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Do you see that number? Two-Zero. OMGOSH. You’re ancient! And adorable and precocious and there’s nothing I would change about you, baby girl. It’s fun watching you grow up, but it’s hard too. You change so fast. I want to see you grow up and actualize your potential, but I also want to keep you the way you are. It’s strange how I can have both desires at once. Basically, you’re the best. I love you.
Here’s you showing us your muscles. That’s a photo I promised you last month.
And behind you is all your new toy storage! Now you can find your toys and books and pull them down off the shelf yourself, and then – hopefully – help me pick them back up and put them away when you’re done.
Make believe has become a part of your daily play. I first noticed you pretending a couple of months ago (actually, with a little direction you were feeding your dollies bottles back in December!). Now, it’s the norm. You will walk your little animals and dolls around and feed them bottles and brush their hair and pour us all tea and feed us cakes with your tea set.
You do some new cute stuff this month too. You’ve started doing this surprised open-mouth smile when something really makes you happy. You also stop your feet when you’re excited. Here you’re relaxing with a snack after a morning of hard play. I had just put in Tangled for you and you were watching the Disney Castle fireworks. That Disney intro gets this reaction every time. It actually makes me tear up. So cheesy I know. But Disneyland really is magical and I can’t wait to take you there. If you have that reaction to just the cartoon of the Disney castle, just wait until you get to ride Dumbo with me. I just can’t wait to see you experience so many things for the first time.
Not sure this is the forum to talk about this, but it’s on my heart right now and really this scrapbook is for you to know what it was like while you were growing up. A huge part of our life for the past year has been Daddy’s hurt back. It’s been hard on us. Like I’ve said before, there are huge blessings in this trial as well. You get to spend so much time with Daddy. And I don’t think any of us would trade that for anything. But it doesn’t change the fact that things are different than they would otherwise be. I’m not naturally a delayed-gratification type person. I wanted to take you to Disneyland 6 months ago. It’s hard for me to wait – for that and for so many other things I want to be doing with you. And your Daddy and I have always been active together and miss being able to do the things we used to you and include you in them. We want to camp and hike, travel, take you to the Zoo. We want to build your playground in the backyard. Also, this might be TMI for you, but we’d like you to have a sibling soon too. But we’re holding off on that as well because we’re not sure Momma could handle a toddler and newborn and a Daddy with a hurt back. There is something that the Lord is teaching us in all of this. For me, it’s probably that I’m not in control. I had plans and things aren’t going according to plan. But I do trust that God knows what he’s doing and that we will be a closer family because of it.
Anyway, back to cute stuff you do. We ended up leaving a laundry basket in the living room one day and have left it in here every since because you love playing with it. Anything to keep you entertained for 5 minutes, hehe. You frequently lounge in it.
Also new this month, you learned how to roll. You roll all around the living room these days giggling as you go. It’s cute. And you go up and down the steps the Grandpa and Granny made you last year now at least a couple dozen times every day.
You officially smack when you kiss. It’s the best.
And we’re enjoying the summer weather. You have a plastic pool in the backyard. It gets too hot to sit out there in the middle fo the day, but it’s becoming a regular event for us to go outside early in the morning and get dirty finger-painting and then follow up art time with a dip in the kiddie pool.
You love to wash yourself with a washcloth. Last time you painted we had to wash your tongue as well as your body since you decided you needed to see what the (non-toxic) finger paint tasted like.
You still love to dress up and dance. You are so beautiful on your tippy toes. 
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Well-Baby Check Up
So, we were a little late with your 1 and a half year check up. I made your appointment months ago, but this was the soonest date we could get you in and keep you on your vaccination schedule which, by the way, we are almost up to date on. After thoughtfully reading books and much internal debate, we decided to get you all the recommended vaccinations. But we’ve done it on a custom schedule, close to what Dr. Sears recommends in his Vaccine Book. We’ve basically limited the amount of aluminum (and other ingredients) you’ve gotten at any one time. But as of this month, you are all caught up to where modern day medicine says you should be. The final one we’ve been holding out on was the Hep B because that’s the one they wanted to give you before you left the hospital the day you were born. We thought that was ridiculous. So we’re just starting it now. So far, praise the Lord, you haven’t had any adverse reactions to anything we’ve given you other than perhaps seeming like you feel a little “under the weather” for a day or so afterwards. And I’m glad I don’t have to wonder if we’ve left you exposed to some horrible illness.
In other development news. Your growth curve is great. Your body is starting to catch up to your head. I believe your weight is now 36th percentile.Your height was 24th percentile. Your head size is still a wee bit ahead at 86th percentile. You meet all the developmental milestones easily with the one exception of number of words. You should have, apparently, seven words by now. You have three. And a lot of animal sounds and a few almost words and a bunch of signs. The doctor isn’t worried about it. Neither are we. You communicate really well without them and I know you have understanding. And you’re not mute or anything. You just only say three words and otherwise babble. You’ll do it when you’re ready. I wonder if signing replaced a few verbal words. They say it doesn’t work that way. But I wonder. It doesn’t matter to me though. I would rather have you talk a little later knowing that you’ve been able to communicate with me non-verbally for almost the past year. I wouldn’t trade a year of communication for quicker verbal development. I’m still a signing advocate.
Also, I’ve been holding back from telling you to “say….this, say…. that.” Honestly, between myself and everyone else around you rooting for you, I think you might be beginning to feel a little pressured. Sometimes you just shake your head “no” when we asked you to say something. So, I’m backing off. You obviously want to do things right – you’re like me that way – and I think maybe you feel a little self-conscious about it or something. Pressure’s off, baby. You talk when you want to. I’m okay with that.
And milk… the Dr gave us 3 options. Make sure you get enough calcium through other foods, give you back the bottle, or give you flavored milk. I’m not okay with giving you back the bottle, so we’re working with a combination of the other 2 options. So far, you’re liking Strawberry milk the best. No problem getting you to drink the sweet stuff. Next it’ll be weaning you off the sugar I guess.