Rumor has it there are kids out there who routinely sleep until 7 or even 8 a.m. Justin is not one of them, although there must be lots, cause virtually every organized activity for toddlers takes place between 9 and 11 a.m. Unfortunately, since Justin is and always has been an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of guy (he goes to sleep at 8 p.m. every night without a fuss, but tends to get up at 6 a.m.), he goes down for a nap at 9:30 in the morning and we never get a chance to try any of those activities. I’m not anxious to push him to give up that nap, cause it certainly is a nice break, but someday it might be nice to have a chance to get out and try something new. C’est la vie.

Long weekends never seem quite long enough, but we did have a great time with the family. I played six rounds of golf in eight days and proved that practice does NOT make perfect. Still, it was fun. It was also the first time Dad, Rob, Dave and I have all golfed together — it’s so rare for the four of us to be in the same city during golf season that this was a special treat.

Justin found a new best buddy in Grandpa Kingwell (how to make friends with a one-year-old: do anything he wants). It might be a bit of a rude awakening for the little guy this week now that it’s just him and Mom again. Back to the ol’ routine…

There haven’t been any dramatic changes in Justin’s life recently, so there wasn’t really much to write about. His Kingwell grandparents are here for a visit and they’re enjoying their time with the little guy: playing in the park, exploring Planet Spacewalkers and just generally having a good time. Uncle Rob and Uncle Dave arrive tomorrow for the Easter weekend, so that should be good too.

There were a lot of changes in the days around Justin’s birthday: he gave up the bottle, switched from formula to milk, started walking and had his first haircut. After a few months of what seemed like little change, we suddenly realized our baby was growing up. I thought I would miss the baby days, but every new stage brings new and wonderful things, and I find myself enjoying watching Justin turn into a “real little boy,” as everyone puts it. It’s about this age that a lot of women start pining for a second baby (how many millions of siblings out there are only about two years apart?) but we’re definitely not there yet. I like our family just the way it is.

Justin is officially one year old today! Consequently, he saw his doctor for a checkup, and apparently he’s still a big boy: 31 inches tall and roughly 22.5 pounds, so he’s long and lean. The generally accepted rule is that a child reaches half his adult height by age two, so he still has a ways to go, but he’s already more than half his mom’s height. He’s grown 10 inches since birth — wow.

Apparently Justin woke up on Monday and decided he was going to walk. He took his first steps about a month ago but never really ventured very far until now — he can toddle around, change direction, even bend over and pick things up while still standing. We’re so proud!

I’m trying hard not to let my obsessively controlling personality get in the way of letting Justin do things for himself. This is a particular problem when it comes to meals — it’s tough for me to sit back and let Justin try to feed himself when I know I could feed him more quickly, more neatly and more efficiently. But I know he has to figure it out. And tonight we hit a milestone: the three of us ate as a family at supper time (usually we feed Justin about an hour before we eat) and the little guy managed to chow down almost all of his food sans parental help. A couple days ago we stopped giving him the bottle, too, so now he’s exclusively drinking from sippy cups (he never held the bottle himself and he’s reluctant to hold the cup, but that’s another story).

Our baby is becoming a toddler…

This is my second day of being officially unemployed, and it’s really not bad so far. The days are getting longer and the weather is getting better, so that helps. Except for the occasional screaming fit from teething pain, Justin’s been pretty good, although I’m still leery about the upcoming toddler years. My baby turns a year old next week — where does the time go?

There are exciting things to look forward to: my parents and both my brothers are coming to Kelowna for Easter, so that’ll be cool. Family visits are so much easier when we’re at home and Justin has his own crib, toys, stroller, etc. We should be golfing by then too.

My mom and I are off to London for a week this fall, which is really cool. I had suggested this trip without really expecting it to work out — I didn’t think Chris would be willing to stay behind, nor did I think Mom would be willing to take off with me when she could be here with Justin. But it seems Mom figures this is her only chance to see Europe, since Dad is not at all interested. This’ll be my third trip to London and there’s still a ton of stuff I haven’t seen. It’s one of my favorite cities in the whole world — this’ll be awesome!

I quit my job today. Well, technically I just told them I’m quitting as of March 1, but same difference. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel once the deed was actually done, but my world hasn’t crumbled beneath me or anything. I might even do some contract work for the company, so in the end I feel pretty good.

I wanted to get that over and done with before we left for our holiday — now I can just relax and enjoy. Only three days to go!