The 12 Month Post

Can I keep counting by months? You know, so I don't have to say "My child is ONE!!?!!!!" all the time? OK, nice.

I'm obviously a little bit late in posting this, but I knew we had our 12 month dr. visit on the 30th so I wanted to wait so I can have all the numbers all ready to go for her one year 12 month post. Here is what Miss G has been up to since last month:

• Definitely walking! From her first step on May 24 (Daddy's Birthday!), to a bunch of steps on June 10, to really wanting to walk around now. I would say she really took off walking the week before her birthday (Friday night before her party she was walking all over the kitchen while I was baking!). Now she's walking more than crawling.
• Shaking her head no at me all the time now! "Gigi, will you give mama a kiss?" ::head shake:: "Aw Gabs, what about a hug?" ::head shake, mischievous grin:: The kid's got serious comic timing.
• She loves to feed herself at mealtime now. The day before her actual b-day my parents and I went out to lunch, and I ordered her first little meal! She fed herself all the little fruit I got her, and ate a little kid's slice of cheese pizza. Am I horrible to have let her have pizza? It's just bread, cheese and sauce, no?! ::ducks::
• She developed a little phobia of the bath, but we've been able to get her over it. She swallowed a little water when daddy was rinsing her hair one night and naturally DH and I freaked out. Since then she cried and tried to climb out of the tub every time we gave her a bath. My mom got her this for her birthday and now she LOVES the bath. Funny how a toy can make it not scary anymore.
• She's 24 lbs 13 oz and 31 inches tall (94th and 95th percentiles). Her head circumference is 19 inches, which measures off the charts! That's because she's full of thoughts.
• She's in size 4 diapers and 12-18 month clothes. Her jammies are 24 months/2T now, though! It's so funny to me that she's consistently in the 90th+ percentiles for height and weight, but clothing-wise she's pretty on target with her age. In fact, she's still wearing 6-12 month sizes from Janie and Jack and in dresses!
• She's a little chatterbox, but of course nobody knows what she's saying. She still says UP all the time, and mama and dada. She's started saying "hap" and we think she's trying to say happy. :-) She also says "at", which I think is the beginning of "that", and "pap" for papi (Romanian cutesy way of saying food). She tries hard to repeat what we're saying (today I could swear she said bubbles). She also likes to chew on her jelly sandals.
• She rang in her new year with 6 teeth total. 4 uppers, 2 lowers, and I swear she's working out some molars now. She bites on things all the time, and has been waking up a bit at night again.
• Sleep is fairly good around here. We're used to her sleeping soundly through the night again, so now that she seems to be teething again we're having to get back into the swing of waking up a couple times a night. And motrin doesn't seem to be helping too much. Hopefully these teeth all come in already so she doesn't have to deal with it for much longer. I hate seeing her in pain. :-(
• Naps are now 2x a day, and her afternoon one is a solid 3 hours (usually around 12-3ish, but can be flexible). It's amazing. I never put her on a set schedule of what time to nap (I just always put her down when she seems sleepy), and I'm wondering if I should do that, because it seems like a lot of people do. On the one hand it seems very convenient to always know when your little one will be going down for a nap so you can plan your day accordingly, but on the other hand, what happens if you HAVE to be out or something? What if your baby isn't tired AT ALL when their nap time comes, or what if they're super tired earlier? Like for G's birthday - I had the start time as 1 p.m., because at the time I printed the invites, she slept 3x a day, so I figured 1 would be best. Then she started on this longer nap kick, so I was worried about her being off at the party. We just kept her up a little later for her morning nap and she napped for 3 hours right before the party started! I love having this flexibility, yet I am worried that it might not be the best for her in the long run. Does she need more structure? ::sigh:: I really never know what to do. lol
• We moved up from our music class to regular Gymboree play and learn classes. They bring out the parachute and everything. And yeah, it freaks her out a tiny bit :-)
• She still finds me the funniest.person.ever. I love making her laugh. I have a soundtrack of it permanently lodged into my head, and it's positively glorious.
• She's started to not so much eat her books as sit and gingerly turn the pages and look at them. Real progress here!
• She really loves music (she grabbed the guitar from her "career" tray!) and "dances" (bounces up and down) when she hears it. I'm already chomping at the bit to put her in dance classes. They start at 18 months, ya?!?

For her actual birthday we took her to Build a Bear and let her pick out her own stuffed animal.

 We can now order her food from the kids' menu! She had a fruit and cheese plate and loved it. :-)

 Picking just the right bear (a dog!)

 Watching the fluffing!

 All done!

 She named her Dottie and got her a bikini. She's a summery dog.

We went back home and filled up her little pool and splashed around for a bit.

We ended the day with a little bit of cake and a pony ride. Such a perfect way to celebrate her 1st birthday!