As usual, Ronan is changing by the minute. At a little over 12 months old, he's a big ball of exuberance. Here are some of his current inclinations...

1) Separation anxiety. Ah, it had to hit us sometime. And it hit, out of the blue, last week. On a morning just like any other morning, Papa was transferring precious cargo to nanny Lisa's arms when suddenly precious cargo began to wail. Almost every morning since then Ronan has had a minor meltdown as we walk out the door to go to work. It's amazing. For 300+ days he was absolutely fine (happy even!) with us leaving in the morning... and suddenly he is not. We know it's normal. We know it'll pass. Even so, it makes us so sad to see those big crocodile tears pour down his erstwhile happy morning face! Lisa tells us he's fine within minutes of us leaving... He finds a light switch or a cupboard to play with and he's back to his usual jolly self. We’re counting on distractionary measures to work well into adulthood. ;-)

2) Hugs ‘n kisses. He gave us his first bonafide hugs last week. Talk about hearts melting. He reaches his arms up, hugs our necks tight and nuzzles our faces. He's also a champ at giving big, happy, sloppy kisses that sometimes (though never with papa) turn into nips -- we're working on those little love bites.

3) Waving. He now waves (energetic, two-arm waves) at anyone and anything. He races over to the door, gets up on his knees and waves to it. So cute.

4) Gagging. Yes, gagging. We hear it's not totally uncommon for kids at this age, though we'd certainly never seen it before. It goes like this: He strums his lips with his fingers, making an amusing sound that he likes... he starts chewing on his fingers... he shoves his fingers back to his molars... and then he gags. He seems fascinated with that awful, yucky sound! A few times he's made himself throw up, which is even more fascinating for him. Upon seeing our (shocked!) reaction, he starts to laugh and wants to do it again! Seems to happen most often when he's in the carseat or high chair. And he's always pretty elated during the whole process. Fortunately, lots of people in my mothers group have been through this, and they told us the best thing to do is to IGNORE it and he'll move on to a new charming activity.

5) Imitating our words. Okay, he's not speaking English yet, but he's saying loads of Ronan words! We said "doggy doggy doggy" to him the other night (intelligent parent-son conversations), and he said "doddydollylolly" right back to us! He also likes saying "baybay", "DEH" and "DAA?”

6) Stacking blocks. In addition to pounding his blocks on any hard surface in reach, he’s starting to stack them… perhaps to make a bigger audible impact??

7) Eating! He’s trying so many new foods – ricotta, yogurt, meats, egg yolks, cottage cheese, rye and millet, potatoes… So far, his eczema hasn’t been a problem – yay!

8) Brushing teeth. Because the Jeongs are a dental-driven family, we are great believers in good baby dental hygiene! Ronan lets us brush his teeth for a few seconds after his meals and then he seizes it and takes over the chewing, er, brushing.

Plus all his old favorites like chewing up his books (we had to give in and think to ourselves, paper can’t be that bad. Extra fiber, right?), cruising along the furniture, trying to climb out of the bathtub. What more fun could a little boy be?