night night, time to eat, go upstairs, go downstairs, get your ball, etc. Aaron will point to our eyes, nose, and mouth when we ask him to.

Aaron has 8 teeth- 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom. They are getting pretty big and you can see them when he talks and laughs. He's not a thumb or pacifier sucker and doesn't drool, but he likes to bite on things. Don't get your fingers too close to his mouth if you don't want them chomped down on! This makes it tricky to see what's going on in there, but the last time I looked there we no new teeth coming in!

As you can tell, Aaron is our pride and joy and we feel blessed by every day that we spend with him. Happy 1st birthday to our 'baby' boy!!!


Aaron on the morning of his 1st birthday!

Aaron will be having his 1st birthday party on Saturday and be getting baptized on Sunday, so it will be a fun weekend of celebrating! Nan, Papa, Amy, Dan, Brett, Claire, and Tom are all coming in town for the weekend to see Aaron and we'll have some friends joining as well. Watch for photos next week!