12 Month Height/Weight update

I took Evelynn in for her 12 month exam and shots today.  She weighed in at 22 lbs and 7 oz (75%) and 30 inches long (86%).  No big shockers there, that's right about where she has been for several months now.

She was healthy, apart from a little diaper rash. Doc recommended a little Neosporin in addition to the Desitin, Hydrocortizone cream and Butt Paste we've been using. Everything looked very good and he her favorite Bunny even got a little check up too. Bunny's heart sounded good and it showed no signs of ear infection. PS. I LOVE Evelynn's doctor.

She got the MMR shot today along with her second Polio vaccine. I can tell her little legs are sore and I am keeping extra close watch on her for fevers, etc since the MMR is the only vaccine she's received to date that is actual live virus.

She cried with the shots, of course. But then she kept crying and cry that seemed to tell the doctor that he had betrayed her trust. Poor little thing. About half an hour after we left she really rallied though and was a VERY good girl all afternoon, playing with toys, kitties, puppies and making new friends.

We are very fortunate to have such a happy and healthy little girl.

She'll always be a baby to me.

That's it. She's one. It's so bittersweet. On the one hand, I'm amazed at how far she has come and excited to see what the next 12 months will bring and the 12 after that and the 12 after that... On the other, I still want her to be my little baby! I'm sure every other mother in the world has had similar thoughts around this time. It's not unique but it is honest.

Evelynn goes to the doctor on Thursday for her One Year check up and shots. So here is this month's update minus the height/weight stats.

Oh MY but she has made strides intellectually this month! We've known she was taking it all in since the moment she was born with her eyes wide open. But now those little wheels are just turning and turning. She is able to understand almost everything we say and ask of her, but she doesn't always choose to obey. If I ask her if she needs a dry diaper she will answer me by going to her bedroom door.  If she drops an object I can tell her to pick it up and she will go back for it. She follows me when asked. Holds my hand when asked. Lays back on her changing table when asked. She knows the names of objects and will deliver the "Ball" or "book" to us. If we go outside to her swingset I can ask her if she wants to swing or slide and she will run to the one she wants. And that doesn't include the cute little things we've taught her to do, I'll get to those in a minute.

Her signing is going really well. She can sign and understand the meaning of:
Mommy and Daddy- Although she is capable of doing the sign for "Mommy" she gives the sign for "Daddy" and means either one or both of us.
All Done
More
Hello
Bye-Bye
You- Meaning herself. It's not real ASL but she started patting her chest and tummy when we say "You" and it stuck.

She is learning the signs for: Swing, Ball, Wet, Dry, Diaper, Bubbles, and Book

She also gives cuddles and kisses and just Saturday she finally learned to blow kisses. So far it's only been to boys. Are we in for it or what?!  She also waves one or both arms in the air to dance when music comes on.

Okay, cutesy stuff. All parents teach their kids silly cutesy routines right?  I don't know how it began but months ago we started singing Evie the "Naked Baby" song when we got her undressed for bath time. It goes like this, "Naked Baby, Naked Baby, Woo, Woo, Woo! Naked Baby WHO?! Naked Baby YOU!" We all dance to this. Don't Judge. Anyway, now when we say, "Naked Baby WHO?!" Evie replies by patting her chest and tummy. And Mommy and Daddy dissolve into giggles.   Along the same lines, I can ask Evie, "Evie, Who is my sweetheart?" And she'll reply by patting her chest and tummy. I say, "That's Right! You're my sweetheart! Who else is my sweetheart?" And she does the sign for Daddy.

Evelynn loves playing peek a boo. One of her favorite times to play is on her swing set. She climbs the "rock" wall. (Oh yes, she can climb it on her own). Then crawls (she quickly learned she had to duck under the beam) to the slide. She knows she has to go down feet first so she arranges herself and gets all ready to go. When we get in position to catch her she abruptly changes course and crawls to the ladder. Naturally, I run to the ladder to keep her from falling off. When I get there she giggles and crawls into the fort to the "rock" wall. I then have to run all the way around the set to make sure she doesn't fall off that end. This is immensely funny to her. She likes to peek between the slats and around the corners to catch you. This also works peering around corners and through windows.

One of her favorite things this month is shoes. When she's barefoot she'll find a shoe and try to put it on.  Another treasure is Bunny. It is quickly becoming her take-everywhere-lovey.  She never goes to sleep without it and gives it way more hugs and kisses than the rest of her stuffies.

 Her other bed time quirk has to do with satin edged blankies. There's not one that she favors more than another. It just has to be a blanket with satin edges. As she falling asleep she'll pull the corner up from around her toes and then rub the palm of her hand back and forth along the satin edge until she falls asleep.

