Rebecca: 12 months

The birthday party post ended up being long enough with all the pictures that I decided to make the monthly update its own post. We had Rebecca's 12 month checkup this week and as expected, she's a small, happy, healthy girl. She had only been 13 lb 3oz at 9 months so I was surprised that she was up to 15lb 7oz and 28.25 inches. Her iron levels were on the lower side so we'll use a supplement to help get her more iron but other than that, her measurements look great and she's developing well.

She remains an enthusiastic eater, nursing 3-4 times a day and eating 3 solid meals. Lately oatmeal seems to be the favorite but she's also quite fond of salmon and shrimp. My little seafood fan!

She's still a great sleeper at night and for her morning nap. Her afternoon nap is hit or miss these days but generally is about an hour in the early evening. At some point I'm sure her first nap will shift a little later and the 2nd nap will drop off.

She is getting closer to walking. She can stand unsupported for several seconds and cruises confidently around the furniture. She enjoys crawling up the stairs too. She hasn't shown any interest in trying to go down them yet and the one time she got up to the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs she cried until I came to rescue her. Daniel by contrast was adept at crawling down the stairs by this age and when he reached the baby gate he'd attempt to get down on his own, sometimes with a fall. My adventurer and my cautious child.

She doesn't have any distinct words yet but that's another milestone that seems to be drawing nearer. She seems to be trying to say "fishie" when she looks at the fish stickers on her wall and "cat" when she looks at Tim or Todd. Daniel's first word was "cat" so maybe we'll go 2 for 2 on that.

Her 12 month picture:

Looking at Mommy's bridal portrait:

Happy to wake up in the morning:

Mommy's little file clerk:

Standing up looking at books:

It's been a wonderful first year with our little girl!

Rebecca's 1st birthday

Last week Rebecca rolled over the odometer for her first birthday. We had 2 celebrations, the first a week early with our familes and the second the weekend after with a small play date with close friends. 

For the family dinner my parents, Kevin's mom, brother and sister-in-law, and Gena, our nanny, came over for a homemade dinner of butternut squash ravioli and rosemary brown butter, roasted purple cauliflower, stuffed zucchini boats, and cupcakes for dessert.

Singing Happy Birthday

Enjoying her cupcake, or at least enjoying making a mess of it

With Grandma and Uncle Scott

With Gena, the kids' nanny

With Baba and Mimi

February weather is tough to predict and we've ranged from the 20s to the 70s. Fortunately last weekend was on the warmer side so her birthday play date involved a trip to the neighborhood playground.

Yes, she's wearing a sleeveless dress in February!

With her friend Gabi. Of course I didn't think to get a group picture till half of the group had left, and as you can see Rebecca was pretty well partied out by that point. But she, Daniel, and their friends had a great time playing and enjoying burgers fresh off the grill and another round of cupcakes. It was the perfect laidback afternoon we had wanted and it'll be really fun to watch the girls start to play together more in the coming year as they step further into the toddler stage.

Daniel's TOT performances

One of the nice features Daniel's preschool offers is the chance for the kids to participate in sports programs.  Mondays he does soccer lessons with Soccer Shots and Tuesday is basketball with Teams of Tomorrow (TOT).  Given the kids' ages the lessons are pretty low-level and focused more on teaching ball-handling skills, sportsmanship, and balance than on the finer points of the game, but Daniel consistently enjoys them.  They're a nice outlet for my active little guy to burn off some energy.

Every fall and spring TOT arranges for their kids to have the opportunity to perform during or before a local basketball game.  In December they were the halftime entertainment for a TCU women's basketball game and last Saturday they were the pregame show before a Harlem Globetrotters game at the American Airlines Center.

Daniel enjoyed both performances but seemed much more comfortable and confident the second time.  He had a loud cheering section both times.  Our friends the Millwees met us at the TCU game and he got to play with their kids Natalie and Justin, plus his friend William who was also in TOT. And for the performance last weekend my parents came to visit. He was quite excited to have "Mimi" and "Baba" here.

Here's a picture of him with SuperFrog, the TCU mascot:

And some pictures from the Harlem Globetrotters performance:

And a video of him in action.  My favorite part: "playing the piano!"

I was really impressed to see the difference in just over a month's time.  I know he enjoys the lessons during the week so it was fun for us to get to see him in action.