Jadon's first year went by faster than we can believe. He grew and changed so much during this past year, it often makes us marvel how relatively little we have accomplished in that same amount of time. Yet, we really have accomplished a lot, for we have provided the environment, care, and love that has allowed our helpless little newborn to grow into a smiling, happy, curious, fearless toddler.

By the time he was one year old, Jadon was fascinated with airplanes, the moon, lights, garbage cans, sprinklers (both lawn sprinklers and fire sprinklers in buildings), ceiling fans, and cooking; he is especially fascinated by the moon. He waves his arms, points enthusiastically, and makes excited sounds each time he sees it. He is also on the lookout for the moon, so that when you read a book that has a picture of the moon, he will point out the picture excitedly, then go over to the window to look for the moon outside.

He started to take his first tentative steps alone just around his first birhday. He loves to crawl upstairs, and can also crawl downstairs. Once or twice, he has scared his parents by crawling all the way upstairs by himself, when his parents were forgetful and didn't lock the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. His favorite foods are apples, oranges, tofu, green beans, Cheerios, and (most of all) mommy's milk. He has never tasted candy (or even his birthday cake. Sorry, Jadon!), so he does not know about those. He still sleeps with his parents, and usually sleeps from about 8:45 PM until 6:45 AM (with 3 to 4 short wakeups during the night to snack). He takes one nap a day, usually for 90-120 minutes around noon. (Weaning has been planned, but executing the plan so far seems extremely difficult....)

He loves to go on walks, and typically goes to the park at least once a day. There, he visits with the other babies (he's too young to really play with them yet), rides the swing, crawls through a short tunnel, and slides down the slide. At home, he loves to read books (especially Chinese vocabulary books, "Miss Spider's ABC", "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo", and "Goodnight Gorilla"). Books with pictures of the moon are especially exciting, and Jadon will enthusiatically point out the pictures, make happy excited sounds, point to the window, and try to look out to find the moon in the sky. He also is absolutely ecstatic when he points to picture of rowboats on his baby blanket. We're not sure why he is so excited about this, but "where's the rowboat...where's another rowboat?" has become a nightly part of our going-to-bed routine.

Another part of our nightly going-to-bed routine by the time Jadon was one year old is Jadon playing with the telephone. Sometime around the time he was 10 or 11 months old, he figured out for himself how to use the intercom on our cordless phones. He now loves to pull the handset off the base (he knows the intercom won't work unless he does this) and press the intercom button to make the phone and the base beep loudly. He loves to do this over and over!

Jadon loves to take baths. He sits in his bathtub as long as we let him, playing with rubber fish, a cup, and whatever other toys he might grab with him into it. Surprisingly (to us, as least), he also loves to get his teeth brushed. He will make you take him to his toothbrush, then get really disappointed if you do not brush his teeth.

Whenever there is cooking going on, Jadon absolutely has to be in the kitchen, watching the cooking. He loves to grab a rice scoop or other spoon, and carry it everywhere with him. He also loves to make you carry him to the kitchen so he can look at the wok on the stove. Now when you ask him "hey Jadon (or Dong Dong, or Bao Bao), how does mom cook (Ma Ma zen me cao cai?)", he wiggles his little hand to show how mommy uses the spatula to stir the food in the wok.

He understands many words (airplane, foot, sock, nose, ear, eye, mouth, tofu, orange, apple, mommy, daddy, bird, moon, car, fan, alarm, light, telephone, sprinkler, newspaper, ball, fish, squirrel, dog, ...) in both english and Chinese. He does not speak much yet, but can say "mamama", "diddy", "guo" (which is the Chinese word for "cooking pot"), and "deesh" (which is Jadon-ese, when done in conjunction with pointing at an object, for "what is this?" or "I want this!"). It is amazing to see how he is already bilingual. When you ask him "Jadon, where are mommy's socks?" He points at your feet. And if you ask again in Chinese, he will show you again.

Around the time Jadon was a year old, he started pointing at objects and saying "deesh". One of his favorite passtimes is having mommy or dady carrying him around the house, while he points at things and says "deesh". This can go on for as long as mommy or daddy can carry him, or as often as mommy or daddy can repeat the same word as Jadon repeatedly points to the same object!

Although Jadon does not spend much time watching TV, he loves to watch a couple DVD's over and over; Baby Einstein's "Baby Dolittle" and "Baby Bach".

Jadon's travels the first year included a New Year's trip to Monterey, a Fourth of July trip to Kirkwood (near Lake Tahoe), an October trip to Monterey, and an October trip to Wisconsin (unfortunately, for his grandfather's funeral).

Although Jadon does not have many relatives nearby, he is constantly showered with love and attention. His grandparents and aunt Ma Wei in China send him clothes and toys all the time, starting when he was born. Mom's conversation with her family in China is dominated by the subject of baby Dong Dong. Aunt Ma Wei, who has an 11 year old son, also gives tons of advice on a variety of baby subjects, from what to feed the baby to how to wean him. Unfortunately, our trip to China to meet his Chinese family got cancelled largely due to the 9/11 tragedy. We do plan on going this coming spring. maybe in March or early April. Until his grandfather in Wisconsin died in October, his grandfather was also very interested and proud of his first and only grandson. We sent pictures of Jadon to Wisconsin (and China) almost monthly. We understand that Jadon's grandfather in Wisconsin kept all 100-or-so of them in a pile in his bedstand drawer, and would proudly show every one of them to anyone who was willing to look at them. Althogh Jadon never had a chance to meet his grandfather in Wisconsin, he did have a chance to meet his uncle Rick in Wisconsin this October. Jadon liked to point at the ceiling fan to start a conversation with uncle Rick. Uncle Rick seemed to be quite fond of his nephew, too.

Jadon has been a very healthy baby. He did not get sick at all for the first 7 months. On June 1st (International Children's Day according to mommy, who always loved this day when she was growing up in China), we had our first heat wave of the year. The whole family decided to sleep downstairs where it was cooler. Not sure if it was the heat or the old futon or sheets we took out for the night, but as soon as everyone went to sleep we noticed Jadon having difficulty breathing. After trying the night nurse and the "baby's first year" book we got from the hospital when he was born, we finally rushed him to the emergency room. The poor little guy had his first x-ray examination, which was not fun for him to undergo or for us to watch. The breathing problem eventually went away by itself, after a few hours. The month of June was a true test for him, After the "croup" or whatever it was that caused his breathing problems, he had a cold, and then an ear infection. After that, it has been smooth-sailing again till now (he did have a minor cold at Thanskgiving time. We didn't even bother to visit the doctor). Outside of that, the only problem he has had is a rash on the top of his foot (and back of his knee) that was almost continuously present until he was about a year old.

Every time we went for a well-baby check-up, our pediatrician, Dr. Lewis, remarked how healty Jadon was, AND suggested that he does not need a midnight feeding, since he has been consistently off the upper limit of the growth curve. Yes, both his weight and height are off the chart, so "percentile" is no longer useful for his measurements.

Out-of-town visitors who came to our house to see Jadon during his first year: