We did it. We made it to a year, a whole year in the life of my baby. You. My precious daughter. I can’t believe it. When I started this blog, my goal was to chronicle your life for a year, and now that year it up. I guess it’s all over now.

Just kidding. 😉

But seriously, it went by so fast! It is absolutely crazy how many changes a baby goes through in the first year of life. You went from a little baby who cried and slept and made faces and dirtied diapers to a little girl who cries and laughs and smiles and throws fits and tests boundaries and gives hugs and does sign language and almost walks and blows kisses and plays with toys and dances and feeds herself…. and dirties diapers. Being a parent is just beyond anything I imagined. You are the most interesting person, place or thing EVER. I am so privileged to get to watch you and help you grow up.

So, what’s new this month?

MOBILITY

Still no walking. You are so close, but not so close that I think you’ll do it tomorrow. You still have iffy balance. You have gotten really bold though. You often forget that you need to hold on to something when you walk and will take a step or two off of furniture or between furniture before falling down or realizing what you’ve done and sitting down. Just today you started running around with your walkin’ toy car thing (I have no idea what it’s called). And you’ll run along the edges of furniture with one hand barely stabilizing you. I think you could do it if you concentrated, but you’re happy with crawling for the most part. You can speed right up our stairs.

EATING

You still only have 3 teeth which is a challenge because you won’t let us feed you anything on a spoon hardly. Feeding you is an elaborate process. I have a mental ranking of all your likes and dislikes and if I want you to eat anything besides yogurt, cheese, pears and avocado, I have to be very careful about the order in which I give you things. Once I give you cheese, for example, there’s no going back to chicken. And once I give you avocado, there’s no going back to banana. You have about a thousand of those unspoken rules. I always start with whatever you will like the least (usually some form of non-dairy protein), when you’re the most hungry. You eat a few bites and when you’ve had it, you throw whatever is left on your tray on the floor, violently. Then, I move on to item number two and we repeat. Item three, and repeat. And I keep going until, you will no longer eat anything besides your four favorites mentioned above (yogurt, cheese, pears and avocado). I spend a lot of time underneath your high chair picking up food. I try, try, try to ignore you doing it, or even better catch you before you do, but it’s hard to catch you and even harder to ignore piles of steaming mess under your high chair. I’m not sure how to get you to stop doing it. I’ll admit, I’m not very consistent. I can’t decide whether to ignore you or tell you “nono” when I catch you doing it. I’m basically hoping you outgrow it at this point. If it wasn’t so gross, it would be funny.

I’d say we spend at least 3 hours a day in the process of feeding you or cleaning you up. It’s a lengthy process. I will say again that it amazes me what you manage to chew and swallow with only 3 teeth. You eat everything I eat, pretty much.

We haven’t made the switch to cow’s milk yet. I put off your Drs appointment and now we can’t get in until January, so your 12 month check up is going to be a little late, and I just want to double-check all the rules with your pediatrician before we do anything drastic.

SLEEPING

You sleep a lot. You love your bed. Nothing has changed. You sleep from 6pm to 6 or 7am every night. And you take a 2-3 hour nap every morning and a 2 hour nap every evening. Putting you to bed is a beautiful thing. You always get a bottle in the rocking chair and then we read you a book or two which you sit and listen to intently now and then I stand up, put your blanky over my shoulder and your binky in your mouth and you put your head down on my shoulder and cuddle with me while I sway back and forth and tell you how much I love you for a few minutes. That’s our routine. It’s one of my favorite parts of every day. You even make sweet little sounds, loving sounds, while your head is resting on my shoulder. It absolutely melts me. When you wake up from your naps or in the mornings, unless you are especially poopy or hungry or sick, you don’t ever cry. Most of the time I find you awake and flipping through one of your board books I leave in the crib for you to enjoy or playing with your blanky.

YOUR Baby-Safe TREE

And a quick tribute to the holidays and your special baby-safe tree. I’ve been working on knitting and crocheting you unbreakable ornaments that are safe to play with for the past 6 months or so. The day is finally here and they are all over the bottom of our Christmas tree, where you are free to roam and play to your heart’s content. The idea originated with Mima. She did the same thing for me when I was a baby (although she sewed them rather than knitting and crocheting), an idea I thought was so awesome I had to steal it. I love that we don’t have to put a gate up around the tree or scold you every time you try to touch it.

DEVELOPMENT and CUTE STUFF

You do things that I don’t believe are normal for a one year old. You try to put your own shoes on. You brush the hair on your My Little Pony. You play ball. You have tea parties with me. I’m not joking. I don’t think people will believe me, but I have witnesses. I know you’re mimicking me, but it’s completely amazing. You know what you’re doing. You are so stinkin’ smart. You watch me like a hawk. Every time you see something new, I can see the wheels turning in your head, trying to figure out if you can do it. You almost always give it a try.

Let’s see… other random stuff….

Your favorite things to say are “Mama,” which you absolutely know is me and “Uh Oh” which you sort of just like the sound of, and sort of know what it means. You still know about the same number of signs. I haven’t been very good about teaching many new ones this month. But you will always give the sign for “milk” when you want your bottle and “food” when you’re hungry which is nice. It’s nice to know what you want without you having to cry. You also blow kisses now, really it’s just you tapping your palm on your open mouth and then pulling your hand away from your mouth, but it’s so, so cute! You still give lots of hugs too. “Can I have a hug?” results in your head on my shoulder or whatever you feel affectionate towards. You also “dance” all the time to any and all music. You rock or bounce or sway or all three all at once. I have to get you on video doing it. It makes us laugh so hard. You also are big into “sharing,” or at least your idea of sharing. When you’re eating something you like, and we ask for some you’ll tap your full little fingers onto our mouth and they quickly retract and put it in your own mouth. It’s the thought that counts, right? And when you’ve had enough bottle, you try to put it in my mouth. I pretended I was drinking once, and you thought it was hilarious and want to see me do it every time now. Like I mentioned before, you will sit through the reading of an entire book and you help me turn the pages.

Some of your amazing developments won’t fall into the “cute” category for long. Just this week you have started challenging me. When you go for something you know you’re not supposed to touch and I say “nono,” you stop and look at me and touch it while you’re looking at me to get my reaction. And you will repeat this fascinating little game pretty much indefinitely. As soon as I move toward you to remove you or the object from the situation, you start waving your hands up and down in front of your face and scowling and whining. Yep. It’s happening. You have a will. Mima call you “determined, just like her Momma.” That’s her nice way of saying that we know what we want and don’t like not getting it. Truly, as challenging as it may be if you end up with a stronger-than-average will, it’s kind of nice to see myself in you. So many people say you look like Daddy, sometimes I wonder if I’m in there at all. But honey, your personality, you get that from me. At least, that’s what I see so far. You may look like Daddy, but your Momma’s girl. That makes me proud, and worries me a little too. 🙂

Oh, and your eyes… more and more, they look green. I still have no idea what color they will end up and some days I still think they look blue, grey, gold, amber, brown. But more and more, they look green, a deep mossy green. They are so pretty, honey.

So, my big 1-year-old….Here’s to your second year! I love you as always, my little cupcake. Kisses.