12 months

I'm a little late in posting the monthly development stats, since I was sick. Feeling back to normal now, so here we go...

Locomotion

Over the past month, walking has become Anya's preferred mode of getting around. I'd say really in the past 3 weeks she took more of an interest in walking and has been quickly improving since. At the beginning of the month, she stuck out her arms, zombie style, for balance (very cute). At this point, she's pretty steady on her feet and can step over many obstacles (toys) without falling, no special arm maneuvers for balance. I'll miss the zombie walk phase :(. I should enjoy the current "steady walking" phase, because as active as this kid is, she'll be running soon - and subsequently falling more again...just harder, faster, and with more injuries.

In other locomotion: Grandma Lodwig broke the news to us that we've got a climber on our hands. If there is something that looks like it's in the realm of possibility to climb, Anya attempts it. She often ends up in her toy boxes, and miraculously is able to climb back out unscathed most of the time. The one that makes us all a little nervous is her desire to climb over the baby gates. And this smart little girl is starting to get the idea of how to unlatch the gates. I caught her yesterday trying to unlatch one to get upstairs. Fortunately her little hands aren't strong enough and won't be for awhile.

Speech

At this point, I've lost count of the words Anya has said. I'm not really sure when to count a word anyway. Is it when she repeats a word she hears us say or when she uses it on her own? Lately some new words are: bubbles, eyes (this is a current favorite of hers), and car. On Sunday, she clearly said "grandpa" to Grandpa Lodwig, which was rather endearing. She must have something against women, since she didn't say "grandma" and still doesn't like to say "mama" much. It's all about "dada". I don't know why. Chris is kind of lame.

Other development

I am happy to report than Anya finally likes books. One of our new favorite things to do is tell Anya to go pick out a book and bring it to us. She obliges and then plops into one of our laps and then we read to her.

I'm sure she's also developing in all sorts of interesting ways, but that's the only thing that's coming to mind at the moment.

Food

Now that we're at the one year mark, we're pretty much done using formula. I started giving her whole milk mixed with formula about a week ago. Now she's getting pretty much all milk. And now she's down to 16 oz of milk a day and getting more of her calories from food. She carries a sippy cup with water around during the day. Bottles are just for the first and last feedings of the day.

At this point, we're only avoiding nuts, shellfish, strawberries, citrus and mango (the last two because I'm allergic and want to delay introduction a little while longer).

Even though she's getting more calories from food than milk, she's still not eating all that much. Well, I guess she has big breakfasts and then tapers down from there. But I'm reading that this is expected, since they slow down growth at around a year and don't want to eat as much. I've also read that when feeding them it's a good idea to give them 3 things to eat. One of them should be a sure thing you know they'll eat. The other two should be items we are eating. So far, this has been a good tactic for us. She still doesn't necessarily eat that much, but seems a little more willing to try a taste of other items before throwing them overboard. Or maybe I'm delusional. Either way, it makes me feel like I'm doing something to get her to eat more.

Baby in the balloon

Happy first birthday, little one. The world is a better place for having you in it.

Horoscopes for Wednesday, October 29

If today is your birthday: All the dramas and challenges you are about to encounter will somehow empower you and leave you far more confident about your ability to attain worldly success. You will be more of a force for good in the lives of those you love.

The Party

Sunday, we threw a birthday party for Anya, attempting to keep it as small as possible while still inviting our good friends and family (thanks, Bobby & Amy for coming up!). Afterall, the party was just as much a celebration for us - that we survived the first year of parenthood and managed to keep our daughter alive in the process. Our little house sure gets packed quickly. Fortunately, the weather was unseasonably warm (and beautiful), so we opened the back door and let the kids loose in the back yard.

We must say having 12 kids literally running around the house/yard and screaming, falling, crying, yelling was a lot more fun than we would have thought. We really had a great time (and more importantly, so did Anya). It also nice when your parents point out that you have a lot of good friends. We couldn't agree more.

Everyone was extremely generous despite our request that no one bring gifts. Really that's the surest way to get the best loot. Sort of like when you mark an email as low importance, you KNOW everyone will read that first.

Chris's favorite part was when the dog was running amok in the back yard with all the kids. Poor Laika really gets short shrift these days, it's nice to see so many kids making use of the dog's best qualities: playfulness, gentleness and extreme caution around children. He was very proud.

