12 Months (11/21/13)

12 months, 1 whole year.  Where did the time go? It was the fastest, most enjoyable year of my life. 

I laid the blanket down to take pics and she automatically went and sat down

and then refused to look at me and sit still the rest of the time

 At 12 months, miss Collins is 19.6lbs and 28.7in.  According to our scale, she's been 20lbs for 2 months but apparently it's not correct.  It's no surprise to us that she's short. I mean, her parents are no basketball players.  Doctor wasn't concerned at all about her weight and said she was right on track.  And since she's always on the go and literally runs non stop, she's burning lots of calories. 

As far as her calorie intake goes, she is officially weaned and on whole milk.  We did the transition at 11 months (read about it here) and she has done great.  She rarely drank from a bottle to begin with so we went straight to a sippy cup.  As far as eating, she eats anything and everything. She loves all fruit but vegetables are a little tougher.  Peas, corn and sweet potato fries are the only for sure vegetables she will eat. I think her appetite is going down a bit and one day she'll like something and the next she won't.  All normal toddler things so we just keep offering her food and if she doesn't eat it, she doesn't eat.  I offer her 2-3 foods a meal so I try to always do 1 thing I know she will for sure eat. She eats 3 meals and 2 snacks. She only drinks milk and water. I'm not big on juice and I let her try it the other day and she didn't even like it. 

Like I said earlier, she is constantly on the move.  Running, going up and down stairs, climbing things, etc.  She is definitely a climber.  And she can climb high.  Our fireplace is pretty high up and she climbed right up one day like she had done it 100 times.  A new thing this month is stomping.  Just 1 foot though.  I think she thinks it's dancing but will do it if you tell her to stomp too.

She gives the best hugs.  Arm around the neck, tight squeeze kind of hug.  I loooove it.  Sometimes she'll pat your back when she "gives loves" too.  Kisses are still open mouth and lately have been with a side of snot.  Good thing I love her and her snot. 

 

 Her vocabulary is finally picking up.  She can say dada (and does so all.day.long), mama, ni ni (night night), mmmmm (for when she moos like a cow), dat (that, complete with a finger point), Aiden (I can't describe how she says it but it's definitely what she's saying. She literally squeals when she sees him and says it), no, nana (banana), da (done), eye! (hi. Said in a very high pitch voice) and noe (nose). We're working on body parts and she correctly points to her nose and ears about 60% of the time.  She loves touching my eyes and playing with my eyelashes. 

 We are finally getting some sleep in this house!!! During the whole weaning process, we did the cry it out too.  After months of attempting it, she finally learned to just fall back asleep. She goes to bed at 7:30pm and usually sleeps straight through the night till at least 6:30am, usually around 7am. Occasionally I'll have to go in once in the middle of the night to find a binky but it's not every night.  She is still taking a morning nap around 9am but only for about 45 min.  She's fine if we skip that nap but if she isn't going to fight it, I'm going to let her keep taking one.  Then she naps around 1pm for 1.5 hrs. 

 

 I know I say it every month but we have been so so blessed with this little girl. She is always happy and is sssooo easy going.  She doesn't know a stranger and is so go with the flow.  She's started to cry sometimes when she doesn't get her way but she'll run to you and hug you while she cries for all of 5 seconds.  She's learning her boundaries and that she doesn't always get what she wants.  Nobody wants a spoiled brat.  Usually she thinks the word no is just funny though.  And if she's doing something she isn't supposed to and you try and go get her, she'll just take off running and laughing.  Stinker. 

I'm so thankful to be this girls mama and to be able to spend every day with her. She is my entire world and even though I can't believe she's a year now, I can't imagine what we did before her either. We love you baby girl, don't ever forget that. 

Big milestones

Now that it's been 3 weeks, I can say that Collins is completely on whole milk and is sleeping through the night. Hallefreakinlujah! 

If you don't want to hear about breastfeeding, go ahead and skip this post.  I wanted to write about this because I was clueless on how to do it and couldn't find much info on how and when to do it. I wanted her weaned by the time she was 1 so we started the week before she turned 11 months.

She weaned out of 2 of the feedings on her own around 10 months. I didn't offer and she didn't notice about her late morning session or before dinner session. I just made sure to replace them with a snack. Usually fruit in morning and crackers of some sort in afternoon.

On Oct 13 I started dropping 1 feeding a week. Morning one went first, then before nap and then before bed. The first week I mixed breastmilk and whole milk. I had enough frozen milk that I didn't have to pump, I just let my body adjust to the new schedule. I knew she wouldn't drink much milk from a sippy yet so I did 2 oz breastmilk with 1 oz whole milk. I was right, she wasn't a big fan but would drink 1-2 oz of it. We tried it warm and cold. She was still nursing twice a day and in the middle of the night so I wasn't worried. Later in the week I switched to 2 oz whole milk and 1 oz breastmilk. She still wasn't drinking much of it.

The next week, I gave her all whole milk (warm) and she drank it!!  We dropped the before nap nursing this day too and again, she drank all the whole milk. It took a little bit of crying the 2nd day for her to take a nap without nursing before. But that was the only day. I think she either didn't like breastmilk in a sippy or didn't like them mixed together. She was loving the whole milk by itself though. 

That same week, she was waking earlier and earlier in the "middle of the night" to nurse. On Wedneaday it hadn't even been 3 hours and she was crying. I said there was no way I was already going to nurse her, so we made her cry. We set the timer for 20 min. I always give in closer to 15 min but we just went in there, rubbed her back and walked back out. Took over an hour but for once, the crying it out actually worked!! 

