Dean is a year old now. He's full of energy and has a heck of a vocabulary. His parents, on the other hand, are lazy slackers who need an extra nap or two. We didn't get the 11 month photos up. So here's that:

He says daddy (actually he usually bellows "Da-Deee"), calls several people (and a dog) at day care by name, says mommy (but usually only when he's mad) and says kitty. He occasionally will even make an attempt at "thank you". He's also starting to imitate us more and more.

At his last checkup he was still under 20lbs. His height and weight are both still about 3rd percentile, but his height-to-weight ratio is almost dead center. So, he's a still a little guy, but growing quite well. He points at things and is starting to interact more directly with people.

He loves music and frequently dances when he hears stuff he likes. Current favorites include the Jeopardy theme and the King of the Hill theme. Almost anything with a Latin beat works too. He also got to try out his swimming pool last weekend and had a blast.

He had a fun birthday party at day care, a trip to see the extended family down in Bloomington and then a birthday party up here too. It's been a busy few weeks, but a lot of fun.

So, there are lots of new pictures on Flickr and videos on Viddler which are linked in the sidebar. Feel free to spend some time checking those out. And without further ado: Dean at age 1.

(and one week because I am slow)

Dean is 2 months and 7 days old today (10w5d for those of you that like to count that way). On the Monday before Dean turned 2 months old, August 11, he had his two month check up (and shots). He is now 20.5 inches long and 8 lbs 15 oz. He is still tiny, but gaining at his own rate. (Pediatrician says 3-4th percentile for both height and weight, WHO says 0-1st percentile for both.) His head however is 15th percentile ("Lots of brains" claims his doctor.)

We have put all the preemie clothes away and about a week ago we had to retire one Newborn sized outfit. The rest of the newborn stuff fits still. The 0-3 is a little big but he is not swimming in them anymore. He is too skinny to wear any pants though. It is quite entertaining to put 0-3 pants on him and pick him up. They literally fall right off. I think we may have to buy some overalls before fall gets here.

I returned to work 3 days a week. He is doing great with bottles. He get 3-4 ounces per bottle and will drink everything he is given.

We have developed a bedtime routine and he goes down very easy. He eats, we swaddle him up, give him his pacifier turn on the vibrate and water noise on the pack-and-play, and put him down. He puts himself to sleep and sleeps about four hours. He will then eat and go right back to sleep for two more hours. It is making for pretty good nights.

In the last three weeks, he has been drooling a lot. He has also started gnawing at his hands, chewing on his pacifier, etc. I asked his doctor when we were there and he said that it appears that he is "pre-teething". He is quite young for that, but it is not unheard of.

He has also started trying to roll from his back to his stomach. He has rolled to his side to sleep since he was a few hours old. Now he sometimes goes the rest of the way over. He still gets the arm pinned under him and he gets mad. He has not figured out how to get back over when it happens yet.

Last week he decided that scooting across his changing table was fun. I put him at one end of it on his tummy and he scooted to the other end very quickly. I moved him back and he did it again, and again, and again, and again.

Between the trying to roll and the scooting, there is no turning your back on him. Seriously, aren't you supposed to get a bit longer before you have to worry about this?

He loves to imitate. If you stick your tongue out he will too. When you smile or laugh he smiles in return.

All-in-all he is doing really well. He is small for his age, but advanced as far as his developmental goals go.

Dean is two weeks old now. He had a check-up this week and is up to 6lbs 10oz, is 19.5in long, and is a little skinny, but healthy in all respects. The pediatrician wants us to talk to a nurse practitioner about making feeding more efficient so he'll gain weight a bit quicker. Clearly, the skinny genes are coming from some other part of our backgrounds. Nicole also had a check up and she's doing great, the scar looks good and she's in great shape for having had a large hole in her abdomen 2 weeks ago. We had visits from Chris, Katie, Tommy, Chris, Steph, Greg and uncle Geoff this week. I started back to work this week as well. So we're getting back into the routine of day-to-day life.

Here is a picture of Dean at 1 week old. We'll try to get regular pictures with the monkey blanket so you can see how he grows.

It's been an amazing week so far. We've learned so much about the little guy already. So far he's maintained his calm demeanour, and when he's awake he is so alert with his dark eyes looking everywhere. He takes long naps and likes to cluster feed. It's so exciting.

Also, the cats have been remarkably good with him.