happy belated birthday to our firecracker baby! you are developing such a fun personality -- you love to make us laugh by playing peekaboo, pulling duck faces, and crawling around with dish towels on your head. you scowl and squawk if you're displeased with something (usually Elizabeth encroaching on your personal space). and you chat happily to yourself while playing with baby dolls or wooden puzzles.
helping mama cook
you can stand up unassisted and keep your balance for quite a while before squatting back down and crawling off like a shot towards your next adventure. you haven't taken a step by yourself yet, but you still have time to beat the Will child record of walking at 13 months (Cece is on tenterhooks to find out whether you're going to steal that crown of laurels from her -- Elizabeth walked at 14 months and Greta at 15 months so we'll see!).
helping yourself to your sister's yogurt
you put anything and everything into your mouth. thank goodness you've only had one scary moment of choking, and even that wasn't a true airway obstruction -- you got a thick hairband stuck in the back of your throat and couldn't cough it out, so I had to do the baby Heimlich and put you over my arm and slap you on the back a few times until you dislodged it. even though you were still able to breathe through it all, of course it was scary and I was so grateful for the biannual CPR training we do at work with mannequins so that the muscle memory took over!
at your one year well visit, you weighed 19 lbs and were 27 inches long (50th percentile all around). you are wearing 12 month clothes. you say "mama", "dada", "this!" (while pointing imperiously) and "no". you love to eat -- PB&J cut into strips, all kinds of fruit, pizza, yogurt, and pasta are favourites. you drink whole milk out of a bottle and water out of a sippy cup. such a big girl!
you finalllllly (dare I jinx it?!) are sleeping all the way through the night after months of multiple night wakings. just within the past month you transitioned from waking up between 1-3 AM needing a bottle, to waking up needing your pacifier put back in, to waking up and putting your own pacifier back in. you and Elizabeth both sleep in our room still (in separate cribs) and I couldn't let you self soothe as much as I did with your older sisters at this age because then you would wake up Elizabeth. so your sleep skills have taken longer to develop but finally, praise God, we seem to be through the worst of it! (for now, haha... we're flying across the country soon to visit family so with the time change and travel all bets are off.)
on your first birthday, we continued our tradition of driving out for the Fourth of July festival in the town where your Pappy grew up and where we were married. you ate chicken BBQ and macaroni salad, then spent some quality time with family and ate most of the frosting off of your birthday cupcake. we sure love you, Victoria Anne!
reading your card from Cece, who also made you a headband
your mother forgot a bib so your father improvised.
birthday books from Aunt Patty and Uncle Larry
with your godparents -- and your new baby cousin, soon to make his debut!
then you celebrated back at home with presents from Grammie & Grandpa and Nana & Pappy. and your sentimental mother pored over photos and videos from the past year, reliving the joys and thankfully short-lived hardships. what strikes me most is the fact that from the very first day of your life, you have been surrounded by so much love. whatever the rest of your years may hold, I hope and pray that you carry that love with you wherever you go.
your very own couch from Nana & Pappy
super cute outfits from Grammie & Grandpa
your very own pop-it, which is definitely coming on the plane with us at the end of the month
Can you imagine that the sweet baby girl in the casts (I can't think of what it was called) might be your earliest walker? She's adorable and looks like a happy go lucky type of kid. Bonus points for a full night's sleep!
How is she one!? I feels like just yesterday she was born. Time really flies when you measure it according to a baby growing up. What a lovely recap, and what a joy to see her loving life. Yay for sleeping through the night!!!
it's about time for a good old airing of the grievances. while we have ever so much for which to give thanks, sometimes we need the catharsis of enumerating our woes, big and small. (you can read the 2023 edition here.) _________________________________________ first up, potty training. I buckled down and trained Greta and Cecilia both around age 2 1/2, and it went fairly well (I'm a big fan of waiting until the kid is practically ready to train themselves). Elizabeth turned 2 1/2 near the end of the school year, and logically it seemed like a great time to buckle down -- we wouldn't be driving around to after school sports and activities and we'd have more time at home. I kept waiting for the day when I'd wake up full of excitement and motivation to strip off the diaper and chase a naked toddler around the house. and ... shockingly ... that day never came. then we were preparing for our trip to Seattle in July and it definitely didn't seem like the right time...
1) shredded chicken in the instant pot. the easiest meal prep ever -- perfectly cooked chicken that can be added to wraps, salads, or other recipes like enchiladas and casseroles! I follow the directions in this recipe , although I don't always add all the seasonings. and I generally cook 5 pounds of chicken breast at a time, so I increase the cook time from 10 minutes to 15, and allow natural pressure release. 2) journaling. Mom gave me my very first journal for Christmas the year I turned 6, and I filled several more volumes by the time I reached college. eventually I got out of the habit, partially as I was blogging more regularly and just in general with the advent of smartphones and the addition of four kids :) in a recent session, my therapist asked me if I had ever journaled and if I thought it would be helpful to do that on occasion. I laughed and said I'd give it a shot. the OG journal. the cover is slightly stuffed for a pleasing squishy texture written just a...
1) Color Run. the first annual Color Run for school took place on a Saturday morning in late August and it was so much fun! our school opened in Fall 2020, and I am continually amazed at how much the school community has grown since then. over the last year in particular, there have been an explosion of events for families outside of school (spearheaded by volunteers), and I just love how these programs foster a sense of common purpose and boost school spirit. the Color Run was sponsored by the school's cross-country team, and dovetailed with the Back-to-School Breakfast hosted by the parent volunteer group. Greta had no interest in running the 1-mile course (they had two courses designated, one that went up a hill and along a trail for a bit, and one that was flatter and suitable for strollers or walkers). so she volunteered to help as a color-sprayer! she was stationed at the beginning of the race, and then also was tasked with guarding the water balloons at the end of th...
Can you imagine that the sweet baby girl in the casts (I can't think of what it was called) might be your earliest walker? She's adorable and looks like a happy go lucky type of kid. Bonus points for a full night's sleep!
ReplyDeleteHow is she one!? I feels like just yesterday she was born. Time really flies when you measure it according to a baby growing up. What a lovely recap, and what a joy to see her loving life.
ReplyDeleteYay for sleeping through the night!!!