1 Year with C - Ellen Slater

I told myself I’d do C’s 1-year post after her birthday party, and then she got sick for two-ish weeks immediately after. And then we traveled to Atlanta to visit family and friends, and then it was February. January was the longest month, and finishing this post was not my priority. So, this is her combined 1-year and 13-months post, since she’s 13 months old today. But we did get to celebrate our girl in early January, and marvel out how we met her a whole year ago.

C at 1 Year

C is so fun and so funny. She has excellent comedic timing, and makes us laugh every day. I feel so lucky to watch her learn and grow. She is slowly morphing from chill baby into toddler with lots of opinions. But she is still very adaptable and, of course, the very sweetest. She still loves to go off and play with toys (and Tupperware, remotes, anything she can reach in the pantry, etc.) in every corner of the house, and she equally loves to have someone nearby to watch her play.

I get a lot more independent play out of her if I sit on the floor nearby than up on the couch. She loves to ask to see what I’m cooking, help with laundry and unloading the dishwasher, and undo any attempt at organization she can reach.

Even when the weather is what most would consider “not good,” C loves to be outside, and we make it a point to get out every day. She has quite the array of outdoor gear, and practically the only time she sits still is when she’s getting suited up to go outside.

C walks, runs, walks backward, walks sideways, does a lot of squats, climbs up the stairs (and is getting better at climbing down), climbs onto the couch, gets off the couch, and is working on jumping. She’s a little athlete.

She loves to say hi (and bye) to everyone she sees.

C loves dogs and other animals, books, pictures, mirrors, music, slides, and anything she can climb. Ben is growing less wary of her, and she looks so proud when he lets her pet him or play with his tags.

She loves peekaboo, silly rhyming songs/poems, and being upside down. We love finding new ways to make her giggle.

C lights up when you clap and tell her she did a good job (and this often saves her from tears when she takes a minor tumble). She also claps when she thinks she did a good job and to the beat of music. She loves waving at people, and pointing to everything so we name it for her.

C has nine teeth as of last night, and some more are coming in. Her molars are working their way down. We’ve all decided teeth are more trouble than they’re worth.

Sleep

Bedtime is usually not a big deal. Putting C down for the first time usually takes 20-45 minutes, including story time. If she needs anything after that in the evening, it’s typically only once and takes around 5-15 minutes.

Usually, she lets me nurse her most of the way to sleep and then I give her a bottle to finish the job. Lately, she’s been taking less and less from the bottle. She generally wakes a little in the transfer to her crib and I rub her back and sing to her to resettle her.

When she gets up once during the 4:30-6:30am timeframe, I consider it pretty normal.

But she’s been sick a lot this month, and we traveled. So, we’ve had plenty of rough nights. Fortunately, if she’s in a bad sleep stretch, she usually only sleeps terribly every other day, so we get small reprieves.

Naps are less tricky than they used to be, which is extremely nice. They just aren’t as long as I thought they would be. C has been taking one nap since about 9.5 months. Depending on how early she gets up and how quickly she gets tired, she usually goes down between 11 and 12. I can typically count on her sleeping 75-90 minutes, and if she wakes before that, she usually nurses back to sleep pretty easily. Sometimes she sleeps for two hours. Once or twice, she’s done nearly 3. But usually she tops out at about an hour and a half.

C typically isn’t ready for bed until 8 or 8:30. Jack usually cleans her up after dinner and starts getting her ready for bed around 7:30 and then they play and read while I clean up around the house.

C has mostly been getting up for the day between 7:15 and 8. If she gets up earlier than 7, I try to nurse her back to sleep.

Feeding

C eats very well when she’s focused, but she is often too busy to want to eat much. I try to time meals after she’s had some time to play immediately prior, but sometimes she wants to get down and go do her own thing after about four bites.

We eat dinner as a family, and C and I eat breakfasts and lunches together, and I’ve added in a couple snack times to try and make sure she has the chance to get enough calories in. Some days it seems like she hardly eats anything. Others, I’m shocked that she’s eating so much.

Her busyness and lack of calorie intake during the day is only an issue at bedtime. She sometimes ends up so hungry that she wants seemingly endless milk before she goes to sleep, and I no longer have a freezer stash to help her out. I pump every morning, and I use that milk every night. It’s a little stressful, but we’ve made it work.

C still loves water and looks at us like we did something offensive when we offer her anything other than water (milk, juice, etc.). There are worse things.

