The baby is turning one. He’ll be a toddler soon. The other day, he stood up by himself for almost 10 seconds.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year since this insane night:

Dispatches from the Delivery Room, Part 2: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Labor Pain

In that year, the child has been known by many names. There have even been the rare occasions when we have called him by his given name. His current nickname is Wahoo Wahoo. That is the onomatopoeia we use to describe his cry of parental manipulation.

Four teeth + two dimples = one great year!

For example, if my wife tells me, “I tried to put him down for a nap, but that didn’t last long.”

And I ask, “What did he do?”

She rolls her eyes and mimics: “Wahoo, Wahoo.”

Here are some of the other nicknames he’s sported over the past year:

Ginger and his brother, Mary Ann: a nicknaming debacle

He’s a good baby, but I’m ready for him to grow out of some of his baby hang-ups. I’ve never known an infant who hates riding in the car as much as Wahoo Wahoo does. He screams about being in a car like Daddy screams about being on an airplane; it’s a most unbecoming display. Maybe when he’s one and we put him into the forward-facing, big-boy seat, he’ll be less put out by the experience. They say it’s safest to keep him facing backward until he outgrows that seat, but I think it’s safest to have him in a car where the driver is not always distracted by inconsolable wailing directly behind his head.

Wahoo Wahoo begins his second year of life with four very sharp teeth and more hair than any three other toddlers combined. He has had his four front teeth for several months now without sprouting a fifth tooth. His attitude seems to be, “Who needs grinding? As long as I can bite good and hard, I’m good.”

This is a bit about the trouble caused by his first tooth.

A Land Shark is born: baby’s first tooth

He was born with a healthy thatch atop his head and it has grown skyward ever since. I am happy to report that the back of his head is now getting its share of hair too. For a while, the top was full, but the back and sides were very sparse, giving him the exact opposite hairstyle as his daddy.

If Don King and Cosmo Kramer had a baby:

The little kid with the big wig

For my wife, this birthday is bittersweet. Mothers seem to want their babies to always stay babies for some reason. Dads want their kids to grow quickly into sensible youngsters who can be threatened into keeping quiet when the big game is on.

Even so, I think I will miss some of his baby characteristics. Very soon, he will be walking. That will mean the end of the pitter-patter of his little hands and knees as he run-crawls to greet me when I come home from work. I’m all in favor of progress, but I’m pretty sure I’ll miss that.