Her taste in food hasn't changed much lately. She still loves bananas and other sweet fruits. She recently tried watermelon and liked it well enough. Cheese and fish are still favorites too. I cut up a fresh pineapple for her birthday party and that has been a big hit as well. She's down to only a bedtime bottle and it's half organic whole milk with DHA and half formula. I started trying to give her a little milk in the morning too with limited success.  She can drink out of a sippy cup sized straw now, but hasn't gotten the hang of take out cups yet. This is probably because she gets such little opportunity to practice, as we rarely eat out anymore.

Evelynn did very well at her first birthday party. It was mostly family and familiar faces but there were a few people she hadn't seen in a very long time (on her scale). It took her a little bit to get used to everyone but once she did she played nicely. She really wasn't interested in opening her presents but enjoyed playing with them once I opened them for her.

I was expecting a big cake smashing but instead she very delicate pulled all the frosting off and left the cake intact and untouched until her Grammy took a fork to it. Then she still left the cake alone and continued with frosting until she reached sugar coma stage.

Her actual birthday was spent having her portrait taken at Bishop's, running errands, playing outside, and inside and going to swimming lessons.  Here are a few pictures I took today. Be looking for the amazing shots from Bishop's in about two weeks. They always do a fantastic job and I can't wait to see what they came up with.

Happy Birthday to my silly, sweet, smart and incredible daughter. No matter how old you get, you'll always be that tiny little baby I met one year ago today.

Milestones

Sometimes I'm just amazed at how much my little girl has learned in under one year's time (her birthday is tomorrow). This year has been so exciting to me, because everyday brings something new. She can do something new or understand something or conquer a new physical obsticle.  Here, in pictures, are just a few of the many milestones and "firsts" this year.

First Picture (also the first time seeing her Grammy)

First time in her carseat

First time sleeping in her own bed

First time Daddy got to feed her

First time sun bathing (she had Jaundice)

First Smile

First Friend- Miss Paloma

First Trip to the Pool

First Pigtails

First time sitting unsupported

First solid foods

First time at the park

First Parade

First Christmas

First Snow

First time Crawling

First Teeth

First time standing up in bed

First time Standing Unsupported (and she's clapping but this wasn't the first time)

First Steps

First Easter

First trip to the zoo

First time on her swing set

First Birthday Party

And somewhere in there she learned to sign, wave, clap, understand, reason, babble, point and capture the hearts of all who know her. Happy birthday to my sweet little princess.

A Photo Retrospective

Little Miss Evelynn will turn 1 year old on Tuesday. She's grown and changed so much this year. Thought we'd take a quick look back. I tried to take pictures every month on her birthday.

Day 2. Still in the hospital

5 Weeks (Photo by Bishop's Studio)

2 Months

3 Months (Photo by Monrella Buchanan)

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months (Photo by Bishop's Studio)

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months (Photo by Bishop's Studio)

10 Months

11 Months (Photo by Monrella Buchanan)

11 Months

We spent Evelynn's 11 month birthday in Little Rock visiting with friends and family and have been SO busy since we got home I'm only just now getting around to this post.

It seems my little baby is turning more into a little girl every day. She is constantly learning something new or showing me just how much she has been observing for the past 11 months.

We haven't taken her weight and height measurements yet this month but my estimate is about 22lbs and 29.5 inches.  She is wearing size 9-12 months in most clothes but can fit size 12-18 month shirts without them swallowing her.  Generally her pants have to be smaller.  She's in a size 4 shoe for now. Her little feet just seem to grow faster than everything else and they are a little chubby so finding shoes can be a bit of a challenge for us. We've learned to try everything on first.

Evelynn has mastered walking and is moving on to trying to learn to run. One of her favorite activities is chasing the kitties and she's definitely getting faster at it.  We've even let her walk a little bit when we go for our evening walks. It's pretty slow going when there are so many exciting things to look at, like dandelions...

You may notice the pacifier in her mouth. It's weird. She was never much of a pacifier kid when she was younger but those top teeth really seem to be bothering her and she likes to chew on the pacifier. It seems to help and it keeps her from grinding her front teeth together, making one of the most annoying sounds in the world right behind fingernails on a blackboard.  It also helps when we're out in the yard because if she has the pacifier in her mouth she doesn't put other things in it like seeds and leaves and dirt. So for now, she can keep it.  She officially has 7 teeth. 3 on the top and 4 on the bottom.  Number 8, on the top, is slowly working its way down. Her poor little gums are so red and swollen. You can also see where her bottom gums are starting to swell with the coming canine teeth. Fortunately, the bottom teeth seem easier on her than the top. We see this face a LOT when her teeth hurt.

