Everything is a Hat…
…at least, according to Sierra. She loves hats, and anything that can be put on or near her head has potential to be hat. It’s cute.
Stand Up and Go
Last week Sierra suddenly figured out how to stand up by herself, and since then she’s been walking more and crawling less each day. I’d say by now she’s walking about 75% of the time, if not more, and getting steadier by the hour. She’ll even start to crawl somewhere, then change her mind and stand up so she can walk the rest of the way, and she is so delighted with herself! It’s quite sweet.
Cousins
Lex’s sister and her family came from Houston to visit us for a week and a half over the holidays. It was the first time they met Sierra, and it was our first time meeting their new(ish) baby. We managed to get one picture of all 7 kids where at least 6 of them were being cooperative:
Cariboo
Anya got the Cranium game Cariboo for Hannukah (Thanks, Papa Duck and Grammy!). It became a fast favorite, and even Sierra likes to get in on the fun, even though she’s not that patient about waiting for her turn.
Starting to Walk!
Over the last few days Sierra’s gotten pretty good at this whole walking thing! She’s gotten halfway across the playroom floor before dropping. She doesn’t stand back up once she’s down on the floor (even though she’ll push herself up to standing on something as flat as a laptop!), but she’s getting there. Twelve-and-a-half-months-old. I was way off! I thought it would be closer to 15 or 16 months.
A Year of Sierra
See Sierra grow:
Just born
One month old
Two months old
Three months old
Four months old
Five months old
Six months old
Seven months old
Eight months old
Nine months old
Ten months old
Eleven months old
And…ONE YEAR OLD!
Sierra is One!
(Brace yourself, this one’s going to be a doozy)
Sierra turned one (ONE!!!) on December 6th. That’s right, one! I haven’t quite come to terms with it yet.
She had her 1-year well check on December 8th – 19 lbs, 6 oz, 28 1/2 inches long, and a head circumference of 18 1/2 inches. The nurse didn’t give me the percentiles, but I asked Dr. Internet, who said she’s in the 19th percentile for weight, 25th for height, and 81st for head circumference. That’s small for a baby of mine! (Well, small, except for her big head. Must be all that hair!) I was very surprised about that. She’s got tiny feet – barely a size 2 1/2 – just like me. She’s fitting nicely in her size 4 diapers and 9-12 months wardrobe. I hope she grows a bit soon; I have all these cute 12-18 months winter clothes from Anya, and I don’t want the cold weather to pass without her getting the chance to wear them! She had 7 teeth on her first birthday. Her 8th finally broke through the gums a few days later, and tonight I discovered that she’s cutting at least one, possibly two, molars.
The doctor said Sierra is in excellent health. He commented that her verbal skills seem advanced for her age, and then he asked if we felt she and Anya had different temperaments. I thought that was an odd question at first, until I said that Sierra is certainly, um, strong-willed. He said that he didn’t want to be the one to say it, but… Yeah. That’s definitely our Sierra. She’s had strong opinions about the world since birth (Pacifier? Bottle? I THINK NOT!) and she will make sure you know it.
Sierra is still not a big fan of eating much of the time. There are a few things she really likes (grapes, cheese, most proteins, pizza), but even then she often doesn’t eat much, and just because she ate something happily yesterday does not mean she isn’t going to throw it on the floor today (I am SO not a fan of that particular behavior, and UGH! She can be so obnoxious about it. Now she does it while yelling, “NO!”).
We introduced whole milk two weeks before her birthday, and she is learning to like it, though she’d rather drink water. I also began the weaning process by eliminating her morning nursing session. My hope is to have her down to twice a day (before bed and first thing in the morning) by the time she’s 14 months, but that would require her to sleep through the night on a regular basis. A girl can dream! Some nights we get a good stretch, maybe 11-5, and a few times she even slept through the night, but some nights remain difficult.
Since last month, Sierra completely mastered pulling up, getting back down again, pushing her toys around, and rescuing herself instead of getting stuck in a corner, plus she’s gotten much braver about standing independently. She’ll push herself up to standing on pretty much anything (toys, my leg, a laptop) except the floor, and she can hold it for at least 10-15 seconds. She even took her first steps on her birthday! I don’t expect she’ll be walking for at least another month or two, but she’s getting a little closer each day.
