Kate: 12 Months

KATE TOOK HER FIRST STEPS!

Oh yes, this was a Mama-couldn’t-believe-it, all-caps-situation.  Just three days after her first birthday, Kate took her very first steps!  G and I hadn’t really been encouraging her to walk (we like her to figure things out in her own time), so it was quite the surprise!  She was standing at her toybox and I was a few feet away, sitting on the living room floor.  Suddenly she turned toward me and just stared.  It was a little odd--she wasn’t smiling, or fidgeting, or looking for her next toy to play with--she just stood there and stared at me with this intense look of concentration and determination.  After a couple of seconds this crazy thought that, Maybe she wants to try walking to me?? popped into my head, so I held out both of my arms, smiled, and cautiously questioned, “Come to Mama?”

And she did!

She took one step, and then another.  I was so surprised, and shocked, and proud, and excited!  So I did what any good mother would do:  I screamed in her face. 

“OH!! OH!!  YOU’RE WALKING!!  YOU’RE WALKING!!”

She took her third step and then tumbled into my arms, while I started crying and shouting, “SHE JUST TOOK HER FIRST STEPS!  SHE JUST TOOK HER FIRST STEPS!  DID YOU SEE THAT?!?” to G who was all of two feet away. 

G missed it so we immediately tried to get Kate to do it again, but for some strange reason she was a little hesitant to repeat her newfound skill.  I’m sure this had NOTHING to do with the fact that I FREAKED THE EFF OUT, but to be sure, I pulled it together, put on my Mom Face (the one that says, This is no big deal, I totally expected it.), held out my arms and casually said, “Mommy’s calm now.  Want to walk to me again?” 

“HELL NO, Crazy Lady!” she replied via the thought bubble floating above her head.

“Mommy’s calm now,” I reassured her again, flashing my biggest, brightest smile.  “Here, want your favorite toy?” I added for good measure as I dangled a plastic giraffe from my hand. 

I felt like a dirty stranger trying to lure a child to his car. 

Kate made it clear that my Mom Powers had been revoked for the evening, but she did finally decide to walk a couple of steps toward G to prove that she can now add “walking” to her list of skills on her college application. 

A few days later G and I left for a 4-day trip to Mexico, and I was so sad to leave Kate during this exciting time.  I was convinced she’d be running laps around the house by the time we got back.  As it turned out, I had so sufficiently traumatized our daughter that Grandma Pam reported Kate barely walked at all while we were gone. 

Was I wrong to be happy?

In other 12 month news, Kate tried for the record of Most Medical Visits in 30 Days.  She had her one-year exam with her pediatrician and she's right on track.  She weighed 20lbs (34th percentile) and measured 30.5" (90th percentile).  She had her first dentist appointment and did great considering her seething hatred of anyone in a white jacket who comes near her mouth since her cleft palate repair.  And lastly, we spent half a day at the Children's Hospital for Kate's 3 month post-op exam where Kate's plastic surgeon declared her mouth fantastically healed, her ENT surgeon said her ears looked great, her audiologist performed testing and had no concerns about her hearing, her speech & feeding specialist (and her team of helpers) assessed Kate's speech and declared her slightly advanced and not currently in need of speech therapy (yay!) then asked us 3,794 questions about Kate's eating and declared no concerns there either, and finally Kate's pediatric social worker chatted us up for a few minutes to make sure we weren't crazy parents (I didn't tell her about the first steps incident).

Kate's 12 Month Stats
Bedtime: We start her bedtime routine at 6:30pm, and she's usually down by 6:45pm.

Wake Up Time:  6:30am

Naps: Two naps per day for approximately 3 hours/day.  She takes a one-hour nap at 9am and then we put her down for another nap at 1pm and let her sleep as long as she wants (which is usually 2 hours). 

Bottles: Kate still gets morning and bedtime bottles.  We didn't do any additional weaning this month since we had our Mexico trip during this time.  We figured one major hurdle is enough for one month! 

Meals/Solids: Breakfast at 8am, lunch at 12:00pm, and dinner at 5:30pm, plus 2 snacks/day after each nap.

New Foods:  Pork, spinach, corn, garbanzo beans, and peanut butter.  I was so nervous to introduce Kate to peanuts for fear of an allergy, but one afternoon I got home from visiting a friend and asked G how Kate's lunch went.  "Good," he replied.  "She loves peanut butter." 

My eyes bulged out of my head until I looked at Kate and realized that she was, in fact, perfectly fine.  "Well..." I said, "I guess that settles that."

Developmental Milestones & "Firsts":  Waves hello and goodbye, says "Dada," "hi," and "bye."  She also tries to repeat what we say, like when I say "fishes" she says "is-es" or when I say "diaper dance " (a Baby Signing Time song) she repeats "di-da-da" to try to mimic me.  It's so much fun!  G taught her how to high five, and Kate has also mastered going down the stairs on her own (although we're still there if she needs us).

Favorite Toys:  Her favorite new toy is the Fisher-Price Little People Noah's Ark that she got from G's parents for her birthday--those little plastic animals are a hit!  Another new favorite is her Baby Tickle-Me Elmo (her birthday present from me and G) which makes the cutest little baby sounds and laughs.  At first it scared her, but now she holds it on her hip like a little baby--so cute!  She continues to enjoy her Fisher-Price Learning Home and her B. Zany Zoo activity cube which I wrote about last month.  And her absolute biggest treasures continue to be her bunny (which now goes pretty much everywhere with her) and books.