Evelynn still hasn't officially said a word that we can distinguish.  She says "Ma Ma" all the time and particularly when she's upset. It does seem to be directed at me at those times but then she just babbles it all the time too.  She used to say "Da da" all the time but we haven't heard the "D" sound for a few weeks. Right now she's all about "Ba Ba" I'm not sure if the sheep at the zoo just had a profound influence on her or what.  When we were visiting my grandparents she was very obviously trying to say "Puppy" but it always came out "Ba Ba" and when we got home she just says that for all kinds of things. Sometimes "Ba ba" means "Ball" or "Book" or "Bottle" and I get really excited. But then it also means "Kitty" or "Phone" or "Remote" and I'm right back to thinking she's just babbling. The other sounds we hear most often are very high pitched "AHHHHHHHH!" and "EEEEEEEEEE"  these sounds are typically happy and indicate that a kitty has been sighted and she is in hot pursuit. They can also mean that she sees the bookcase and is intent on pulling all the books off.

As her walking and large motor skills have improved she has begun working on some smaller motor skills. She can now easily feed herself with her fingers. She can put her spoon in her mouth and even pick up a piece of food with her fingers and put it on a spoon, but the spoon rarely makes it to her mouth with anything on it. In the past couple weeks she has become intent on putting things into other things; her sippy cup in the place on her highchair tray, the balls in her little popper toy, the blocks in her shape sorter, even pieces of food that she took out of her bowl, back in the bowl. She has recently started trying to put the shape blocks through the appropriate holes of the sorter too. She does seem to understand that the blue circle goes through the blue circle opening, but sometimes her hands get in the way; she gets frustrated, puts the block in the top and tries to pull it out the circle opening instead. This is, of course, very exciting to her parents and nobody else. It is also exciting because now instead of just pulling things out of drawers as fast as I can put them away, she will help me put things in the drawers, just not always what actually belongs there.

At 11 months we are moving further and further away from baby food. A typical day for Evie includes breastmilk first thing in the morning, followed by water and a couple cheerios sometimes. Breakfast is plain yogurt with organic fruit/grain baby food. After that we have been trying a we eat what the baby eats meal plan. (Not the other way around.) This is because generally Evie has a healthier diet than her Mommy and Daddy and we should try to eat better too.  Mike has already lost several pounds. I don't get on the scale but I do feel better about my choices this way.  We have a snack around 10:00. It is usually a piece of fruit, some berries or, if we're not home, some cheerios. For lunch we try to eat the leftovers from dinner the night before. If there aren't any then Evie MAY have baby food meat and veggies if there are no other healthy options. Rarely she gets a treat of baked fish sticks (minus the breading) and tater tots. She typically has a bottle of formula for a snack after her nap and depending on how late dinner is going to be she may have an afternoon snack of fruit or berries or cheese as well. For dinner we cook and she eats adult food. This kid LOVES fish of all kinds so we have really incorporated as much as possible into our diet. Salmon with dill and asparagus, Tilapia with lemon and fresh mozzarella/tomato salad (Evie doesn't get the tomatoes yet), and Asian style steamed Cod with brown rice and edamame are all staples at our house these days.  Before bed Evie has a bottle of formula.

There are still a few foods that we are holding out on introducing. They include: Chocolate, Tomatoes, Citrus, Strawberries and nuts of all kinds. She has tried milk products like yogurt and cheeses and had no problems with it but will not have whole cows milk until next month.  She has had small tastes of chocolate and tomatoes with no ill effects but we're waiting until next month to fully introduce them.

Recently her sleep schedule has changed as she has dropped down to one nap per day. Generally she wakes up between 7:15 and 7:45AM. I try to keep her awake until after 11:30 when we have lunch, although if we go somewhere she may fall asleep in the car around 11:00 and then I'm stuck sitting in the driveway while she takes her nap. If she takes a nap in bed around 11:30 she will wake up around 1:00. Then she has her bath at 7:00 and is almost always asleep for the night by 8:30 at the latest. She sleeps all night and is very good about putting herself back to sleep if she wakes. However, she will NOT go to sleep on her own at bedtime. She wants to be rocked to sleep and put in bed when she is completely out. None of this laying her down drowsy but awake stuff for her!

We've been having a LOT of fun lately. We took her to the Kansas City Zoo for the first time and she LOVED it, particularly the monkeys of all kinds.

It has been warm enough to be outside playing. So we got her a baby pool and she's spent many an afternoon in the shade playing in the water. 

Her "boyfriend", Shooter, comes up from down the streets and joins us sometimes too.  They seem to have fun together but see each other more as objects than other people. According to the books they won't really know about sharing and for a couple more years. Alas. 

We're working on planning Evelynn's first birthday party.  It will be a pink and brown polka dot theme. I've ordered her cake and bought her a pretty dress. We're getting her this swing set for her birthday. (But the company is local and we got it at about half price.) We'll be putting that together next weekend. I absolutely can not believe that my little girl is going to be one year old.  Last year at this time we were busy planning her arrival.

And now I'm planning her first birthday. How the time does fly. 

All professional photos on this page are courtesy of my amazingly talented cousin Monrella Buchanan of Paper Memories Photography.