Friday, August 27, 2010

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago, Petite came into our lives (after a long 45 hours between my water breaking and her début!).

One year ago, our lives changed.


On Wednesday past, we took her for her 12-month appointment. She is 9.98 kg (just shy of 22 lbs; I thought she was about 24 actually!), and 76 cms (29"). She is firmly in the 50th percentile and that's absolutely perfect. She's walking/running around the house. It's amazing. She gets so extremely excited when she tries to play with the cats or when we play 'chase' with her that she'll lose motor control, dissolving into fits of giggling laughter!

In the food department
She has almost completely made the switch to homogenized milk (3.5%); we only have a little bit of formula left so we'll use it up instead of wasting it. She prefers smooth foods to chunky solids still (she still only has two teeth!) so we give her cereals and some pureed stuff to make sure she has the nutrition she needs, and she sits with us at the table in her high chair and has finger foods afterwards. She's tried lots of solids though: pineapple, apples, grapes (cut of course), blueberries, all types of melon. She's like her Nana and big (half-) brother and loves crackers, toast, macaroni or anything carb-related! She loves carrots and peas, squash and some corn. She likes chicken better than beef, but sort of enjoyed some ground beef that she attempted. She loves to gnaw on pizza crusts. She guzzles water like crazy, but hates juices and will usually only take milk from someone else; she doesn't like to hold her milk bottle at all!

In the motor skills area
She loves turning pages of a book (backwards, forwards, sideways, any way at all!). She likes her stacking cups and cups in general and puts things in and out of them easily. She deftly picks up a tuft of cat fur and comes to me with it and I say "Ta ta / Merci" as she hands it to me for disposal. (Ha, great vacuum cleaner huh?) She loves to pull all the toys out of her toybox; alas, she refuses to put them back again. Rather destructive of her, isn't it? She loves soft blankets and cuddly, plush toys, burying her face in them with a huge smile when she gets one in her hands. She will dance to any sort of music at all, even music on TV commercials, wiggling her bum and moving up and down when she hears a tune. She mastered using a straw-style sippy cup while we were visiting my family and she likes that style of cup better than anything else now. However, when she's had enough, FLING! The cup goes flying onto the floor. We're trying to teach her to simply set it down, but so far, that lesson hasn't been learned. She loves water and the bath but I wish she wouldn't try to drink it every night! (And the one time she had an 'accident' in the bath, she subsequently tried to reach out and play with it! I quickly put the kaibosh on that! That's icky! Ewww!)

Petite's Personality
She's open and outgoing. She smiles at EVERYONE when we're out and strangers stop us frequently to tell us how cute she is. She is inquisitive, picking at every little button and knob she can get at. She even tries to reach for the garbage can through the rails of the baby gate, just to see how it opens! She is extremely active, never content to just sit and cuddle for long, as there's always something she wants to do! She loves the outdoors and animals, though big dogs sometimes scare her. She's happy, smiles a lot and loves to be with people in general. She enjoys seeing other little children; I know that people her own size fascinate her!

First Words?
I think (with a real emphasis on think) that she's saying a few words. It's odd, because what are regular syllables that she's been practising for months now have morphed into words here and there. Yesterday, while I was at work, she was upset about something and Hubby couldn't soothe her. She repeated, "Mama" over and over and was visibly elated when I came home, so we know it was a word in context rather than just the repetition of syllables. She will say "Dada" and "tickle" (though I think it's more like "tico" but it sounds darn close!). She is trying to say "meow-meow" too, again, stemming from her love of the cats.

And as for me, I'm back at work. I went back to the office on Monday, August 23. It's hard. Oh dear Lord, it's oh so hard to kiss her goodbye in the morning. I've had to change my office hours to accommodate the caregiver's open/close times and that means I'm battling with traffic more than I used to. Not fun. But I'll deal with it.

She's still at home with Hubby for the moment. She starts at the caregiver's on Tuesday, September 7. We've been there a number of times and the last time we went, she even took an hour-long nap in the pack-and-play there. She's comfortable with the caregiver (whew!) and honestly, so am I.

She has learned so many things in the last year. It's incredible to watch an infant grow and develop. I am amazed. And grateful. And so very blessed.

Happy Birthday Petite! May you have many, many more!