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Kate made it clear that my Mom Powers had been revoked for the evening, but she did finally decide to walk a couple of steps toward G to prove that she can now add “walking” to her list of skills on her college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

 

Additional Kate 12 Months Posts:
Happy Birthday Kate!
Kate’s 1st Birthday Party!
Kate’s First Year
Kate’s 1 Year Photo Shoot