Schedule

Since she’s usually most content in the morning, we usually hang out around home then. We have breakfast, I get some housework done, and we go outside and play and read. She doesn’t usually go down for her first nap till 11-12. That nap usually lasts till 12:30 or later. Preferably later, because 12:30-8 is a little too long of a stretch for her be happily awake for. In the afternoon, we might run errands or go on a play date before we come home to play and make dinner. Right now, C nurses about 3-4 times a day (sometimes more when sick or teething) and I offer 3 solid meals and 2 snacks.

Things I Don’t Want to Forget

How peaceful she looks when she falls asleep on me and how hard she passes out sometimes. It doesn’t always look comfy, but it’s so sweet. She gets really tired now that she’s running all over the place.
Sometimes she just stops whatever she’s doing and walks across the room to give/get a big hug.
The way she points at everything because she wants us to name it for her. And the slightly sassy way she points at something she has thrown because she wants you to pick it up for her or a book that you’ve just finished because she wants you to read it again.
Her little ponytails.
She loves to play with my makeup and clothes while I get ready. This mostly amounts to getting all my stuff out and strewing it across the room, but it’s sweet.
No matter how social and comfortable C seems when she’s not at home, she really relaxes as soon as we come home. We’ve had a lot of late nights and family events over the last few months, and she always does well when we’re out. But when we come home, she toddles around her room or playroom and gets super silly for at least a half an hour before settling down for bed.
C still loves the tags on her toys and rubbing her fingers on anything that vaguely resembles tags or nubs. She plays with the hem of my shorts, the extra length on my watch, my hair, the diamond on my engagement ring, and the clip on my bra while she’s trying to fall asleep. She’ll absentmindedly play with the fringe on a blanket or a tag on her toy while she’s playing.
When she sees herself or someone she loves in a mirror or picture, she leans forward to “hug” and “kiss” herself. Basically, this looks like bumping her head into the mirror or picture and licking it.
She also “hugs” everything she decides she loves. Sometimes she puts her forehead to a forkful of chicken to love it. Jack colored with a pink crayon the other day and she leaned forward to hug the pink swatch. She saw my uncle’s cat and immediate put her forehead on him. It’s the best.
Her squeals and babbles. Sometimes they’re happy and sometimes they’re just how she uses her voice, but they are the best.
How she calms down and gets so excited the second I pull out a book to read. And when she’s really tired, she melts down the second a book is over.
She shakes her head “no” at the best times. Sometimes, she actually means “no,” like when she doesn’t want another bite of food. Sometimes, you ask if she loves you or if she took out all the lids from the Tupperware cabinet, and she looks up at you with a big smile and shakes her head really hard.
When I’m laying on the floor in her room or her playroom to read books, she treats me like a jungle gym and climbs and rolls all over me.
She thinks it’s absolutely hilarious when we yawn or fake sneeze, or blow our noses. She also fake coughs every time you cough or sneeze.
When she wants picked up for any reason, she stretches as tall as she can and reaches for you. It’s so sweet and pure. (She has recently added a whine to this move to make it more demanding.)

Things We Use and Love

Pretty much everything from her 2-month post. She doesn’t love the pacifiers except to bite. She has outgrown the Podster, but it served us well when she was teeny.
Pretty much everything from her 3-month post.
Pretty much everything from her 4-month post. We’re done with the weighted sleep sacks, but I’d use them for a future kiddo.
Pretty much everything from her 5-month post.
Pretty much everything from her 6-month post.
The only thing I listed in her 7-month post.
The only thing I listed in her 9-month post.
The only thing I listed in her 10-month post.
The only thing I listed in her 11-month post.
This learning tower. This was a Christmas gift from Jack’s mom, and we use it every day, multiple times a day. C loves to see what’s going on while we’re cooking, and this allows her to be up at the counter but frees up our arms.
Kyte Baby Sleep Sack Walkers. C could totally use a blanket now, but just like when she’s awake, she’s all over the place when she sleeps and I think it would be more of a distraction than a comfort. These look silly, but they’re safe for her to walk in (she was tripping in regular sleep sacks) and they are the softest things ever. Like, maybe softer than the Copper Pearl stuff.
This rain suit. As I’m trying to get C out in all sorts of weather, I wanted a good rain solution for her. This is super easy to clean (we get quite muddy in the woods behind our house) and waterproof. I also use this as a snow suit with a coat underneath, especially when it’s not too cold. She’s tall, so I got her the 18-month size, but it is huge. At least it’ll last for a while.