12 Months

Surrounded by your new toys

Dear Annie,

A whole year! What seemed like forever away was actually here in an instant. While the first few months of your life crawwwwwwwled by, the last few months have really flown. You are such a fun little person now! We visited the doctor today, and even though you're a BIG TODDLER, you are still quite the lil peanut... except for your apparently massive head :) You top the scales at 19lbs, 1oz, and are 28.25 inches long (18th and 25th percentiles) and your head is 46.2cm, 82%.

You are turning into quite the chatterbox, even the doctor noticed today. You don't have any definite words yet, but you're getting quite close. Several times, I've heard you say "hi" in the appropriate context, as well as "bye", but I'm still hesitant to call those real words, because you might just be imitating us still. You have lots of noises like "bleschjdoa? ahh! oblidida goo!" that are quite entertaining to us. Your favorite thing to say is "daddy" but you say it to everything, not just your dad :)

Moving around has gotten more exciting this month. You pull up and cruise around furniture with ease, but still haven't let go for more than a few seconds (unless you are bracing your large belly against something for balance). Sue, your daycare lady, thinks you will be walking by the end of our trip to Mexico, but I think you're still a few weeks away at least. You DO NOT!!! like it when people try to stand you up or walk you around while holding their hands, you just REFUSE to put your feet on the ground. You only like to stand and walk on your own, thank you very much!

As I've said before, you are quite a content little child. You can occupy yourself for very long periods of time doing what seems to adults to be pretty boring stuff - your favorite activities are shaking your maracas, taking things out of the cabinets and putting them back in, and really taking anything out of anything and putting it back. We find some of your toys in very odd locations - your sippy cup in the cabinet with the pots, your baby doll's bottle in a basket on the bookshelf, etc.

We are still nursing twice a day, and I'm so proud to have nursed for a whole year. We did it together, little Annie! You really like nursing now, and get very impatient when I sit down in our spot with the boppy - you want to be nursing IMMEDIATELY! When you are want to switch sides or are done, you look up at me and shake your hand in the "all done" sign - which is MUCH preferred to screaming! You started refusing to drink a bottle this month, so we just give you milk in a sippy cup all day. You aren't a huge fan yet, but we'll see if you start to enjoy it more later. You LOVE food - LOVE IT. Sometimes I think you'd eat all day long if we let you. You will eat nearly anything that we give you, but your absolute favorites that we reserve for the end of a meal so you'll eat other more nutritious items are bananas, graham crackers, toast with cream cheese, any kind of cheese, cheerios and grapes. You really like hummus, spaghetti and a lentil veggie stew we just made as well! Sue comments on what a great eater you are, she says we are very lucky. We know your willingness to try everything might not last forever, but we're loving it now!

You have had kind of a rough past few weeks with what seems to be teething as well as a bad cold. No new teeth this month, so you're still at 6 (4 top, 2 bottom), but LOTS of drooling and some crankiness! This has affected your sleeping - while you still are in bed from 7pm-7am or so, you have been waking up crying quite a bit at night. Usually you go back to sleep within a minute, but sometimes you need us to cuddle with you for awhile, which we are happy to do sometimes. We love rocking with you and cuddling, because you usually prefer to be on your own. You are still doing one nap a day, but usually it's now about 1.5-2 hours.

I think you had an awesome time at your birthday party yesterday - you were very smiley, and enjoyed all of your new toys. Most of your family and friends were there yesterday to celebrate you, Annie - they have all loved watching you grow up this year! You bring such joy to everyone's life that you are around - you truly are a wonderful little girl, and we're so lucky that we get to be your parents.

We love you, baby girl!

Love, Mom

You aren't ALWAYS happy - but don't worry, soon after this you perked up (see above photo)

A little slideshow I made to commemorate your first year - somehow I crammed it all into 9 minutes!