Well we made it. You are a whole year old. You have lived through all the experiences a year brings, there are no more first months, seasons or holidays. In many ways it makes me sad because I dreamed of having a baby to experience all those firsts with for so long and now it is done and over. In other ways it makes me excited to journey ahead with you to experience them all for a second time. As much as I thought I was prepared to be a mom, you taught me that there is little preparation to be had. This year has rocked our world. You opened my eyes to how selfish my life was before you. You have made me grow and stretch in so many ways. You have taught me the value of sleep, how to prioritize, to have grace for myself, to keep trying, to enjoy little moments and about pure joy. As you, my beautiful little baby, move into the world of a toddler, I hope we can share more of the great memories that this first year packed in. Here is my last first year post!
-You are attached to your binky, hardcore. Now that you have turned one, we are limiting it to just when you take naps and go to bed at night. No more carrying it around post naptime or getting it when you throw a fit.
-You are learning to use a spoon. You will dip it into the bowl of whatever I am holding out and then navigate it into your mouth often hitting your target right on point. Sometimes the spoon slips or goes astray but overall I am impressed how you respond to "Rowan do it."
-Your favorite food is probably bananas, you can eat a whole one in a sitting and beg for more. We went shopping last time and put them in our cart. You were almost beside yourself having to wait to get home to have one. I had to bury them under other groceries and distract.
-At your one year check up you weighed 20 lbs 5 oz and were 30 in long. You didn't have to get any blood drawn which I was so thankful about. I had heard that was a possibility because they screen now for lead toxicity, but our pediatrician just asked how old our home was and gave us the free pass.
-You have developed a deeper laugh that is less like your high pitched baby laugh. When we really get you rolling it comes out and makes you sound so much older.
-You lean back and "stretch" now with your hands behind your head.
-You finally said Momma and then the next day said Nana. You can make A, B, D, Y, M, and N sounds now.
-You got a lot of new rompers for your birthday and they are my favorite thing to be dressing you in lately.
-Your hair is getting so light from all the summer sun. It is just like momma's when she was a little girl. I wonder if it will get dark again this winter.
-Your top two teeth just broke through the first week of July
-You still eat three meals a day and nurse when you wake in the morning, from naps and at bedtime. Now that we are back from vacation I will start weaning you from breastfeeding and we will give you bottles of the milk I have pumped the past few months. Then when that runs out you will be on regular milk for the first time in your life, weird.
-We are all done with the homemade cubes of fruit and veggies we made you. The last ones were used up before our vacation. Now breakfast is oatmeal with fruit mashed in, pancakes, cheerios and fruit pieces or toast. For lunch your favorites are cheese sticks, yogurt, fruit, and hummus and crackers. I usually heat up some left overs from dinner if we have them too. Dinner is whatever we are eating, or if that doesn't work I have some soups that we made and froze that you like for backup. Black bean soup, white chicken chili, and barley and veggie soup are favorites. You are def. getting easier to feed and now with no restrictions in your diet, meal time is a little easier. You are getting more adventurous in your eating habits and will try new things for us. You still love anything spicy, just add salsa and you're a happy camper.
-You can use your sippy cup with the no-spill stopper in place now, hooray! Before we would take it with us with the stopper so it wouldn't spill in your bag, then have to take it out and put it back in between uses. That was slightly annoying and made me feel gross touching the inside our your cup to remove and replace the stopper when we were out in public. You can also suck through a straw now. We used to give you "sips" of our drinks in which you just gummed the straw to death. Then one day you got a mouth full of Slurpee I was drinking and started coughing and smiling, pleasantly surprised with your new skill.
-You have been waking earlier than you used to, blah. You normally start your day around 5:45, nap from 8-10 and again from 2-3:30, then go to bed at 7.
-Still in a size 3 diaper. You wear 9-12 month clothes, some 18 month stuff fits you too. You love shoes. You know the sign for them and love to put them on. Nana and Papa bought you your first pair of Nike tennis shoes and you are mastering them like a champ.
-You want to be independent with anything possible. You don't like to be in a stroller pushed around, you want to push it. You don't want to be spoon fed, you want to do it. You don't want me to turn the pages of a book, you need to help. You are learning your abilities and enjoying exercising them.
-You have mastered getting up stairs and going down, although you sometimes like to stop and play on them which makes momma nervous. Usually if we prompt you to turn around you listen but not always.
-As your little mind is growing, you are testing limits for sure. If we tell you to do something you may follow through with the command, or you may smirk and do the opposite. You are easily fixated on things so we have to keep redirecting you. Your favorite things to get in trouble for playing with are outlets, cords, your sound machine, the computer and the dishwasher. We keep all the doors in our house shut and let you roam in the main area. That section is baby proofed and we don't have to redirect you much there....if momma remembers to pick up her things so you can't get into them.
-You just learned how to get into cabinets but they are not your favorite. Maybe because I let you open and take things out without redirection. Perhaps if I told you not to you would find it more exciting and alluring. You will sometimes take out mixing bowls in the kitchen and mix with momma as I am cooking.
-You respond to our questions by shaking your head yes or saying ya, it's pretty cute because you sound so sure of yourself.
- You now try to sign the number 8 for our mailbox and you get really excited to walk and get the mail. You will hold the keys the whole way there and jingle them around. You like to open and close the doors of the bigger mailboxes that are made for packages.
-Your kisses now come with an audible "mmmm" when you give them and sometimes you blow kisses.
-You like looking at pictures of our family. You will take the pictures off the mantle and shove them at me, shaking your head yes. So then I go through and say everyone's names to which you respond ya after each one.
-You love any kind of ball, throwing, kicking and swinging are becoming regular parts of play.
-You have started to master simple puzzles. You have a couple shapes puzzles that you can fit the circle and square into and then look up and beam, clapping for yourself and saying yayyyyy.
-You like to climb up onto chairs and rock or on the couch and bounce. You like to be at whatever level I am so I often have to sit on the floor now to get you to play with your toys.
-Your "Hippo says Excuse Me" book and "Mouse says Sorry" book are favorites right now. You learned how to sign mouse and cheese from the latter book.
-Taking pictures of you is much harder now because you are mobile and you are constantly looking down at the ground. I think that comes with steadying yourself as you walk but it is not conducive to taking pictures of your sweet face.
-You are still not very interested in the TV. We haven't ever sat you in front of it as a habit yet so when it is on you don't pay much attention. You like to watch movies of yourself on my phone though.
-I can now clip your nails anytime, not just during nursing when you are distracted. You listen and hold still for me while I do them as long as I have an entertaining sound to make with each clip.
-You are currently going through a bit of a mama streak. You have refused dad a few times which makes me sad for him. I know most kids go through phases where they prefer one parent to another so I try to not make a big deal about it but it is hard to cook dinner when all you want is for me to hold you.
-Here was my attempt at a series of pictures I was excited to try that was an epic fail since you had other plans. Such is life these days as I continue to learn I can not control everything. Who cares if mom wanted more pictures, you were over it.
Fine you win, I'll be done torturing you.
On a more sappy note...... I read her the book "On the Night You Were Born" this past week and by the end of it I got all choked up as I read the words on the last page.
"Heaven blew every trumpet
and played every horn
on the wonderful, marvelous
night you were born."
Knowing the Lord created you, knows you, rejoices over you, loves you and gifted you to our family a year ago made July 1st 2012 nothing short of wonderful and marvelous indeed. We love you sweet Rowan and we are blessed to call you our daughter.
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