Hellobee

It has been a busy, busy month in our house!! Let’s dive on in to see what’s been going on.

Lil Miss Wagon

12 MONTH STATS
Weight: 24.38 lbs (95%)
Length: 31 in (95%)
Head Circumference: 19 in (99%)

Well well well… here we are. LMW’s 1 year update. Don’t get me wrong — the baby stage is not my favorite and my life is so very fun every single day — but there is still very much a place for mourning the loss of the baby stage. It’s mostly nostalgia though, and I don’t even have time to think about how much I’ll miss having a little tiny baby!

We have the start of talking… just barely. Everything is still “dada” based, so I think it’s safe to say that her first word is Dada. She points to the dogs and says “da,” she points to her milk cup and says “da”… so she’s using language to identify and ask for things. She also says “ow” (more like “ow-hh”), imitating us when she’s clawing at us or hurting us. She also imitates “thank you” with “dat-doo,” and she has recently started saying hi (“aiyeee”). This is technically a sneak peek into her 13 month update since this one is so late, but recently she started leaning in for kisses as well!!

Hanging with LMW is really fun. She is great at independently playing and loves to explore. She loves the swings and loves going for walks in the stroller. She seems to be outdoorsy so that forces me to be outdoorsy, since Wagon Sr. and Wagon Jr. love the outdoors as well. LMW is also very friendly and doesn’t have any stranger anxiety… fingers crossed that she won’t. She does, however, have anxiety whenever Mommy is around. For some reason she just gets super whiny as soon as she sees me. As soon as I’m out of sight/out of mind; she is totally fine.

Eating

LMW has made a very sharp and abrupt transition to table foods. One day she just refused anything that came in a spoon. Even though she had had trouble with table foods just a few weeks prior, we offered her table foods again and she has not looked back since. She won’t even eat applesauce or yogurt. For her, it’s all about self-feeding. She is really obsessed with utensils and prefers to eat off of a fork. She likes it when we give her a choice between one food on one fork and a different food on another. As soon as she grabs the fork and eats the food, she tries to spear the next bite on the fork. She’s not quite there with using utensils on her own yet, but she’s really close at this alarmingly young age…! So far she has pretty much gobbled up everything we have offered her, from meats to breads, to fresh fruits and steamed veggies. The only things she has trouble with are veggies that aren’t super cooked and soft.

We recently noticed a rash around her eyes after we introduced fresh cherries, so we’re staying away from those for now.

We also made a slow transition from breastmilk to cold cow’s milk in a straw cup and she, like her brother, absolutely loves her milk. We are done with bottles and she doesn’t have milk before naps or bedtime anymore, just with meals.

My frozen breastmilk supply is now completely gone (sigh!) but she transitioned like a pro and now goes through milk like a beast. We are buying 3 gallons a week right now… we need to store extra milk in our upstairs mini fridge to make sure we don’t run out!! Strangely enough, I love the fact that we go through so much milk. I grew up totally obsessed with milk and I grew to be taller than my parents ever expected, and I have strong teeth and have never broken a bone.

On that note, I weaned from the pump shortly after LMW’s first birthday. It was a little scary (I REALLY didn’t want to get mastitis!) but I basically went from 2 pumping sessions a day to just 1 for a few days, then just stopped. My supply was basically gone after the stress of LMW’s Dol, so I took advantage and just stopped. I made it to a year of exclusively pumping, huzzah! It is a huge relief to be able to get rid of all my pumping and breastmilk feeding supplies!!

Sleeping

LMW’s sleep is still great. After she was sick, she went through a period where she wouldn’t fall asleep on her own and needed us to hold her to fall asleep, but thankfully it was just a short phase and now she’s back to her old self. She’s still taking 2 naps a day of just over an hour each (sometimes as short as 30 min, sometimes as long as 2 hours) and basically sleeps overnight from about 7:00pm – 6:15am. She’s been waking up early with poops lately so that pushes her whole schedule a little earlier every day.

She still doesn’t sleep well in the car and stroller, but if we keep her moving she will stay asleep for 45 mins to an hour.

Here’s an example of her schedule lately.

6:30am: Wake up, Breakfast (something like eggs, sausages, pancakes, fruit)
9:00am: Morning nap (1 hr 20 mins)
11:30am: Lunch (chicken, broccoli, cheese, fruit)
1:30pm: Afternoon nap (1 hr 20 mins)
4:00pm: Dinner (pasta, meatballs, veggies, bread)
5:30pm: 2nd Dinner with the rest of the family (bits of whatever we’re eating)
6:00pm: Bath and bedtime!
7:00pm: Asleep for the night

Wagon Jr.

Same old same old with WJ lately. He is super goofy and loads of fun to play with. He is still pretty sensitive from time to time if he hasn’t had a nap or doesn’t get his way, and he still struggles to be gentle and kind with LMW (as well as share, of course). But in general he has been doing very well. We’ve had very few time outs lately, and most of our struggle with him is with eating because he takes so long to eat and is always playing around during mealtimes.

We’ve been working on more independence with WJ since we will need him to step it up once LMW starts daycare! Usually we have the help of the nanny in the mornings, so we don’t even have to think about LMW, but starting in October we will be getting two kids up, dressed, fed, and out the door for daycare. He can pretty much go potty all by himself and only needs help to wipe (and sometimes getting his clothes back on), and if we turn the water on for him, he can wash his hands on his own. The same goes for brushing his teeth… if we put toothpaste on the brush and fill his water cup, he can brush on his own. (However, we usually supervise his brushing at least once a day so we can be sure he’s actually doing a good job!) He will have his first dentist visit in a month.

Sibling Love

WJ and LMW continue to have a very good relationship. As LMW gets older, playing together becomes more of a possibility, which is so very lovely. WJ still snatches toys from her constantly, and she never really seems to mind, but we still try to correct his behavior consistently because we know the fights will start one day when she realizes she’s being stolen from. He sometimes has trouble playing with her because “she can’t because she’s just a little baby,” but he is getting good at finding another toy for her and bringing it to her.

That’s it from us this month!!