I have been offline for a while (we’re in Italy and my laptop is broken!)  and Patrick’s 1^st birthday update is overdue!…a little late, but lots of news...he's 13 months today! Patrick weighed 11.75 kg on his 1^st birthday – a BIG boy!! He cruises, walks pushing his push toy around, he mimics everything you say. He says banana, bye bye, ‘wala na’, night night, gives you kisses. If you give him a brush, he brushes his hair, and brushes his teeth with a toothbrush…he knows what lots of items are used for and will do it. He has 7 teeth, eats everything (but no meat) and LOVES pasta, and still nurses many times a day (about 4). He sleeps 9 to 5, wakes up to nurse a bit, then sleeps again till 8-9. 

He is ok with everyone once he has studied their face thoroughly and then he’ll put on a show for everyone: clapping hands, spinning around on his butt…. He loves anything that flies and will point at it and yell for it (he used to point with his thumb, but has now started pointing with his pointer finger). Patrick is also very dextrous, he has never let anyone spoon feed him, he only wants to feed himself and has been doing it since he started eating regular food around 10 months (he skipped the mushy stuff, it never appealed to him), and now he has just started using a spoon and fork. After his nap, he can now get off the bed and come crawling to find me. He is standing a bit on his wn, but he seems totally happy with crawling now, no interest in homo sapiens stuff.

He is so much fun to be around, playful and sweet and really, really tiring! ;)

For his birthday we had a small party with close friends, pictures are here .