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!
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.
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.
Now that we've gotten settled into 2014 a bit it's time for a bit of blog housekeeping as I clear out my 2013 reading list and start 2014's. Here's everything I read in 2013:
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip and Dan Heath
Calico Joe, John Grisham
The Associate, John Grisham
Sycamore Row, John Grisham
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck
Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts On Life Unarmed, Glennon Doyle Melton
Man In White, Johnny Cash
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath
And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher
Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Brian Tracy
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, Michael Pollan
Bossypants, Tina Fey
Solo By Choice: Carolyn Elefant
Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, Chip and Dan Heath
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg
The Emotional Life of the Toddler, Alice Lieberman
Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children, Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman (r)
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't, Nate Silver
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, Paul Tough
My favorites this year were Lean In, Decisive, and David and Goliath. I've already reread the first 2 and will doubtless reread the Gladwell book as well (also, nerd alert: I bought tickets to see him speak in Dallas next month and super-excited about that). Gladwell is my favorite author so no surprise I enjoyed that one. His books always make me think and stick with me. Lean In and Decisive were both just what I needed to be thinking about as I contemplated the decision to leave the cozy confines of the SBA and strike out into solo practice.
Disappointments included The Emotional Life of the Toddlers (good information, but kind of boring) and the Associate (it's like Grisham was just going through the motions on that one). An unexpected surprise was Man in White, Johnny Cash's historical novel about St. Paul. It helped bring stories I already knew into better focus and made me think. I wish he had written more Biblical historical fiction, he was obviously gifted in that regard.
22 books in 12 months...I stayed busy. It was a good year. And with that list now cleaned out I'm motivated to get moving on this year's list.
Kevin's car is in the shop this week for some minor repairs so he's got a loaner car in the meantime. The loaner is a Toyota Camry which, being neither too big nor too small, Daniel has dubbed the "medium car." He's very excited about the medium car and looks forward to being driven to school in it in the morning and to play in it in the garage in the evening. Who knew something so minor would be so exciting to a preschooler? Alas for him, the repairs probably won't take more than a few more days. I suspect there will be many tears when we bid the medium car adieu and bring Kevin's car back home. Till then, the medium car is being thoroughly enjoyed at this house!
Hard as it is for me to believe my baby is less than a month from her first birthday. Is she a year old yet? As Daniel would say "not yet, but almost."
She's still enjoying crawling around the house and pulls up to standing. She isn't really cruising yet but I've seen her stand unsupported a few times. Walking is coming soon, but whether "soon" is next week or in 3 months I don't know. It'll happen in due time.
One interesting difference I see between her and Daniel is that as he'd reach a few mobility milestone he'd take advantage of the ability to explore the house, while Rebecca uses it primarily to reach me. She does explore too but it isn't her primary motivation. She does however enjoy "dancing" to music:
And climbing the stairs:
She also likes to walk by pushing her dino toy. Daniel loved it when he was that age too. When he got bigger we turned it into a scooter and between his use and hers it's lived in our living room for the past 2 1/2 years.
All that moving around gives her quite an appetite. She nurses 3-4 times a day and gobbles up plates full of solid food. Sweet potatoes and peas are still favorites but over the past week she has enthusiastically eaten ravioli, roasted radishes, rutabaga fries, Brussels sprouts, pineapple, salmon, and pinto beans. Dinner time is easy-I just make a plate for her of whatever we're eating and cut it up into smaller bites.
We had a 2-day nursing strike recently that worried me but fortunately was short-lived. I think teething was to blame. Whatever it was about, it's over now and all is once again well. Between that and her waking at night for 2 nights in a room it was an unusually difficult week for her. Before that I literally can't recall the last time she had woken up during the night. Fortunately it wasn't the start of a trend.
In general she's still an excellent sleeper. She usually sleeps from around 8:30PM-8:30AM and takes 2 naps a day. Her first is usually late morning/early afternoon for about 2 hours and the second if it happens is around an hour-90 minutes in the late afternoon/early evening. I suspect in the next few months we'll drop the later nap but we'll do that on her schedule.
She was a little clingy to me the past few weeks, probably because Kevin was unavailable for about a week between having the flu (and thus being quarantined away from the rest of us by me) and then traveling for a few days. It's possible the nursing strike and night waking were related to that as well. But then, I'm sure her newfound mobility is both exciting and scary too so it could well be related to that.
She hasn't been weighed since her 9 month checkup but it's safe to assume she's still on the light end of the growth chart. She still fits 9 month clothes pretty well. She's got 6 teeth now-2 bottom, 4 top, and just cut a 3rd on the bottom too.
She looks a lot like Daniel did at this age. I thought she had a little more hair than he did at that point but on closer look maybe it's just that hers is a little redder and his was more blonde. Here's her latest car seat picture:
And here she is in her Christmas outfit:
It's been a fun first 11 months with her. I can't believe that by the time we unpack our Christmas decorations again we'll have a 4 1/2 year old and an almost 2 year old. Time to start putting bricks on their heads to keep them from growing up ;)
Daniel says and does all these funny things and I need to be better about capturing them before the phase passes and I forget.
Lately Daniel likes to find something he has in common with Kevin or me. For example: "I'm brushing my teeth and you're brushing your teeth. We match!" He notices "matches" on hair and eye color, food we're eating, even the position our feet are in. It's cute how proud he is to notice things like that.
Here he is on a recent Friday when everything was closed down because of the ice storm, aka "Icepocalypse." I knew he'd be home from school that day and that Kevin might be at work so I woke up early to get a little time-sensitive work done before the kids woke up. Alas, Daniel bounded downstairs right after I turned on my computer, so he grabbed his "laptop" and sat down next to me so we could match!
