Happy Birthday Baby (Oh, I mean toddler)!

Jackson B-day was last week. I can't believe its been a year already. To celebrate, he learned 2 new skills. There's video below, I don't want to give away the surprise here at the top.
First off, Here is what Jackson did to the cake:

Just getting started.

1/2 way through, he paused for a rest.

Here's the finished product.

You can't tell in the pictures, but Jackson was really perturbed that the frosting was stuck on his hands. He kept trying to shake it off, to no avail. He also showed off his mad skills with the fork. He holds it by the tip, and stabs giant pieces of cake. See the video here--Mayhem with a fork

Here's what the cake did to Jack:

Yup--that's surprise numero uno. My baby can walk! Granted, he wobbles like a drunken sailor, but I'm sure he'll get his land legs soon. He was taking 1 little shuffley step a day for 2 weeks, then,last Friday at Kevin and Lauren's, he took 5 or 6 real steps to cross the room. This video is Sunday, just 2 days later. Also, the cake is only responsible for 1/2 of the craziness, the other portion is due to sheer love of that red soccer ball!

This weekend, Nicole & Ben came to visit and spoil Jackson a little bit. To celebrate, we went to the shore to get lobster rolls and to the playground/beach. As usual, the lobster rolls were delish! Jackson loved the playground! He really had fun on the swings and the slide.

Here's a shot of Jason, Nicole and Ben.

Afterward, we played a rousing game of kitchen soccer at Jackson's request. You can see the video over on Jackson-Tube. Kitchen Soccer

Here's a video of Jackson's other birthday trick:

These are his first freely given kisses. All previous kisses were shamelessly stolen.

Good thing we took the video. He's been reluctant to give away any since. Nicole did get one, and talked him into giving one to his stuffed dino, but that's about it. He knows we really want them, so he's withholding. Rebelling already.

1 year stats:
Height--32 1/2 inches (holding above 96%)
Weight--23 lb 12 oz (Dropped down from 96% to about 65%. Might end up skinny like his Daddy)
Head Circumference--18 3/4 inches (There's alot of fluctuation on this number, depending on the nurse measuring)
Teeth--7 with another on the way.

Words (in order of frequency): MaMa, Cat, Hi, Hello, Dog, Bocka (for the chickens), Dada

Favorite Yoga Pose: Downward Facing Dog

Shoes

We really haven't bothered much with shoes for Jackson. We put on socks, which he usually immediately removes. A couple of months ago, I bought him a pair of Robeez knock-offs. But he wasn't very fond of them, and Jason doesn't like them. So, he's been going barefoot all this time. For Nicole's wedding, I brought along shoes. We had a trial run a week before to make sure they were the right size, and Jackson threw a fit!! I guess Jason struggled to get the shoes on for the wedding, but he wore them fine. Now that we're back, he is fascinated with shoes. Well, he has always liked them, but mostly as a snack. He spent the whole week trying on any pair of shoes that was close enough to grab. Over the weekend, I put his shoes on for a test. He was thrilled. He's been wearing the shoes nonstop for 4 days. Yesterday, I came home from work, and he was busy crawling around with his shoes on his feet and one of mine on his arm. He spent the whole afternoon and much of today playing this game.