Sierra’s still our little chatterbox. She’s talking a lot now, and she also tries to repeat just about everything. Not all of it would be understandable to someone who doesn’t know her and some things are word attempts instead of real words – like yesterday, I realized she was trying to say balloon, only she pronounced it “boppy” – but she’s getting better and adding a word or two daily. Some of the things she says really clearly are ”Mommy, Daddy, up, doggie, more, baby, cheese, tickle, tushy, keys, hi, eat, happy, bye-bye, NO…” Less clear but still consistent are “bath, milk, Anya, sister, duck, woof woof, quack, one, want, all done, bubbles, pop, Dora, backpack, touch, peepee, hooray, boom boom, I love you, puzzle, catch…” She uses about 10-15 signs regularly as well, including “please” and “I love you” – two of my favorites – and picks new ones up quickly. ”More” is her catchall sign.
Other stuff – she’s a total snuggle bunny. Sierra crawls over to me and puts her head down on my lap or shoulder, and she gives big kisses, complete with a MWAAAAH sound effect. I LOVE that. Also, she can identify a bunch of body parts, including her toes, eyes, hair, nose, mouth, teeth, belly, and tush. When I read her one of her pre-bedtime books – Baby Faces – she will respond to certain pages with the same things that I do (so when I say the baby is hungry, she signs/says “eat”; when I say that baby is dirty, she says, “ewwww”; for that baby is crying, she goes “wah wah” and does a crying hand motion; etc.). She knows all the motions for “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and “Shake Your Sillies Out,” and she tries to do “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” She’s also developed a recent love for the “Happy Birthday” song.
Sierra loves putting objects into and taking them out of anything she can, dogs, coloring, toy cars, baby dolls, phones (especially Lex’s iPhone), playing with clothes (she puts them on her head, it’s so funny), and all things musical. She also loves anything she shouldn’t have or shouldn’t be doing. I’ve called her an imp in several posts already, but it’s so true:
That’s what I get for leaving the tissue box within reach:
Mini-Motzart:
The girl loves trouble. Luckily, we love her. How could we not?
Video time, hooray! Here’s a few, with clips from the last 5-6 weeks.
Sierra playing with her toy cookie jar. She’s about 11 1/2 months here:
Playing in the playroom. This was after her first birthday:
This one’s just a mix of clips from the last several weeks. She’s talking more (and more clearly) now, but of course never when I have the camera ready:
More on Anya
As of about two weeks ago, we stopped insisting that Anya take a nap. Even though she would sleep most days for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, she was having a very hard time falling asleep at night and was also waking up too early in the morning. In the past, if she didn’t nap, she would get cranky or kind of punchy around dinnertime and would be nearly falling asleep by bath time. However, the nap skipping experiment has gone quite well. Most days she breezes through the day without issue and then goes to sleep relatively soon after we put her to bed – and stays asleep for about 11 straight hours. A couple of times, skipping the naps has caught up with her and we ended up having her “rest” in her bed, knowing she would probably conk out. I hear that tends to happen when kids give up their naps.
Also, Anya can now officially spell three words – her name, boots, and mom. :)
Sisterly love
There is little I enjoy more than watching Anya and Sierra play together. They are such a riot together, making each other laugh and chasing each other around the room. Sierra idolizes Anya. She wants to copy so much of what Anya does, and she climbs all over her, giving her hugs. Anya, in turn, adores “her baby” and is usually a fabulous big sister. She informs me many times a day that she just gave Sierra a baby toy or is sharing her own toys with her, and she looks out for her, too. She’ll comfort her if she’s crying, often by singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” in a comically loud voice, and she’ll tell me when Sierra has something she’s not supposed to have or is getting into trouble. The other day, while I was setting up their bath, Sierra escaped from the bathroom and was heading towards the stairs. I went to grab her, and I found Anya pinning her down, telling her no, baby, no stairs!
(Okay, so maybe the pinning her down was a little much, but the intention was good.)
I would love for this era of constant mutual adoration to never end, but I know as Sierra gets older there are going to be some squabbles. Tonight they actually had their first real fight over a toy. Usually either Anya wants something that Sierra has and takes it (despite my frequent reminders NOT to do that) without much protest from Sierra or Sierra tries to grab what Anya has and Anya moves away, complains until I remind her to give Sierra something else, or she lets her have a turn. Well, today Sierra wanted the pen to the Aquadoodle mat, Anya didn’t want to give it up, and Sierra wasn’t having that! Anya was yelling that Sierra should stop, and Sierra was shrieking and trying to get it from her. This problem was easily solved by my finding the second pen, but sigh. It starts.
Did I mention…?
That Anya has been sleeping in underwear instead of a pull-up for nearly three weeks now with no accidents yet? Or that she can put on her jacket by herself? Or that she (usually) can tell her right from her left?