Through the First Year and Then Some

WARNING: this post has no pictures. For those who only like the posts with pictures (mom...) STOP READING NOW.

It's been awhile.... Well, since my last post I've completely stopped breast feeding Chloe. About a week ago we were down to just her feeding before bed, and now she's no longer nursing at all. In turn, our bed time routine has changed a little. We get her dressed in her jammies and she get's a vitamin with iron (she's a bit anemic). She has I'd say about 3-4oz. of whole milk and some kind of snack, if she'll eat it. After that, we brush teeth and she gets to pick out a book to read before we lay her down for bed. On bath nights we of course do a bath before all of that and put on lotion and stuff too. It's been working out pretty well so far. She's still sleeping through the night and everything. After about a week, I'm starting to get a little uncomfortable, but a hot shower works wonders. I never really had a big problem with engorgement anyway. I'm proud and relieved to be able to say that I made it through the first year, and then some, of breast feeding. I didn't give up when I really, REALLY wanted to, and Chloe only had formula a few times.

I never thought I'd say that I was a little sad to stop nursing her, but I was. I did not enjoy it a whole lot at all. I was stationary a lot and felt it was an inconvenience at times. With a bottle you don't have to worry about finding a private room if you're, like me, and not comfortable doing it in public. In the times you do have to be in public it get's harder as your baby get's bigger and wants to look around and not be covered up. So to be sad about quitting was not expected. But how could I not be a little sad. It means that my baby isn't a baby anymore and doesn't need her nourishment from me. She still needs just about everything else from me, but still. Well, now I know that I want to breast feed any other babies God gives us... unless He gives us multiples. I'd have to think long and hard about that one.

Cool Pool Play

Alrighyt, so I've been a bit of a lazy blogger the past couple weeks and I'm behind, so this post is going to be kinda long. Just a warning.

We broke out Chloe's pool she got for her birthday. We didn't have a lot of time to leave it out in the sun, so the water was pretty darn cold, but she had fun anyway.


Chloe in her baby shades. [Side note: The penguin she's holding has a propeller behind it and moves in the water by itself. Pretty cool.]


Those lasted all of 2.8 seconds


"Look, there it goes!"


Daddy was very mean and turned the fountain on WAY TOO HIGH and got me soaking wet. I couldn't just leave our 1 year old in the pool to get away from the water so I just had to stay there getting soaked. My husband is already a little "hard of hearing" and I'm not the loudest person in the world, so he couldn't hear me screaming for him to turn the water off, so finally I figured that holding a wet baby would get me far less wet than staying there for the 2 minutes or so he left the water blasting. I was so not happy.


She had a pretty good time.

Chloe had her 1 year check up on Friday. She weighs 17 lbs. 14 oz. (still not enough to be in a front facing car seat), I forget how long she is (like, 27 inches or something), and she's in the 4% for weight and 6% for height. The doctor showed a little concern for her low weight at her 9 month check up, but didn't this time. She loves to eat and is far from malnourished, so she must be just destined to be petite.

We're planning our first family vacation! We're going to Chicago! Kris went once on his senior trip with the youth, but this will be mine and Chloe's first time. I'm really excited. We already know where we're going to stay, and what we want to do, it's just a matter of putting on paper (and of course saving the money).

Chloe has decided to refuse to say the word "mama". If you ask her to say "mama" she says, "dada!". If you ask her to say "elmo" she says, "mamo", but then ask her to say "mama", she again says, "dada!" with a huge smile. I personally think she's doing it on purpose because I'm trying so hard. But wouldn't you? I mean come on! The last time I can remember her saying "mama" and meaning me, she was whining. Not exactly my favorite way to hear it. I guess I'll just keep trying.....

"Can I get a Happy Meal with extra happy, please?"

Chloe had her first Happy Meal over the weekend. She greatly enjoyed her chicken nuggets and milk. She didn't care for the apple dippers though. They were kinda sour and hard for her to chew.


"Come on mom! Open it! I know there's food in there!"


"OOOOHHH!"

While blogging about Chloe's birthday and birthday party I completely forgot to update her 1 year stats. So I thought I'd throw it in...

Chloe is walking like crazy anywhere and everywhere. She'll rarely crawl unless she just randomly feels like it.

Her favorite thing to do is read books. She likes, Bubbles Bubbles and Dogs the best. At least those are the ones we read the most often.

She still loves music and likes to dance a lot. While it's not a Drop-everything-you're-doing-right-this-second kind of song anymore, the office theme song is still her favorite I'd say.

Her favorite game is peek-a-boo. Although, a lot of the time she misses her eyes and cover's her ears or forehead.

It's hard to tell what her favorite toy is right now because she just got a bunch of new ones, so she's always playing with something different.

She still sleeps on her belly.

She loves, loves, LOVES to eat. Anything with cheese would have to be her favorite, but she won't eat real fruit, except bananas. I don't know why. She just won't.
I'm still breastfeeding as of right now. We're down to the feedings in the morning and right before bed. Today was actually the first time we didn't nurse in the morning. She still favors the right side, but the left side is her snuggling side so she can suck on her fingers, and she loves to snuggle with my hair. It's weird.

Most of her vocabulary still consists of the word she uses for just about everything (da da). However, she does know about 13 words or so that aren't "da da". Mama and dada of course, and uh oh. "ga gom" (all gone), "da!" (down), and shoes is kind of like "sheshz". "ka!" (snack) is very popular as well as "gog" (dog). She getting really good at saying "dang du" (thank you) and "no no no" (does that one really need a caption?). She's started calling a duck "ka ka" (quack quack) probably so she doesn't have to answer the question "What's a duck say?". A couple of recently learned words are "gook" (book) and "ah esh" (the end).
She's also learning her baby signs too. She knows more and please so far.

I think I have a very smart little girl on my hands. She knows where her nose, ears, hair, and toes are. She learned toes and hair from Bubbles Bubbles, a book Aunt Becca gave us. I may just be a bias mom, but I don't care. ;-)