Hellobee

The big day has finally come—we hit the big ONE! My sweet little baby is now a one year old toddler. How is that possible? This past month has been a whirlwind with celebrating Thanksgiving, her birthday, and Christmas. We also road-tripped it up north to Seattle to be home for the holidays. It’s been busy for sure, but also lots and lots of fun.

We were able to squeeze in Little Deer’s one year check-up before our trip, so we finally have some growth stats! She weighed in at 18 pounds and 12 ounces and was 29.5 inches tall. She’s definitely on the tall/slender side but still totally within the normal range for her age (I believe about the 75th percentile for height and 25th for weight). Everything else at her appointment went well, she is a happy and healthy girl.

I think the biggest development this month would be that she is walking! I have been waiting for this day for so long. She’s been cruising around now for months and about the beginning of December we were finally able to coax a couple of steps out of her. She wouldn’t take more than 3 or 4 steps at a time, and you it took a lot of encouragement. Walking finally clicked for her the evening of her birthday, December 22nd. She started to walk while holding her pink ball in her hands, and I think something about that body position helped her stay upright. She walked about 20 steps and we caught it on video which was super awesome. Since then she’s been trying to walk everywhere. She can’t quite go from crawling to walking without pulling up on something, so I think once she figures out how to stand up on her own she’ll be walking all the time.

Besides walking, I’ve seen a lot of development in her communication and mental process. I can just see it in her eyes that she’s thinking things through and making connections. She really watches you do something, then tries to imitate it (like brushing her hair). And she is so observant! You really can’t get anything past her. She knows when toys should light up or make a sound, and if they’re not working she’ll bring them to you to turn on. Sometimes it’s the remote control and I don’t want to turn the TV on and boy does she get mad!

Speaking of mad, boy this girl can throw some impressive mini-tantrums already! If you tell her no, take away something she wants, or offer her food she doesn’t like… she instantly throws herself down and cries. It’s kind of funny, but kind of naughty at the same time. I’m trying not to give it too much attention, but instead redirect her. I will say I’m a little worried for what the the “terrible two’s” hold if she’s already this dramatic!

Though I thought she’d be saying a few words by now, we still haven’t had the official first word yet.  She’s very good at letting you know what she wants though. She says “dah” and points at things she wants or things she wants you to see. It’s hard because sometimes I think she’s definitely saying dada when she sees Mr. Deer, but then she’ll point at something else and say “dah!” again. It’s hard to tell. I haven’t counted how many words she understands, but here’s a few of them: mama, dada, birdie, food, blankie, hippo, and doggie. Hopefully next month we may have some real first words. I cannot wait to hear her say mama!

Eating

Breaking news on the MSPI front: I think it’s finally starting to go away. Yay!!! Usually if any dairy or soy is in my diet, she’ll spit-up within a few hours of breastfeeding. Well, this last month I’d been experimenting more with eating some baked dairy and I was finding that she wasn’t spitting-up at all. I had really been craving donuts throughout my dairy-free days, so Mr. Deer went and bought us a bunch from a yummy local bakery. I went a little nuts and ate quite a few donuts. And the next day… nothing. She was fine! What perfect timing too, right before Christmas (best Christmas present ever!). So when we were back at home I ate relatively normal. I had a little butter on my bread, some slices of cheese, and even cupcakes at her birthday. A few times she had a tiny bit of spit-up, but nothing major. I’m still scared to give her dairy directly after it made her throw-up when she was nine months old, but maybe we’ll try it again soon. I don’t plan on having a ton of dairy in my life (very little in fact) but it is so nice to know that if we go out to eat, or I want a treat, that it’s ok.

Breastfeeding is still going well. She’s nursing about six times a day still. I’d say we’re maybe 50/50 on breastmilk and solids. I know many babies are weaned by this point, but I’m happy that we’ve been able to continue with breastfeeding. We nurse usually once at night, in the morning, after naps, and before bed. She also eats about three small meals a day. She loves scrambled eggs, sweet potatoes, chicken sausage, chili, baked broccoli, puffs, pears, and prunes. I wouldn’t say she’s a picky eater, but it’s always tricky to feed her. Often times she just does not want to eat something, and she’ll just spit it right out or throw it off her tray. Stinker!

Sleeping

Oh sleep. It’s a never-ending saga. Right before we left for Seattle she finally got back down to one wake-up at night, usually around 4:00-5:00 AM. Though she sometimes woke up twice, she mainly stuck with just waking up once throughout the trip which I was really impressed with (considering she’d never slept in her travel crib before). Once we got home though, sleep just went out the window. She’s back to waking up about three times a night. It could be due to a whole bunch of things (I’m thinking it’s her first year molars) but we’ll see. I’m trying to stay strong with not nursing her at every wakeup and I think she’s starting to remember how to get herself back to sleep. I’m really hoping it gets better soon! I’ll sleep again one day, right?

Naps are still good. She takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap. The morning one is always a quick 30 minutes, and the afternoon one is usually a bit longer, maybe 1-2 hours. No complaints with naps! I am excited in the coming months to get down to just one nap. I think that will give us so much more freedom to get out and have fun outings.

Fun & Firsts

Thanksgiving: Little Deer donned her ‘First Thanksgivng’ bib and had herself a feast! It was our first Thanksgiving away from family which was a little sad, but we worked hard to have a fun and yummy dinner. Turkey, sweet potato mash, green beans with bacon, and some fresh rolls. It was delicious! LD mainly went for the sweet potatoes, but we let her gnaw on a turkey leg too.

Vacation: Our trip up to Seattle was LD’s first time being away from home (10 days including the drive). We stayed overnight in a hotel on the way there and back, then with Mr. Deer’s parents the rest of the time. I think she handled it well! She did great in the car for the 15 hour drive (as long as somebody was in the backseat playing with her) and really adjusted well to being in a new environment. The whole trip was so much.

Snow: Our first morning in Seattle we woke up to snow. How perfect is that? Luckily we bought LD a jacket for the trip (we hadn’t really needed one yet in Monterey!). We all got bundled up and went outside. It was so much fun!

Christmas: Though technically last year was her first Christmas, since she was only three days old and everything was such a blur I feel like this year was her first real Christmas. She was able to play around the tree, open presents, wear Christmas jammies… it was awesome. I’m so excited to create special family traditions together and already can’t wait for next Christmas!

Eating out: With her MSPI limiting my ability to have dairy and soy, eating out has pretty much been a no-go for the past eight months or so. Since it looked like she was doing better with it, we decided to eat out for breakfast during our road-trip to Seattle. It was so fun to eat yummy food (french toast!) and get to see her sitting in the restaurant high chair with us like a big girl. I think her favorite part was organizing and throwing all the salt and sugar packets on the floor.

What we’ve learned

Gosh, I think the biggest thing on my mind this month is just enjoying these moments with Little Deer. In one month she went from a baby to a toddler. Just like that. I want to soak up this time with her. Get outside more with her and play, be on my phone less, and snuggle her more. After making it through this first year I think I’ve learned that I need to just take a breath. There were so many moments where I wasn’t sure what I was doing, or I didn’t know if what I was doing was best for LD. All that stress and anxiety was really for nothing. I need to relax a bit more, be the best mom I can be, and know that with His help everything is going to turn out alright.

I am so excited to see what this second year of Little Deer’s life will hold. I can’t wait to get to know this sweet little toddler and see what fun adventures we’ll go on together.

Happy first birthday Little Deer! I love you!

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Are you looking forward to your little one’s first birthday? How is life with a one year old?