The second night she woke up before midnight but only cried 8 min before falling back asleep! And just like that, the middle of the night nursing was done. She still sometimes wakes up but either goes right back to sleep on her own or we just give her her binky and cover her back up.  It's been glorious. 

That next Monday it was time to drop the last nursing session. Before bed one. Derek was out of town for work so I just sat in the rocker with her and she drank her milk from her sippy. I sang her a song and into her bed she went. She turned over and went right to sleep. Really?! Your not even going to care?! I'm chopped liver just like that?! 

 I was a little sad about it but mostly happy. Happy with myself for making it 11 months, happy I was able to provide her with 11 months of nutrition and ssooo happy to have some freedom. Our breastfeeding experience had a lot of ups and downs but I can pat myself on the back for sticking with it and not giving up the countless times I considered it. Now drying up was a whole other experience. OUCH it was painful!!!

365: Days 274-316

Oct 1: busting out the Halloween jammies

Oct 2: ah the finger point. Kills me

Oct 3:

 

Oct 4: how I get dirty clothes and baby downstairs in 1 trip 

Oct 5: 1st pumpkin patch

Oct 6: staying warm at daddy's softball game

Oct 7: reading books with Braxton

Oct 8: We love FaceTime when daddy is away

 

Oct 9: brave daddy letting her walk around naked

Oct 10: Giving milk in a sippy a try

 

Oct 11: Park warrior

 

Oct 12- Trying to stay warm at Pax's game

Oct 13: Cousin breakfast

 

Oct 14: My happy girl

Oct 15: Shopping trip

Oct 16: First sickness, pink eye, fever and ear infection

Oct 17: Still fever but happily teasing the dogs

Oct 18: Kellan shopping with the sick baby

Oct 19: Loves for papa

Oct 20: Looking at the ads is hilarious

Oct 21: 11 months old.  wwaaahhhhh

Oct 22- Trying out the new car seat

Oct 23: Thanks Pinterest

Oct 24: First storytime at the library

 

Oct 25: Deep love for gold

 

Oct 26: An electronic loving family

Oct 27: Another Target shopping trip

Oct 28: Reaching for mama

Oct 29: Spider heads

 

 

Oct 30: First time playing with beans

 

Oct 31: Happy Halloween!

Nov 1: Entertaining her on the way to Galva

Nov 2: Stylin girl

Nov 3: Off to family pics

 

Nov 4: Watching daddy mow

 

Nov 5: Little scared of the ice machine in the hotel

Nov 6: Mischievous look

 

Nov 7: Sometimes you have to use a koozy to entertain her in the car

Nov 8: The only way to eat spaghetti...shirtless!

 

Nov 9: She talked us into an early birthday present

Nov 10: Loving on the freaky doll

 

Nov 11: So proud of herself for climbing up there

Nov 12: Easy entertainment

Business trip with dad

Derek travels about 5 days a month so last week, me and Collins tagged along. We headed to Omaha Monday afternoon right before nap time.

This only lasted 45 min. of the 3 hours. She was good when she woke up but we hoped she would have slept longer. Our hotel must have known we were coming cause complimentary wings and beer started just as we were getting there. Don't mind if we do!

 

Our hotel room was perfect. Full kitchen/room for Collins. What? Your kids don't sleep in the kitchen?

We had a beer and then headed out to dinner and to Walgreens to get Collins milk. We were all asleep early that night and slept till 7:45 the next morning! Guess we should move her crib into the kitchen at our house. 

Derek had to work the next day so me and Collins just chilled at the hotel. It was raining so we couldn't walk anywhere and Derek had the car. We went swimming, did a lot of walking the halls and made friends with all the hotel staff.  Daddy brought us lunch and then me and Collins took a nap till he came back early that afternoon.

 

Anything is allowed when your stuck in a hotel room

 

That evening we  had a complimentary beer (love this hotel), went to dinner and then swimming again. This time with daddy! I forgot swim diapers so we took our chances without a diaper. I just loved her little butt in her swim suit. And she has NO fear at the pool. Walked to the edge, turned around and tried to climb right in. 

 

 

 

 Daddy took her up for bath and mommy got to relax in the hot tub. I could really get used to this life. 

The next day Derek had to work in Omaha in the morning and then we headed to Sioux City, IA for more work. Me and Collins entertained ourselves at the mall while daddy was working.  

Girl makes friends with EVERYBODY.  She is waving to a stranger and enjoying a kids meal.  She can eat so much!

 

Made friends with a really cute little girl.  Guess she had a turkey shirt on the day before. Our kind of girl, bow and all.

 

I might have forgot her coat. Mom fail

Then it was off to Grand Island, NE where we stayed the night at. Derek worked there that morning and then we headed to Lincoln. 

Improvising in the hotel room for dinner

 

Don't mind the red socks.  Socks of any color are mandatory in a hotel

He didn't have much to do in Lincoln so we ate lunch and wasted time at the pet store before we had to drive to Manhattan to get the dogs 

She loves dog toys and stuffed animals so this was a slice of heaven for her

 

 

Lincoln to Manhattan was a rough ride.  She demanded I hold her foot.

 

 We played at papa Longs, ate at So Long and headed to KC at bedtime. It was a fun trip and we can't wait to be able to go with daddy more often. He just added on the Oklahoma territory so I am done with the daycare after December and we'll be able to travel with him whenever we like!

 

 

 

Straight face eating a lemon