We celebrated Roman’s FIRST birthday this past weekend and Portman and I both agreed that this was by far the fastest year of our lives. We’ve been through so much this year and it’s all starting to settle down, finally. Roman has grown from a very difficult baby to the most easy-going and just plain EASY baby. Six months ago he was still waking up at least twice at night and often ended up sleeping in our bed. Now he sleeps at least 12 hours at night and takes two 2-hour naps during the day. He is one of those kids who you just lay down in his bed and he rolls over and goes to sleep – there’s really nothing to it. He rarely fusses unless he’s hungry or his sister is sitting on him, and he’s just SO chilled out and happy!

We had Roman’s one year checkup today and he is once again at the top of the growth curve. He is in the 92nd percentile for height, the 82nd for weight and the 90th for head size. He is a BIG baby! He weighs about 25 and a half pounds, which is just over a pound less than Harper (who incidentally is at the very low end of the growth curve for girls). He loves to eat and is very good at using a fork – not a surprise considering how much practice he gets with it.

Roman is still not officially walking, but he is taking a ton of steps on his own. Just in the past two days he has started taking 6-8 steps at a time and tries all the time to walk. He will walk from wall to furniture, furniture to toy, etc. but if he’s in a big hurry he usually just resorts to crawling. He doesn’t have much to say. His only official word is “uh-oh",” but he has said “mama” and “dada” before, just not consistently. The doctor wasn’t too concerned and after talking to friends who have boys, I’m convinced that boys just do things a little bit later than girls.

We are constantly amazed and excited about the relationship that Roman and Harper have. They honestly love each other and get along so well. Harper is incredibly sweet with him and is very concerned when he gets upset about something. She shares with him without being asked and is always looking out for him. The other day I gave her a graham cracker, and without being asked she broke it in half and gave half to Roman. I love it! Roman just idolizes his big sister. He follows her everywhere and always wants to do what she is doing. I can tell that Harper gets annoyed sometimes, especially when she is trying to do something like a puzzle and he crawls on top of it, but overall she is so good to her brother.

We were so happy to celebrate Roman’s birthday with Ya Ya, Abie and Aunt Annie. Roman is obsessed with balls, so we got him a little basketball toy and a few play balls. If you ask him to say “ball,” he says “OHHHH!” like he’s in the New Jersey mob. It’s hysterical. He didn’t care much for the gifts, but was very interested in the food. Roman and Harper had birthday dinner together at their little picnic table. They are seriously so cute together!

 
Enjoying some birthday cake. After his he reached over and finished Harper’s:

 
I’m pretty sure if he could talk he would say “eeew gross!”: