Monday, May 6, 2013 - our baby turned one.
Does that mean that she isn't my baby anymore? Sometimes I look at her and I see this little person with her own personality and she looks just so grown up. But sometimes when I look at her I just see my tiny baby who knows nothing about the world except that her mom and dad love her. One year is a pretty big deal, but I don't know if I am ready to call her a toddler! I know that everyone says this - but I really can't believe how quickly time passed. I wish that I could just hold onto this time for a little bit longer.
As far as stats for this month go... we haven't been to her 12 month appointment yet. (I seriously need a new pediatrician. This one is just not cutting it. I had to reschedule after I realized that my sweet friend Cassie was getting married at the same time as the appointment and they told me that they were booked two months out. We are meeting with a nurse practitioner next week - but I'm not happy about it. Any suggestions for great pediatricians? We are with Dr. Wilcox at the Utah Valley Pediatrics in AF.)
Sorry, stats: This month I jumped all of Lydia's clothes up to 12-18 months clothes and at first they drowned her. They are still a little large - but she is growing into them. (Her summer clothes are all 12-18 months so when I put away the 9 month winter clothes, there wasn't much option except to jump her up into the bigger sizes.) I would say she is probably right between 9 and 12 month sizes. 18 month sizes are still much too big. She is still in size three diapers. Last month I posted about buying her a pair of shoes that were size three... but when I bought a new pair of shoes this month they are actually size two. I realized that the other little white sandals are a tiny bit big. So she is right there at that 2-3 size range. She is definitely on the small side for her age- but I will post more official stats after our well-check appointment.
*Update- Lydia's official 12 Month stats are:*
Weight: 19.09 lbs (37.37%)
Length: 27.25 inches (7.25%)
Head Circumference: 17.75 inches (53.85%)
The pediatrician also did an "Important Milestones" evaluation with her. (Actually I just answered a bunch of questions and then he had her do a few things.) She was WELL above the average in almost all the areas of development, especially Gross Motor. Communication-45, Gross Motor-60, Fine Motor-40, Problem Solving-45, Personal Social-55. The only area that she wasn't outstanding was that she is still only saying Dad. No other words yet. He said that this isn't unusual- but she just isn't over the top like she is in the other areas. I am so proud. :)
The pediatrician also did an "Important Milestones" evaluation with her. (Actually I just answered a bunch of questions and then he had her do a few things.) She was WELL above the average in almost all the areas of development, especially Gross Motor. Communication-45, Gross Motor-60, Fine Motor-40, Problem Solving-45, Personal Social-55. The only area that she wasn't outstanding was that she is still only saying Dad. No other words yet. He said that this isn't unusual- but she just isn't over the top like she is in the other areas. I am so proud. :)
--Lydia learned how to stand up on her own in the middle of the floor. She was barely eleven month old at that point. Since then, the preferred method of transport is walking. And goodness gracious, she can move fast! I love to see her tottling around getting into things and having adventures that she just couldn't manage before she was walking as much. Whenever people see her walking, they always comment that she looks so small to be walking so well. It's true. She is on the small side and so when she walks around, she just looks so tiny that you can't help but think it's adorable. She even participated in a Relief Society lesson and walked up the middle aisle to me. It was so darling.
--She loves to crawl up stairs. We have to keep the gate latched ALWAYS because if you forget even one time, she knows. She will sneak over to it, glancing back to make sure you don't see her. If you do see her, she giggles and walks faster to try to beat you to the gate. When we went to my sister Jenna's graduation, she was in stair-heaven. We sat on the front row of the balcony and for the whole hour or so that we waited for the commencement to start she crawled up the stairs, over and over and over. Like at least 30 times.
--She loves to play little games with us. We got a free basketball from RC Willey and she has loves to roll it around the house. When we first got it, she would giggle and giggle as she and David rolled the ball back and forth. I was surprised and impressed that she totally got the game and would push it back toward him.
--She has started getting more and more interested in her books. She likes to sit and flip through the pages as I am reading them (which sometimes results in me speed-reading the books to her because she wants to flip the pages faster than I can read the words). Now she will even occasionally try to flip through the books on her own. I hope that she grows up to love reading as much as her mama and daddy!
--I am already amazed at how much she notices and the ability she has to copy the things that I am doing. She loves to go and pick up my shoes and bring them over to me to put on my feet. She even sometimes tries to put my shoes on her feet. Maybe this is normal- but I am so impressed that she understands that already. I didn't think the "trying on mommy's shoes" thing would happen for a couple of years. I love to see her go and grab my shoes. Now that she has some real shoes of her own, she loves to just carry them around the house. She watches me as I do the dishes and loves to try to copy me. As I put the silverware in the tray, she will pull it out and put it on the floor. Once it is all out, she will try to put it back in.
--Lydia's little mind is so inquisitive. Her understanding of "where things go" is increasing every day. When I bought her these new little sandals last month, there was a sticker where her foot goes. She watched me pull it off, then grabbed the sandal and the sticker and tried to put it back on.