Despite (or maybe due to) all the chaos, Anya was in her element and had a great time. She played with a few of her friends and toddled around the house, balloon in hand. The older kids helped her open presents, and she seemed to get a kick out of all the paper flying around and the attention paid to her. Our little social butterly, so not like her mom in that regard. As mentioned in the previous post, she was rather indifferent to the cake, which is fine with me. All in all, a good day. Her next birthday will be much, much smaller if we can get away with it, though.

Birthday girl in her throne, with birthday hat and birthday balloon

Riley, Kalea, Molly, and Eloise help Anya open presents

Anya climbs her present for the best leverage in order to open it

with Great-grandma Scheuer

First Birthday Cake

Anya's first cake (minus wearing a birthday hat, since she snapped herself in the face with the elastic and cried a few minutes before this was taken).

She was rather indifferent to the cake and frosting. I think mostly she didn't care for the texture of it all over her hands.

More on the party later...

Makin' Daddy Proud

She uses both feet!


She also has a well-honned political sensibility

She helps mom around the house.

Other stuff that makes a daddy proud:
Being the little scientist that she is, she's begun experimenting with her world. She's currently working on the unifying theory of gravity and "ut-oh". She feels she's nearing a break-through but is having trouble understanding why things will fall regardless of whether she says "ut-oh" before or after gravitational acceleration has been observed.
She's also begun intensive experimentation into the eternal mysteries of what a dog will and will not eat. So far she's narrowed it down to: Pretty much anything except wadded up shopping receipts.

Uh-oh

This past week Anya has been on an "uh-oh" kick. This is both cute and annoying. It's cute when she or someone accidentally drops something and she says "uh-oh!". It's not so cute when she's strapped in her high chair, picks up food or drink, eyes it for a minute, smiles at me impishly, and then says "uh-oh!" right before she tosses food and drink overboard. OK, that's kind of cute too, but still mostly annoying. It makes the dog happy, though.

Exersaucer

Over the weekend, Chris and I did a donation run. Anya outgrew the Exersaucer we got from a consignment shop, so I brought it downstairs to add to the pile. It was interesting to see how differently she plays with the thing from when we first got it 7 months ago.

March 1. At 4 months old, Anya sits in the seat (which is almost too big for her) and plays a little with the attached toys.

October 17. Anya refuses to sit in the Exersaucer. Instead, she uses it as a ball repository...

...as a tunnel...

...and as a jumping off point for attacking her dad and the camera

I'd also like to take this opportunity to mention how happy I am to have that huge, plastic monstrosity out of my house (only to likely be filled with equally hideous toys in the coming years, no doubt)

For some strange reason, this cute little bird toy now makes Anya cry. A few weeks ago, Grandma and Grandpa Lodwig watched Anya for the weekend and bought her a little red plastic fireman's hat. Apparently she initially played with it, but at some point became afraid of it. And after that weekend, she's become afraid of this bird thing, which probably reminds her of the hat. It's odd. She'll happily play with it like normal, then puts it on her head (like she does with pretty much all toys and objects) and then starts crying. So the bird has now been confiscated, never to upset her again.

The only logical conclusion of course is that mean old Grandma and Grandpa tortured our little girl with the firemans hat. Which is so typical of them. Sheesh, can't trust some people to watch your kid. ;-) *


*Grandma and Grandpa Lodwig are the most loving, doting grandparents a kid could hope for

Time out

Anya had to have her first "time-out" this morning, which I guess is a milestone of sorts. She very purposefully disobeyed me more than once when I told her to not mess with the dvd player (she knows this has always been off limits). She was put in her crib for 45 seconds and left alone. I had my doubts as to whether she would understand what was going on, but the timeout (and maybe partially the explanation?) was very effective. We came back into the living room. She looked at the dvd player, shook her head no, and played with her toys. No attempts to mess with the dvd player since then (yet).

As "they" say, here's where the real parenting starts. Fun.

Yesterday we got to have a playdate with Anya's old PEPS friend Ardashir. We haven't seen him since July. The babies have changed so much since then! Ardashir is quite the talker, like Anya, plus he's really good on his feet (unlike Anya). They spent some quality time reconnecting and I got to reconnect with Julie (his mom) as well. Oh, they have the same birthday too. But Ardashir is about 12 hours older and that much wiser. Good times were had by babies and hopefully it won't be another 3 months gone by for another get together.

it's raining Cheerios

Jail babies. Anya strikes her most attractive model pose.

