One year old

Today is Joel's first birthday. We'll be taking him to the botanical gardens soon to celebrate.

Lots of exciting things have been starting to happen in the last few months. Joel started to walk just before Thanksgiving, and he started pointing just before New Year's...lights have been one of his favorite things to point at. His first words were "No, no, no"...he pronounces it more like "Nah, nah, nah"and there's a corresponding hand waving that goes with these words...he often says it while waving at Quartz's dog bowls...in imitation of what we do to tell him not to touch the bowls or the contents of the bowls. (Peter's first words were also used in a dog-related context...in his case it involved a dog that barked a lot who was often told to "Shut up!") Other words he now says are the Chinese words for light 燈 (deng1) and doggie 狗狗 (gou3 gou3), uh-oh, down, and mum mum mum...which is used to talk about eating. He also crows like a rooster (urr-ur-urr-ur-urrrhhhh), and he waves goodbye and to passersby.