My precious baby Cora,
As of yesterday, you are officially one year old. Wow. As much as you've grown, so has our love for you. It is impossible not to soak in your sweetness, and we are so blessed to have been able to do so this past year. Your little baby rolls, your adorable noises, your soft, sweet-smelling skin, your beautfiul smile, your belly laughs, and your little bitty fingers and toes - all are things I cannot get enought of.
You have taught me a lot this year. You have taught me to be selfless, to want to be selfless. I've learned to slow down. I take in moments with you, even when I'm already late. I know what it is to worry about your child. You've taught me to be a place of consistency and peace for you. I've learned the capacity of love that parents have for their children. It's an amazing, sometimes scary thing.
You have changed from a rolled up itty bitty newborn into a sprawling, crawling toddler. You may not snuggle me as much as a year ago, but I still soak it in as much when you do! You may not need to stare at me just to learn my every feature, like you did a year ago, but you still need me. I hope you'll know you can always count on your mama.
You have been extremely busy this past month. I think you wanted me to be able to write about all of these changes in you, so you fit in as many changes as possible in a short time.
The biggest change in you is that you started crawling on March 23rd! You had shown that you were capable of crawling for a few weeks, but you still wouldn't, until this day. We attended a birthday party where all of the kids could crawl or walk, and it was finally the motivation you needed. We stopped by Jama and Poppy's house to say hi after the party, I sat you down to play, and you just started crawling. I honestly didn't believe it. You started off slowly and now you are on the go! You absolutely love to be chased. The squeals of delight at this game are infectious.
More and more you are becoming intent on what you want. This month you've shown quite a bit of favor towards Daddy. If he is home, you want him to be playing with you. You will arch your back or go "boneless" to prohibit being set down or picked up, when it is not what you want to happen. It has become apparent to you that you have better things to do than ride in the car, and more often than not I have to play toddler music to keep you happy during that time. We have been proud to see you relish your independence and want to do stuff for yourself. It is so cute that you are often very proud of yourself, too. You love applause and appreciation to be shown for your skills! You will hold your own sippy cup, although you still find it difficult to drink out of any that don't have a straw.
There have been many growing up changes that have occurred that show just how big you are. We finally moved the crib down. You don't pull up on it, yet, but you crawl around and sit up. You also got another tooth on the bottom, and you are still working on more. It's been straight teething around here for a month. Instead of just eating all of your toys, you have moved on to playing with all of them. Last month you could put a toy inside a bucket, but now you can put a ball into a small hole. There are a few more changes that I'll mention below, too.
I know it's cliche, but I can't believe a year has passed since I first held you in my arms. We love you so very much - more and more each day.
This Month's Stats
Weight: 12lbs and 3oz
Height: 29in
Clothes: 12mo and 12-18mo
Diapers: size 4
All About You
Hair: blond, but I think it's a bit darker
Eyes: beautiful blue
-You are an amazing little sleeper. I love that about you. You sleep from 7-7:30pm to 7:30am. You are still taking two naps a day, but your morning one tends to be the longer nowadays. You are addicted to your sleep sheep, or some form of noise (fan, music, etc.) at bedtime. Something I appreciate is that you will adjust your schedule, if we are busy and you go to bed late or miss a nap. You will usually still go to bed easily or take a nap at different time with no problem. That sure helps your daddy and me!
-It is no secret that you love to eat! And, your food of choice is...meat. You truly don't think a meal is complete without it. You eat three times a day, with two snack times in between. Your afternoon snack has been especially large because we dropped that bottle. You will not drink your milk, so it's been difficult to keep you full unless I let you have two servings of something at that time. I've been going to the store a lot to keep up with you! You still have your nighttime bottle, but all of your others are gone. You don't know this yet, but I have plans to start mixing in milk with that formula to see if I can get you used to it. I don't know if that's the right thing to do or not, but I am worried about you having that nourishment! Some moms have their children off the bottle completely at age one, but I'm not quite there. Oh, well! We also cheated a little bit and started giving you peanut butter a couple weeks ago. You are not allergic (yea!) and love it.
-As I mentioned earlier, you are crawling. You want to pull up, but you just can't get those feet underneath you. I love that you can come crawling to me, now. You are just the sweetest bundle to scoop up! You have a few other new movements. You began waving! It's not perfected, but you do it when you want to. I peeked at you around the corner the other day and you started waving to me. Adorable. You also started "giving five," but you are a bit of a snob about it. You won't dole out a five to just anybody.
Very recently, you started saying "Mama." Obviously, I love it. You still jibber-jabber away most of the time while playing and eating. You are vocal while you crawl, too. It's hilarious.
-I'm just going to be fair to you and skip the dislike column this month. It's not that you don't like one thing in particular, but, as I said, you've become very opinionated about what you don't want to happen or don't want to do, see, play with, etc. at any given moment. I know you are just learning about life, when you are having these experiences. I know I will probably be able to say the exact same thing about this section next year. :)
You like a lot of things, though! You love to play - not just with toys - but to slide around on the floor or be flipped upside down. You like to be outside and swing, ride in the stroller, or the bike trailer we started taking you out in. You love to watch people at the grocery store or a restaurant, to see a fun show on tv, or for someone to play peek a boo with you. Handing things back and forth is still a favorite game, as well. Baths are a special time for you each night. I hope you love to swim this summer, since you seem to love the water. It is amazing seeing how much fun you have and how happy you are all of the time.
-Toys are, once again, a learning tool and your source of entertainment. Now that you can get to what you want, you are starting to show favorites. You are really into your Sesame Street Clubhouse that your Uncle Chris and Aunt Robin got you for Christmas. It's an old-timey toy that generations of kids have loved. You are also very toys will small balls. Books, magazines, and paper are definitely up there on your list of must-have toys. If it lights up and has music, it's a sure thing!
I feel like I can't write words that do you justice. You mean the world to your daddy and me. We love you with everything we have.
Happy 1st Birthday, baby girl!