Personalized onesie made by Amber from The Cotton Cupcake Shoppe.



Kate's Crazy Hair

Kate: 10 Months

As some of you noticed, Kate's crazy hair has finally surrendered and no longer sticks straight out in all directions.  Apparently those strawberry blond locks (of strange and varying lengths) have made peace with her pale scalp and they've now decided to be friends.  This truce--which happened shortly after her first birthday--was a little hard for me and G to accept.  We loved Kate's crazy hair, and much to our dismay her tame mane makes her look so grown up! 

Oh well, at least we still have pictures!

Kate's 1 Year Photo Shoot

Kate had her one year photoshoot with Andrea Elberg--the fabulous photographer who also took Kate's pictures when she was a newborn, 3 months old, and 7 months old.  Kate is a little girl on the move, and despite the fact that sitting in one place is a rarity these days, Andrea still captured some really wonderful and beautiful moments!

Kate with her teddy bear:

Andrea snapped this picture of me and Kate at the end of Kate's session when I picked her up and cheered her for a job well done.  Maybe someday I'll be able to look at this picture without getting all choked up, but certainly not anytime soon!  I will treasure this photograph forever.


Me and my girl!

Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered this week's Piggy's Place Giveaway. The winner of a $15 gift certificate is Mallory!

Congratulations Mallory--please check your email for information on how to claim your prize!

 

Kate's 1st Birthday Party!

Even before Kate was born G told me he didn't want to have a party for her first birthday--his argument being that she'd never remember it anyway.

"But we'll remember it!" I pleaded.
"She'll see the pictures someday!" I added.
"The 1st birthday party is really a celebration of us making it through the first year of parenting," I tried reasoning. 

Nothing I said helped so I backed off thinking, Once she's here he'll totally change his mind.

He didn't. 

I brought the topic up again when Kate was about six months old, and again he said he didn't want to make a fuss out of her first birthday.  I tried all my powers of persuasion but the man didn't budge.  "Fine," I finally huffed. "But I'm still going to make her a cake and put up birthday decorations--even if it is only going to be a party of three!" 

When G makes up his mind there's no changing it, so I didn't bring it up again.

One afternoon in November, when Kate was almost eleven months old and finally nearing the end of her Horrible Awful Recovery from her cleft palate repair, G turned to me and said, "I've changed my mind about Kate's first birthday.  I think we should have a party.  After everything she's been through she deserves a party.  We all deserve a party.  Kate is such a strong, loving, and incredible little girl, and her life is a precious gift that should be celebrated!  What better way than on her very first birthday?!  P.S.  You're the most amazing mom ever.  Let's have ten more babies."

Okay, fine, he didn't really say that.    But I'm pretty sure he was thinking it.  What he actually said was this:  "I've changed my mind about Kate's first birthday.  I think we should have a party."  And then he futilely added:

"Just don't go overboard."

HA!  Famous last words. 

Welcome to the party! 

Kate's first birthday was on a Sunday so we had the party on her actual birthday.  I made a video slideshow of photos from Kate's first year to play at the party, and wanted to add a birthday picture at the end so we had a little photo shoot that morning.

The birthday girl!

I made Kate's tutu, and her personalized shirt is from The Cotton Cupcake Shoppe. 

Kate discovered tissue paper while helping me decorate from Christmas and she loved it (video here), so I decided to use tissue paper for her party decorations and made a bunch of the Martha Stewart tissue paper pom poms.  These were medium-sized poms that I made into garland strands to hang in the kitchen, topped with a beautiful birthday banner that my friend Allison made for Kate.  It was perfect!

I made Kate's polka-dot highchair cover out of a pillowcase, and used the matching sheet as a tablecloth for the kitchen table. 

Large tissue paper poms hung over the kitchen island:

This "K" was a last-minute addition that I decoupaged with leftover scraps of paper:

Kate's monthly onesies on display:

I made cupcakes for the guests...

...and a matching smash cake for Kate:

We decided to make Kate's party one huge "playdate" for her (and we had a ton of kids there!) so I wanted the food to be geared more toward kids, but with things parents would like as well. I made mini pigs in a blanket, homemade macaroni and cheese, apple crisp, a veggie tray, and fruit salad.

A big hit was this "kiddie" snack tray filled with baby puffs, animal crackers, Goldfish crackers, and bunny-shaped graham crackers:

We had juice boxes and water for the kids...

...and wine and champagne cocktails for the adults:

Last but not least, I made chocolate and vanilla cake pops for party favors, which were a big hit! 

Kate, enjoying a snack:

A couple of very proud parents (and one squirmy little girl)!

Kate & Mama:

Kate loved her birthday cake!

It meant a lot to me to make as much as I could for Kate's first birthday party and I did it all in just one week--including taking down all of our Christmas decorations first!  I was so excited to give Kate a personalized party, and it was gladly worth all the time and effort.  The day was truly everything I hoped it would be--a fun and festive celebration of Kate's first year! 



Party's over.  Bedtime for this tired Mama!

Check out Kate's Room Revisited to see how I reused decorations from her birthday party in her bedroom!