Look ma, no hands!

Spencer has been standing really well for the past couple of weeks. One day I looked over, and all of a sudden he was standing at his toy box playing with a toy with BOTH hands, unlike his usual grab a toy with one hand and hold on with the other. It was almost like he forgot he was supposed to be holding on. He does this frequently now. Learning balance and gaining some muscle strength in his legs. No steps yet, but he can stand for long periods of time when he wants to. I guess maybe it doesn't sound like a very big deal, but it completely amazed us! Every time he stands we scream at each other 'Look! Look! He's doing it again!'. He just gives us a blank look like we're complete idiots. It's lots of fun.

It's difficult to tell with these pictures, but he was standing up to play with his wombat puppet.









































This pictures doesn't have anything to do with Spencer being able to stand, but what is cuter than Spencer in a box?
He's also talking really well, in full sentences. Fred can interpret much better than I can. For example, 'Opel-o-do' means 'open the door (so I can go outside and play)'. 'Dlobo-splthag-okodo?' = 'Can I have spaghetti for dinner?'. Sometimes however even Fred is stumped and says it sounds like Spencer is speaking Chinese. That makes me wonder if Chinese parents think their infants sound like they are speaking American English.

Really the only other recent development is that he hates getting his diaper changed. He screams and squirms, it's really awful. We have about 2 years of diaper changing left, so that should be a lot of fun. Yikes.

Spencer's first birthday cake

Just a few pics of Spencer with his first birthday (cup)cake. I'm too tired to write much, and am not feeling very inspired right now so the pictures will have to speak for themselves.



Spencer and cousin Anders (my cousin, so his first cousin once removed? Something like that) playing with some new toys.

Spencer on YouTube!

So I just discovered YouTube! I mean, I knew it existed and had seen some YouTube videos, but I just discovered how easy and FREE it is to use. I also recently realized that our digital camera takes cute little video clips that I can easily upload to YouTube. As a result, YouTube is about to be inundated with cute little video clips of Spencer.

Here are 2 videos we uploaded to YouTube. The first one is Spencer having fun with his walking toy, and the second is a video of Spencer eating his first birthday cake (well, it was a cupcake, but same idea). Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nmu9FgkuxE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEuIDzL5a8w

P.S. More birthday narrative and photos to come.

One year old today!

Today is Spencer's first birthday. He was born at 8:03 AM. We can hardly believe it's been a year. And we're very happy that so far he seems healthy and happy. We take him in for his one-year check up tomorrow, so we'll find out his growth statistics then.

He really is an easy-going little guy. Just getting to the point where he's doing a lot more exploring and becoming more independent. Not walking yet but I don't think it will be long now.

We are having a very low-key, informal birthday celebration on Saturday afternoon. Just close family and a little bit of cake and ice cream.

Happy Birthday Spencer!