12 Months Old: The Stats

Greetings, Lilly lovers (cute, right?)!  Hope everyone is having a great week.  It dawned on me today that I never wrote the "stats" portion of Lilly's 12-month update, so I figured tonight is as good of a time as any.  I was waiting to see if I could get her to smile in some photos, but it's been a crazy week as usual so maybe I'll try this weekend.  I have been trying to decide whether to continue with monthly updates or just update as things occur.  I'm still not sure, we'll just have to see how it goes, I guess.  Anyway, I know I always say it, but I'm going to TRY to keep this one brief - Mama has a 7:30 meeting in the morning so I need to get to bed.

Weight/Length:  I know that it will seem hard to believe if you have seen any photos lately after reading these stats, but since Lilly started walking she has really started to thin out.  I'm not saying the rolls are gone, because they are definitely still there, but she is starting to look longer and leaner.  At her 12-month check-up this past Friday, Lilly's stats were as follows: 29" long (70th %, up from 28 inches/90th % at 9 months) and 22.13 lbs (85th %, up from 20.13/85th % at 9 months).  As I said, still a chunker, but she's getting a TON of exercise these days, oy! 

Sleep: Still 7:30 or 8:00p - 8:00a most days (a lot of times 8:30 or 9:00a on the weekends when we don't wake her up) and still (thankfully) going strong with 2 naps/day.  The only real change I've noticed is that L's naps are further apart.  It used to be that she would go down from 10-12 and 2-4 like clockwork.  Now she's down from 10:30 - 12:30 and her second nap doesn't normally start until around 3:30 (I wake her up at 5:30p if she's still sleeping no matter what time she goes down since she has such an early bed time).  No signs yet (knock on wood!) of getting rid of a nap (again, thankfully!).

Feeding:  Still nursing and weaning.  We're down to once/day with the nursing - before bed time.  I am currently trying to decide how I'm going to cut that last feeding out.  I think I'm going to have to go cold turkey, because she refuses cow's milk.  I'll report back next week (it's hard to believe we'll no longer be nursing in a week's time!).  I know I've said it before, but I'm sure it's going to be a lot harder on me than it will be on Lilly!

Solids-wise, there haven't really been any changes.  Lilly is still eating mostly what we eat and still being a little picky at times.  I talked with her doctor Friday on how to make sure she gets the calcium she should be getting every day since she is not a fan of milk (she comes by it honest, I hate it too!).  Dr. V wasn't worried in the least, and just told us to make sure we keep trying it.  In case anyone else is having this same problem, Dr. V. told us that L should be getting 500-600 mg/day of calcium.  8 oz of milk is 300 mg, so she'd have to drink 16 oz/day to meet that requirement.  Yeah, right.  Lilly loves cheese and yogurt, so that works to our advantage. Basically, Dr. V said to look on the back of the yogurt/string cheese/whatever dairy Lilly eats and find the % of daily value of the calcium.  Whatever that number is, multiply by 10 and that's how many mg she is getting, so then we'll know how much she still needs.  So, for example, L loves the YoBaby Simply Plain Organic Whole Milk Yogurt.  An entire container is 25% of her daily calcium, which (times 10) is 250 mg.  So, if she only ate yogurt, she'd need two of those per day to meet her requirement.  Nifty, yeah?  A few other noteworthy takeaways from the doctor: 3/4 cup of Cheerios satisfies 50% of L's daily iron requirement; Total cereal is the-bomb-dot-com, nutrients wise, and we should try crushing it up and mixing it in with L's yogurt; and if L is meeting her dairy requirement, she only needs 1 additional oz/day of protein to satisfy her protein requirement (This comes in handy because I may have forgotten to mention that my child has decided that she is a vegetarian - meat is very hit or miss these days [more miss than hit]).

L ate so many new things this month that I know I'll never remember them all, but a definite favorite is birthday cake/cupcake:

I also ran out of her yogurt and let her try my greek yogurt, which she also loved.  For some reason those are the only two "new" things I can remember right now.

Firsts This Month: I should really start writing things down.  The big one was obviously her first birthday (birthday party blog to come!).  Oh and her first "snow" which was actually more "ice" than anything, but at least L got to try out the snow suit Grandmommy bought her for Christmas:

Sweet PJ pants and Ugg slippers, Mom!

I'm sure there are more that I yet again can't remember.  If I think of anything else I'll report back!