Race up the stairs. Anya wins, but only because Ardashir was delayed briefly by mom.

Future home maker

The other weekend Chris and I got gussied up and went to a Children's Hospital guild auction dinner thing. I felt like such a grown up going to an event like that, but that's beside the point. It was fun. Partly because we were seated with some family members, who are always fun, and partly because the wait staff really tries their best to make sure everyone gets drunk enough so we'll happily part with more money. Those drinks were stiff.

There were lots of neat things to bid on, trips and such that we couldn't afford (and I should mention, one of those neat things to bid on was a cute little baby outfit I made for the event). We were easily outbid on most items (I probably wasn't drunk enough), but when one item came up for bid, Chris and I swooned. It's a mini workbench for children, complete with anvil, vice, and tools. It was so. cute. And of course our daughter had to have it, even though she won't be able to use it for a few years minimum. My hand developed a mind of its own when the bidding started. We ended up winning the item, paying waaaay more than its actually worth...but that's the point of a charity auction. And now it sits in our basement looking cute and waiting for our daughter to grow big enough to use. My hope is that she'll take an interest in tinkering and working on the house and maybe even be a home maker some day....literally.

boy friends

Yesterday Anya got some quality time with two of her friends. I watched Noah for the morning and then later on Flynn came over for a visit.

Anya sidles up to Noah, hoping he'll share some of his crackers with her (he eventually gives in - who can resist that sweet face?)

teamwork

Taking turns yelling at the cats through the cat door

Holding hands (actually, they were fighting over my leg, but I'll pretend they were being affectionate)

Anya gives Flynn a sideways hug

outfit

This is an outfit I wore when I was a baby.

Anya, the budding fashionista, added a hat and shoes to perfectly accessorize and complete the outfit.

Wheat, part 2

Experiment #2 was a success. On Monday, I loaded Anya up with wheat for a day to see what would happen. She got crackers during a snack, toast strips during lunch, and lots of couscous with dinner. It has now been almost 72 hours with no reaction.

This means normal birthday cake! And crackers, and baked goods, and decent pasta, and, and, and, stuff! Doooood, you have no idea how pretty much everything has wheat in it until you have to start reading labels or restaurant menus. It was so limiting.

I spoke to a mom in Anya's "school", who happens to have a wheat allergy and knows all about it. She said that it's somewhat common for babies to not be able to handle wheat until their digestive system has matured a little, generally around a year. I haven't come across this in my reading on the subject, but I guess that's why Anya's pediatrician wanted us to wait until 1 year to reintroduce it.

Anyway, hooray!

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is upon us. If you are the parent of a young child, this means it is mandatory to go find a pumpkin patch and take lots of pictures of your little one against the backdrop of oranges and yellows. And since we are indeed parents of a young child, we did our duty and headed over to Craven Farm in Snohomish yesterday.

What's special about Craven Farm is that it's where Chris and I got married in July of 2005. In the summer, it appears to be a somewhat quaint location. Idyllic, with lush, rolling hills in the background. In the fall, however, the farm is a different beast. Pumpkins everywhere, a huge corn maze, and food booths (with Kettle Corn, yum) and lots of families enjoying it all.

We went with our friends Sarah, Jeff, and Sadye (Sadye is just 3 days older than Anya). It was a good time.

Sadye and Anya in their chariot. Sadye was impeccably behaved. Anya was too excited to behave well.

In the corn maze. Anya pulling my hair

Sadye and Anya discuss which pumpkin is the best to take home

pumpkins! (and a full diaper)

Wheat

Well, I'll call myself cautiously optimistic. We gave Anya 6 macaroni noodles Thursday evening to gage a reaction. The previous times it took 36-48 hours before we noticed anything. This time around, I'm happy to say that over 72 hours have gone by with no reaction. I'll up the amount with some wheat toast this week and we'll see how it goes.

Thursday morning video

Our daughter sure is cute.

And I want to offer a semi-public thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Lodwig for getting us the Flip Video camera last Christmas, so we can take a million little video shots like above.