Lucky 13

As in, we're so lucky to have this 13 month old (today!)boy, Aaron (aka kooker-pooks, aka boosker-loo)! Okay, maybe not so much lucky as blessed. I won't bore you with all the typical "he's such a good walker, he eats everything, he's saying so many words etc. etc." that you would normally get in a post like this. But that's less out of a desire to spare you than it is a result of my strict honesty. Okay, I HAVE lied before. But only once.

This baby is doin' his own thang. If you've met him, you no doubt noticed the wise look in his eye, his keen observation and his good social interaction. Some other things that distinguish him from his peers is that we're sure he's gonna cut his 3rd tooth any day now. Yes, his third tooth. Also, we're fairly sure he'll start walking sometime in the next 6 months. No, I exaggerate, but he's sure content with crawling and cruising at this point. But he's not on the slower end of the developmental charts in all categories, as you will already know if you've watched him singing at 7 months in the video in the sidebar. He's also wicked awesome at throwing a ball. I MUST get some video of that some day. (I think I just said "wicked awesome.")

We often walk into a room and see him looking at something he's forbidden to play with and shaking his head at it. Yesterday he went up to the kids glass chess set and just stood there staring at it and shaking his head slowly back and forth (sorry, Anne, no footage). Same goes with electronics/DVDs/CDs/water dispenser, etc. That's about 50% of the time, the other 50% he's pushing buttons/banging things together etc.

These pictures were taken in our kitchen. He had already been playing with, and talking to, that spoon for 15 minutes before Greg started taking pictures. Aren't you jealous that we have a forest in our kitchen, and you don't? Or do you?


Greg titled this group of pictures "earforceone". That's what we call a cute father.

Seeking advice:
He (Aaron, not Greg) is lucky enough to get flaky skin around his nose and red patches on his cheeks when he eats milk products (some people may have written that "he's allergic to milk", but not me! I would hate to deprive you of details, and plus, we haven't talked to a doctor about it lately, so I've gotta get an official diagnosis). Also, he refuses to eat bits of soft fruits and only occasionally will if they're mashed up (but still will eat pureed from a jar- $-ug-$) What do I feed my one year old, if not milk, yogurt, cheese, bananas and pears, you ask? Uuum...way too many crackers, pretzels, cream of wheats and breads. And the aforementioned jars of fruit, plus scrambled eggs. This is also one of the main reasons I'm still nursing him 4 times a day, when his siblings were weaned at one year. He eats dinner great, when we just mash up whatever we're having, so he gets his meat, a good variety of veggies and starch. But I really am at a loss about what to do for lunches for him. Any ideas?