--Lydia and Elsie are the best of friends. They don't play together but they do play next to each other. It's so darling to watch them when they first see each other. Lydia definitely recognizes Elsie and is always so happy to see her. (Even when she sees pictures of Elsie on the computer she gets excited.)
--She loves her daddy so much. She still will frequently say "Dad-Dad, dada, dad-dad-dad" especially when she wants him, or she is excited that he is home. (Only a few times has she said "Mom, mom-mom-mom.") It's darling to watch the two of them together. He loves her so much, and she knows it and loves him back. David takes Lydia into the bathroom while he gets ready in the morning so I can get a few more minutes of sleep and I LOVE to listen to them playing together.
-- Lydia eats SO much food. I guess now that she is walking she is burning loads of calories, but man-oh-man. Some of her favorite foods currently are cottage cheese, pasta, bananas, more cottage cheese, graham crackers, cheese, rice with sauce, and water.
--Lydia has started carrying her little stuffed animals around with her. When she sees one of them, she gets super happy, grabs it, and pulls it in and buries her face in it. Then she proceeds to carry it around until she gets distracted with something else. But then she will see another one and start the whole process over. They are all really soft and fluffy, one is a white bear, one is a purple bunny, and one is a smaller cream bear with a heart. I love to see how much she loves them.
--I have a separate post I'm planning to write about this (if I can ever make it happen) but this month we started cloth diapers! It's going really well and Lydia has done really well with the transition And you have to be honest: this little bum is darling:
--I don't know that I have a picture of this, but she loves to carry her little silver shoes around with her, one in each hand. It's super cute, but the night before we went to get our pictures taken - I couldn't find one of her shoes for the life of me. I was hunting around EVERYWHERE. I usually keep them downstairs, but I had this faint memory of her holding one of the shoes when I went up to put her down for her nap. Finally I found it in the bathtub in the master bathroom. Silly girl. I was so relieved that she hadn't put it in the garbage (it had been garbage day and I was afraid it was gone forever.)
--Along with her stuffed animals, she has grown an even stronger attachment to her purple blanket. When we go in to pick her up after her nap, she will stand up then reach down and grab her blanket and then hand it to you before she lets you pick her up. She just wants the blanket to come as well.
--We were able to spend some time with my Grandma and Grandpa Walker this month, I want Lydia to know how much they love her. I wish we lived closer so that we could see them more often.
--This girl loves to climb into cupboards. We have a few cupboards that are empty so I just keep "Lydia-friendly" things in there, like toys or sippy cups. However, her favorite cupboard is the big deep on in the island because she can stand all the way up inside of it.
--Lydia has started playing with her toys more and more. She understands "the game" of playing with toys and they can keep her interest for longer. One of her favorites is this little ball roller. She puts the little guys through the hole at the top and then they roll down the ramp and come out the bottom. It was amazing, because one day she just got it. Before that, she had no interest in it- but then one day I did it for her once and she sat there and rolled the balls for at least 15 minutes. It was amazing. She doesn't even try to put the ball in the main open area - she knows that it goes in the top.
--Someday Lydia might kill me for posting this, and I realize it's a little gross, but it was so amazing that we couldn't not share. Lydia went to the bathroom on the toilet for the first time this month! Haha. She was in the bath when she looked like she needed to go potty. This would be the third time a short period of time that we would have had to drain the water, bleach the tub, clean all the toys, yada yada. Neither of us were looking forward to that, so David said "Just pick her up and see if she will go on the toilet." I laughed but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to try, so try we did. And you know what? It was success! We held her little body on the toilet and within 30 seconds she had done her business right into the toilet. She was so proud of herself. David and I couldn't stop laughing. We wiped her little bum and sat her back into the tub. The rest of the night we kept talking about how amazing it was. So there you have it. Lydia is well on her way to being potty trained (we wish)!
--Lydia's new favorite thing at bathtime is to let us take off her clothes, and then take those clothes and throw them in the tub before we can stop her. She thinks it's so funny.
--Our DVDs are set up behind our chaise. Lyd loves to walk back there and pull them ALL off the shelves. We made a stack of DVDs that we didn't want falling down and set that out of reach. We are fine with her pulling them all out. (I'm a believer in letting your child explore the world around, even if that means that sometimes DVDs are on the floor. There are enough other things that she really can't do, that I prefer to say "yes, you can do that" if it really is okay if she does.)
--Lydia is such a smiley and happy baby. Sometimes she gets grumpy, but for the most part she is content to take part in whatever is going on. Like in this picture we were organizing wedding announcements in our RLD room. Lydia was like "You guys go ahead and do that. I'm going to sit in the lid of this box and play with my toy and drink my water. It's all good."
Here are some other pictures from the month:
We love you darling girl! It's been an amazing 12 months.
