13 months.

Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:16
Not sure why this verse amazes me like it does. I love this truth. But I love it even more for Holden. It's a promise that I can teach him and one that we will cling to when things are hard or uncertain. Maybe you're wondering if I am going to do a monthly update for the rest of Holden’s life. Probably not. And 1 year is a good place to stop them, BUT it’s been a big month to just skip over and ignore. Can't do that! About 2 weeks after he turned 1, we packed up the bottles. We were down to one bottle a day and that was before bedtime. Then one night I just tried giving him his sippy cup instead. We’ve never looked back. Well, maybe Holden did. 4 days later, he was in his high chair eating lunch and I was putting away those last 3 bottles that were still out. He began to cry loudly while reaching his arms out and yelling “Baba. Baba.” It was a little sad, but really I was kind of laughing at him. So dramatic sometimes!
He now consistently says momma, dada, daddy, uh-oh (my fave), bur (for burp), bye bye, poppa and maybe a few other things. He likes to wave, dance to music, point at trees, pet puppies (but not so gently), splash in the water, play outside and now, walk. Today I dropped him off at the church nursery so that I could work in VBS. I placed him on the floor and asked for a kiss. He gave me a big, slobbery, open-mouthed one and then toddled off to play even though he was the first child in the room. No friends to play with, but first dibs on the toys. I guess that was good motivation. So, still no sign of anxiety with drop-offs at this point. But I love that he knows to kiss me bye. We are kissy-huggy people in this family. I think he has adjusted to it. :)
Holden is a really good eater. Eating just about everything that we eat for dinner, with a few exceptions. He loves a turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch. In fact when I start carrying it over to him in small pieces, he throws his arms up and cheers. He could live completely on bread. Bagels, tortillias, bread, rolls, waffles, pancakes. He definitely loves his carbs. So we have to work a little harder with the meat and veggies. Basically we don’t offer the bread until he has eaten the other. And that seems to go well. He now has 14 teeth, including his two bottom 1-year molars. Obviously all those teeth help with all the eating he is doing.
So I guess that is our update for the month. Here is our sweet, growing boy!