Julian had his one-year checkup today, and while he is still a peanut, below the curve in terms of height and weight for his age (now checking in at 29 inches tall and an even 20 lbs.), his overall health seems great. He is all about walking these days, working on that new skill every chance he gets, and even practicing his backwards walk over the weekend.

He’s growing up so fast, I feel like he’ll be driving before we know it. (And don’t get me started on his interest in climbing… we’re going to have to bolt all our furniture to the walls.)

Despite his small size, his appetite is great, and he has very much embraced self-feeding.

Mike‘s birthday was yesterday, and while Julian started off the day with more “traditional” toddler fare (milk and Cheerios, which he kindly shared with the cats), he was very insistent about sampling everything we ate on our nosh-walk around Chinatown.

It’s pretty wild to think that Mike and I were well into our thirties before we had ever tasted steamed buns, fried dumplings or banh mi; our son, at a little over a year old, has now tried – and loved – all of these things. I so love that Julian wants to taste anything and everything he sees us eating, and that he has really enjoyed most all of it. I hope he continues to show such curiosity and adventurousness as he grows older.

And now that he’s passed the one year mark, our little guy is scheduled to undergo the second (and hopefully final) stage of his corrective surgery this Friday. His new doctors seem to be very pleased with how things have progressed since the first procedure, and have told us they expect a good result this time around as well.

I’m still fretting, of course. I’ll be glad to have this, finally, behind us.