One year.

Little Dude turns one year old today.  Technically, he has already turned one.  He turned one year old about 2:30 this morning.  He even woke me up so that he could get a birthday nursing session in.  I think he just wanted to be sure that I was not going to stop breastfeeding just because he is one year old.  Too bad I was half asleep at the time.

We are still breastfeeding, though I think I could start weaning if I wanted to.  I love breastfeeding my child.  I think he likes it, too.  We have played around with cow's milk, but he does not seem to want to drink it.  I do not think we have put much effort into getting him to like milk.

For the past couple of nights, he has not wanted to breastfeed before going to sleep.  He would rather play before bed than nurse.  It makes me sad.  I enjoyed nursing him to sleep.  Now we play with daddy before bed, and then often fuss a little before going off to sleep.  I guess it is a sign of the changes to come.  Just when you think you have it figured out, things change.

The transition to one nap per day is not going smoothly.  If I miss the tired window, it is impossible to get him down.  I am beginning to suspect that the window is around noon.  We missed it yesterday, and he took a shorter nap than he needed.  Sigh.  I guess I will try again this afternoon.  Hopefully we can get a good nap before we go out to dinner with my parents.

And we are walking.  All over the place.  He is now walking more than crawling, though he still walks like a drunk.  Weaving all over the place, holding on to things for support.  It is a major change.  He is beginning to look more like a toddler than a baby.  By spring, I think he will be mostly walking.  Which I think is amazing.  He has changed so fast this year.  The next big milestone we are looking at is talking.  He will probably start that soon, as he is stringing sounds together and constantly babbling.

Baby is also starting to sort.  He really enjoys his shape sorter.  And he now takes all his cars and plays with them in the play garage.  Does not matter is the car is part of a different set.  He plays with cars in the garage, because that is where cars go.

As for me, I am doing fine.  I get today off, and work Wednesday and Friday this week.  The new OR job is going well.  I find I am doing more ortho and ENT than I ever thought I would do.  Ortho and ENT still does not float my boat, but I am enjoying the lower stress of the job.  And it is a job.  I suspect at some point in the future I will want to go back to the hospital.  But not yet.  And it might be a different hospital   Who knows what the future brings.

Teaching is going well this semester.  I have more nursing students in my class, and they are fairly motivated to pass.  Hopefully I will have less apathy this semester.  We will see.

On Friday, I had one of my keloids removed, and other keloids injected with steroids.  Healing is going slower than I thought it would, probably because I cannot take it easy while chasing after a very active 1 year old.  Ibuprofen is my friend right now.  I have silicone sheets coming, which hopefully will help the healing process.  And I go back on the first for another round of steroid injections.  Hopefully this course of treatment will work.

Wishing everyone a good day!