Dear Emersyn: One Year

First of all, thank you everyone who commented and emailed me such sweet, supportive words about my dad.  It's amazing how much my Internet friends have come to mean to me, and I'm so thankful to know you all are thinking of us and praying for my father.  Spending time with him and other family in general is a big reason this post is way past due (a whole month, eek)- we've been very busy around these parts!  Must catch up!

And just like that, you're a year old.  Its hard to believe a whole year has past, but it's also hard to remember life before you were here.

You've had a very full month!

You say Mama, Dada, shoe, car, and dog (we think).  Babbleing in general is just out of control this month- you are getting so much more vocal!  Even though you can't say many other words, you recognize quite a few things if we say them out loud you can point them out.

You took two little steps this month but mostly you love to cruise around the house and walk with assistance.  You have a grocery cart that you love to push around the house, and you can sometimes even figure out how to move the cart around to keep going when you get stuck.  Overall you are just becoming so much more independent.  You even can play independently for a few minutes at a time!!!

Wherever Mama is is where you want to be, so if I leave you playing in the family room to clean in the kitchen, you often show up just a few minutes later:)  Your favorite thing to "help" with- loading and unloading the dishwasher.  Mama quickly learned that knives need to be the last thing in and the first thing out, after you just about gave me a heart attack when you were waving one around.  Mom of the year, right here.

We had your birthday party this month and it was awesome!  You did great with everyone here and it was wonderful to celebrate a whole year of YOU!

Big thing this month- books!  We've always read to you, but you'd really not show much interest at all.  Now, you drag book after book to us, and love having us read them to you.  You also love to turn the pages, so sometimes we get through the whole book and sometimes we just turn pages haha.  Either way, I'm pretty happy to see you developing an appreciation for books.

Eating is still going really well- you love anything and everything, but your favorite thing we've added this month- spaghetti.  You LOVE it!  You've gone down to two nursing sessions a day- morning and bedtime, and I think we're well on our way to fully weaning.  This makes me a little bit sad but it's been a really gradual process, and we had an awesome run, so I think we're both ready.  At your one year appointment you weighed 19.3 lbs, and you were 29 inches tall.  Not quite the chunker you were at birth but healthy!  You LOVE solids, and really will eat everything we do, plus some.  For example, neither your dad nor I like beets, but you gobble them up!  I really try to buy a wide variety of foods, even if you're the only one that eats them because I'm loving how NOT picky you are right now.  You eat three BIG meals of solids each day and a snack.  I think once you go down to one nap a day we'll add in another snack.

Speaking of sleeping, you're still doing really well.  You have your occasional "early" wake ups, or nighttime wake ups, but you are fairly consistent with sleeping through the night (around 7:45pm-7am).  And, two naps a day still, 10am-11:30ish, and 2:30-4ish.  I must admit, there were months I did not think we would get here, and I'm so thankful you've turned into a better sleeper.

Things you love- exploring, using non toys as toys (cell phones, tupperware, cords etc), paci, Dada, and shoes.  Not such a fan of- being told no, having to stay in any one place for long, and sleeping anywhere but your crib at home (this has made Sundays kind of hard because church is right when you need to nap and you refuse to sleep there).

One whole year, baby girl.  We all survived, hooray!  We love you more than words can express.  You make us smile and laugh every single day, and we are so proud to be your parents.

Love,

Mama