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| Her "1 year Photo Shoot" |
Felicity turns 1 year old today. I keep having moments where I think back to what I was doing at this time one year ago... 12:17 PM. The contractions were starting to get tough, but still manageable. I think I was watching Hot Fuzz.
I hope to make another post, when I have photos available to me, concerning her great birthday party.
I also hope to make another post, when I have time, concerning my personal reaction to the birthday.
But, for today, allow me to just get down in writing what a fun, adorable, awesome little one year old I have on my hands.
Felicity walking more and more confidently everyday. She still will drop to her knees to crawl if she really wants to get somewhere fast, but walking is more and more her go-to for mobility with each passing day. Over this past weekend she finally achieved the ability to turn around. She is so proud when she walks somewhere!!
As mobile as she is, she is not as mobile as she wants to be. She delights in her older brother's running, jumping, and climbing, and attempts to mimic it when given the chance. The most recent chance came yesterday afternoon. We have two steps then a landing in our living room. Ben was leaping off the landing onto the living room floor. Felicity decided she should try this too. Needless to say I spent the next half hour standing near the steps to be there when Felicity threw herself off the top with no regard for safety. She has taken some tumbles this way but nothing serious.
Felicity wants to learn new words so badly, she points at things to get us to say the words. She really is working on the word "dog". She loves pointing out dogs and says "Da!" in a very meaningful way. She is also interested in cats but hasn't started a specific word for this. She makes the uh-oh sound... not the actual Uh-Oh, but the sing songy intonation the word has. She has an "m" syllable that she intends to mean "more" sometimes. That is about it for words she tries to say (along with her pitch-perfect imitation of the phrase "there she is"), but she definitely understands more than she speaks. She can answer some basic yes-no questions, specifically concerning food. Do you want more of x? and she will nod or shake her head vigorously and accurately to reflect her feelings. She will do this for some questions at random too. She also understands some "commands" (though whether she chooses to follow them is a separate question), such as "Sit Down" "Walk/Can you walk?" "where is ____?" "Find your pacifier" "go get ____" Etc. And as I said, she WANTS to learn more words.
Speaking of the dog, she loves to pet/touch the dog, especially the dog's face. She is also too interested in the cats and we had her get scratched by Gandalf one time. We are working on gentle petting and no hitting/grabbing... its a long process.
Felicity remains pretty clingy to me. If she is tired, she wants me first, but will take daycare workers, or DH, or my mom as a substitute depending on the situation. If she is awake and in a great mood she will be less clingy and let many people play with her/hold her.
We are still breastfeeding. She does not sleep through the night, not even close. I am sure these two things are linked but I am not willing to give up one to help the other.
She is, currently as we speak, working on cutting her first tooth (late bloomer in that regard).
She absolutely loves crayons, and to mimic anything her brother does with them. She knows they will draw on paper and seeks out things to draw on. She does not press them quite hard enough to consistently get a mark, but she sure tries.
She also loves cell phones, and tries to unlock them, and play with the touch screens. She has sent a few texts off my phone and maybe made a call or two. She has had her first "baby surfs the internet" moment when she managed to get from one of Ben's Apps on my kindle onto the internet (a message board page I use).
She loves peekaboo and laundry. She likes to take all the laundry out of a basket and play peekaboo with each article as she removes it. Sometimes she tries to put them back.. sometimes.
This morning she was delighting in pulling Kleenex out of the box and trying to play peekaboo with each one.
She loves water - bath time, beaches, lakes. Whatever. She likes to splash. She is not afraid of getting her face wet (yet) and loves to pick up sand/rocks and try to through them. Often her throws go backwards over her head rather than forwards. She has hit herself in the head throwing rocks at the beach. This love of the beach is why we did some of her 1-yr pictures at Brighton Beach.
She actually is kind of a picky eater... she doesn't always try new things. She is quite the carnivore and will eat most meat we give her. She loves olives, pickles, cottage cheese, goldfish (or other small) crackers, applesauce, ice cream, lasagna....
This girl knows what she wants. Last night at dinner she kept asking for something off my plate and getting more and more upset. I couldn't figure out what it was and had tried all food items, so I held my plate over to her, and she grabs my fork out of my hand. She often starts the day off at daycare by demanding a certain toy or book be handed to her. She is not very easily redirectable unless perhaps you happen to have a pacifier to distract her while you switch focus.
She likes reading books. Some she lets us finish, some not so much, but if I want her to "warm up" to someone new, handing that person a board book or Hello! Magazine is the way to do it. Her favorite books seem to be ones with animals (like Moo Baa Lalala), and the Hello! Magazines.
One of her favorite toys is a wooden "loading ramp" that her uncle made for Ben. It is about 6 inches tall and has a ramp down one side. She loves to sit on the flat part and/or slide down the ramp. Lately she has been trying to stand on it. It is a surmountable obstacle to challenge her gross muscle coordination.
She wears size four diapers and is switching from 12m clothes to 18m clothes. Her Drs appt is Friday, so I will get actual stats then as to her height/weight.
Insert your standard "time moves fast" phrase here. Hard to imagine that it has ever been different than this, that we have only had her a year, that she has changed so much in this past year. We absolutely love her and look forward to spending more years with her.