Developments:  I guess the biggest things I've noticed are language developments and walking/climbing developments.  Now that Lilly has figured out that she can make words, she is repeating things and mimicking a lot more consistently than she used to.  I talk to her all of the time (those of you who know me are not shocked right now), and I am always surprised at what she will repeat back to me.  Not whole sentences or phrases or anything like that, but word-wise.  New words since the last update post are baby (she pronounces it "bebe" like she's French), cracker, book, Lilly (when she sees a photo of herself or sees herself in the mirror she will wave and say, "Hey, Lilly!"), and Paw Paw.  

Lilly mostly still looks like a drunk when she walks, but she's getting much better at it and walking much further distances.  She's really good at getting her balance, and she's fast.  It's so surreal to walk into the kitchen and turn around to see her walking right behind me.  She wants to get everywhere quickly and tries to run but mostly has a hard time keeping her balance when trying to go too fast.  She still crawls some, but walking has definitely become her preferred mode of "transportation."  Additionally, the climbing is out of control!

I don't think we have any new teeth developments, except she has at least one one-year molar, and let me tell you the other teeth have been nothing compared to that monster.  I guess the molars are pretty painful, but Hyland's and baby acetaminophen/motrin/ibuprofen have done the trick.

I am happy to report that my last post did not jinx it: Lilly and Layla are still cooperating with one another (particularly when food is involved), which of course makes Mommy happy!

Layla used to only go near the high chair to clean it out after Lilly had been removed, but not anymore!

Likes: No real changes here, although L did get some new toys for her birthday that she loves.  I'll try to remember to do a "things we love" post soon.  Lilly loves: walking. running. climbing. being outside. reading. Layla. bath time. babies. children/people closer to her size. snuggling (sometimes). talking/cooing/babbling. nap time and sleeping.  sucking her thumb.  lovey. songs. singing. laughing. dancing. being naked. squealing. public outings. walks. rides in her car or wagon. birthday cake/cupcakes. people (she prefers women, though). "Melmo" (Elmo - but really just the Sesame Street theme song, as it's the only things she'll watch!).  seeing pictures of herself. seeing videos of herself.  mirrors.  the iPad (which she also calls "Melmo," because I showed her the Sesame Street song on it ONE TIME and now she wants to watch it on the iPad every time she sees it.).

Dislikes:  Still mostly repeats: getting lotioned up before bed.  putting on pjs/changing clothes.  sitting still.  her car seat.  being tired.  having her nose wiped (we've been battling a cold).  for that matter, having her hands or face wiped, too.

What I'm Thankful For:  I am thankful that my daughter is surrounded by so much love.  So many people thought of her on her birthday and called or wrote to wish her a great day, and everyone was so thoughtful.  She is truly blessed!

What I'm Looking Forward To:  I can't WAIT to find out whether I'm having a niece or a nephew!  My little sister finds out NEXT MONDAY the gender of her baby, and they are having a little gender reveal for the family next weekend.  I am so excited I can barely stand it!  I'm also looking forward to some upcoming low-key weekends to get some things done around the house.  AND Lilly's one-year pictures, which I have yet to schedule but Steph always does such a fabulous job that I can't wait to see how they turn out (can't wait to share the photos she took at L's birthday party, either!).  AND I am looking forward to hosting Meagan's baby shower this weekend!

Next Pediatrician Appointment: We have to schedule a 15-month appointment, which I assume will be sometime around the end of April.

How Mommy's Doing:  Getting over a little cold, but other than that, feeling good.  Since L and I are weaning,  this week was my first week of what I like to call "operation starvation."  It's been tough, but I know it will be worth it in the end.  I am seriously taking this category off if I continue to do updates because I know no one cares, ha!

If you're still here, I'm sure it's for the photos.  Homegirl was not feeling as smiley as usual for her monthly photo shoot - this was the afternoon of her doctor's appointment, at which she got 3 shots and 2 vials of blood drawn, and this time around she had a harder time with aforementioned shots (probably because there were more than normal!).  Anyway, we still got some cute ones, but she wasn't her normal chipper self:

I know I cut off her head in this one, but she just looks so dang happy!

I like to call this look "I'm about to do something I know I'm not supposed to."  Like stand up in the chair.  She is her father's child.

There is a tornado watch here until 2am, which normally I ignore, but the weather here has been so whack that I am pretty worried about it.  It was snowing over the weekend and felt like summer today.  Surely they will put on some sort of alarm that I can hear in case I fall asleep, right?!  Until next time...

Sarah