The past couple weeks

Ok, yes, I know it's been a little too long (which is a polite euphemism that means "too damn long") since I've updated ye olde blogge, however I do have a good excuse or two: head colds a-plenty / parties up the ying-yang / Spring! / work / house hunting / alien abduction / freezing fingers that are too numb to type. Pick any of those that you are sympathetic to and say "ooooooh, poor Peter's Dad."

 

When last we met, Peter had just turned exactly one (leap) year old to the minute, thanks to pre-set automatic posting. At that very moment Peter was slung across his mama's back like a load of overpriced textbooks as his parents, Aunt Sarah and Granny were schlepping him around the Madison farmer's market. We had taken him to get portraits taken the evening before (I'll post them later, I swear) where he displayed his propensity to do a pursed-lip grin while giggling. And he destroyed a birthday cake for pictures. And indulged in what seems to be an addiction to helium balloons (he can spot any helium balloon  at about 100 yards and point to it). Anyway, I'm prattling.

 

Several days later I started developing symptoms of the annoying head cold that seems to be wandering around the state. By the time Peter's birthday party came about the following Saturday my sinuses were giving me more trouble than I had had in a long time. I would recount the events of the party in detail if I could, however most of my time was spent blowing my nose. However, Peter's motor was running all day long, and whereas in the past he would have been none too happy about being the center of attention, this day he performed the task admirably. He was charming, he mingled well, he helped clean up, he did it all.

 

His cousin George had his 2nd birthday party the Saturday after Peter's. Again, Peter did just fine. A couple days before that, though, he started coming down with that head cold along with his mom. Mine had pretty much gone away by the time they got it. At one point Peter even had a good chest-clearing cough that wound up messing up our comforter. At least he felt better afterwards.

 

We took him to the doctor for his one-year check-up last week, and his measurements were back at the 75th percentile for height and head girth, and 50th for weight. He's 30 ½ inches tall and just under 23 pounds. All systems are go for him, too. The strawberry spot on his back is fading nicely.

 

In developmental news, Peter is close to walking. If you hold out your hands for him he'll grab hold and walk around with you. He'll stand by himself for about 5-10 seconds now before gently lowering himself to the floor. He's still a great crawler, so he's not rushing into ambulatory movement.

 

I'm sure I will be reminded of things I neglected to add here. But it's the Friday before Memorial Day, so my brain is already on vacation.