"Bittersweet - more sweet than bitter"

Buck turned one today. He's 12 months.

I understand all of the monthly counting -- since we have to know the months for things like shots and...well, that's about all really. I guess I don't know why people don't just say their kid is one or one and 1/2. 18 months? Doesn't that seem like unnecessary math? At least for the nice lady who asks how old my baby is at the deli counter. Does she really need to be doing subtraction because I want to be precise? It's like people who correct grammar of adults during a normal conversation. I am an English teacher and even I don't do that. My plan is to always say that Buck is one. I'll add the "and a 1/2" next week when he's grown another 3 pounds.

Speaking of math (my favorite topic), we had our 12 month doctor visit today. I have a doctor who recently returned to Canada from France, so she only gives stats in metrics. Invariably, (such as today) I forget how much Buck weighs and how tall he is by the time I walk out of the office because I don't really understand what she's saying in the first place. I admit my mental incompetance regarding the metric system -- and I now have no idea how big Buck is on his first birthday. I do know that he is at the 90% in both height and weight. This means that if there were 100 one-year old kids (I'm assuming in both Canada and the US), that 10 of them would be taller and weigh more than Buck. 90 of them would be smaller.

I wish that there was a personality chart: Buck would be on the "laid back laugh all the time" side of the chart and I'm guessing that he'll be the kid telling jokes to those other 10 really big kids. Hopefully not jokes about his mother & father.

The bittersweet aspect of this birthday deal is that our baby is already a "toddler." He points at airplanes and crawls around the house banging his big head into things. And he loves balloons. Thanks, so much Coach K 1 & Hoonka!