1 year old

At the end of January our little lady turned 1 year old.  Don’t ask me where that year went because I have no idea.  I need to go back and sift through pictures just to make sure it really happened.  Speaking of pictures, here are some more one year pictures and other miscellaneous ones.

So, what was Miss April up to when she hit this mile-stone birthday?  I’ll cover as much as I can:  not walking yet but crawling everywhere and cruising, says “uh oh” (started as “uh-uh”) “Det-er” (Dexter) “Ma-mum”  “Dada” and I think she’s trying to say “yes” (“esh”), signed “cheese” (1st sign, on her birthday), has six teeth (minus the one she lost, so really five), gives and blows kisses, and sometimes sleeps through the night.  She loves to get in/out of her Bumpo seat and on/off riding toys.   She is very cuddly by nature and will often put her head on our chests and snuggle in a bit.  Love this.  She started bear-walking the day after her birthday and let go to stand alone two days after her birthday.  We think she is about to hit one of those phases where she develops noticeably by the hour.

April is definitely starting to voice her opinions more.  If I take her out of a swing at a park she is quick to let me know if she wasn’t ready yet.  Similar “squawking” occurs if I take something away that she wants.  She still follows Abe around, but she has started going her own way even when he wants her to follow him.  She also is pretty self-entertained, which is really nice.

She remains a stinker at meal times.  Just this last week she started letting us feed her some food with a utensil; otherwise it was all finger-food.  My parents will attest to the fact that you can not get the girl to eat if she does not want to.  She had her one year check up and this is becoming a bit of an issue.  While she is maintaining a steady curve with her height (28.25″ – 25%), she fell even further off the curve in regards to her weight.  Our pediatrician is a little concerned with this and wants to do a weight check in a month.  She thinks she just petite, but in a month, if she hasn’t picked up more, she wants to run further tests just to be sure there isn’t something else going on.   Thus, we have put into action “Operation Bulk-up”.  The main idea is to make the most of the calories she is eating by adding things to the food she does eat (butter, sour cream, wheat germ, Carnation Instant Breakfast, etc.).  I want to be a little careful here because I don’t want to give her calories and have her gaining “bad” weight.  The big goal is for her to hit around 18 pounds in a month (she’s at 16 pounds 12 ounces now).  May not sound like much, but that’s a lot for her.  Thankfully we have a very accurate scale so I can know if we are making progress at all.

She was also border-line anemic (very slightly).  I didn’t find this surprising and was actually pleased she wasn’t more anemic.  Nothing drastic here – just a straight iron supplement.  I have to get better at the timing of this.  Your body absorbs iron better when not taken within a couple hours of food, and when you are trying to bulk up your child, there isn’t any stretch of time that is food free!

Surely I have missed something important, but we all know how impossible it is to sum up any person by writing about them.  To know her is to love her.  And as her mom, it’s to love her so much you ache with the potency of it.  While I’m cherishing these days that are slipping by way too fast, I still can’t wait to see the little lady that she will become.  Enjoying who she is, yet longing to know her more.  It’s that bitter-sweet thing about parenting I guess.