One Year Old

Today Allyson Jeanne is one year old! In many ways it seems like the year has flown by but it also seems like she has been at this stage in her development for a while now. Karl and I both agree that the first few months are mostly a blur- a whirlwind of visitors, struggles, doctors visits, stress, etc... She hit the fun and happy stage fairly quickly and once she got mobile everything really became more interesting. The move to Springfield has added some additional challenges and stresses but we know that we have been blessed with a very happy and healthy child.

Sleeping. Ally has been on a consistent sleep schedule for quite a while. Naps were a struggle at first but day care helped with setting a schedule and her high level of activity also means that she tires herself out easily. Her daily sleep schedule consists of waking around 8am, napping around the lunch hour for one to two hours, then to bed for the night between 9 and 9:30. We had a few weeks recently where she wasn't feeling well and would wake up a lot at night to either eat or just want to be rocked. It required two nights of letting her "cry it out" once she was feeling better but since then she is back to normal. I know that her consistency in the sleep department is something that should be celebrated and not complained about so I do my best not to get too worked up over the few nights when she doesn't sleep as well.

Eating. The one area that I am often the most stressed about and also the area where she is the least consistent. Ally demonstrated the desire to self-feed very early on which was great but it has since been difficult at times to be sure she is getting the right foods. Anything crunchy she will devour but things that are soft or mushy she really doesn't want anything to do with. There are a few anomalies to this like bananas and noodles- she loves to eat both but she is pretty picky about the kind of noodles and the bananas have to be bigger pieces that wont fall apart. Right now I would say she gets a 50/50 mix of table food and pureed foods just so that we can be sure she is still getting the fruits and veggies that she won't feed herself. Some of her favorite things to eat are mac and cheese, string cheese, french fries, turkey, toast with butter, waffles with cinnamon and sugar (no syrup!), cheerios, goldfish crackers, buttered noodles, rice dishes and the Gerber crunchy veggie flavored snacks. A few things we have found she wont eat are pancakes, plain white or brown rice, meat/marinara sauce on noodles, and grapes. This week we were able to switch her from powdered formula to whole milk and she has taken it with no problems from her bottle. She loves her sippy cup but so far only really likes juice or water in it. I hope to introduce milk in a cup more often and wean from the bottles soon.

Talking. She makes a ton of happy noises but not many words yet. She has many consonant sounds but the words she associates are dada, mama, Ella and Bob. She also knows where she is going if you say outside, knows what her cup is if you point to it, knows what books and balls are and knows where to find her blanket. Yelling is one of her favorite activities.

Walking. Our adventurous little one loves to cruise around and stand to play but just wont take the steps on her own yet. She knows exactly what to do and looks at you like she is ready to take off but she gets scared and plops down to her knees to crawl. She moves so fast crawling that its obvious she thinks walking is too slow. She will hold hands and walk and push anything that moves around the apartment so it should be coming any day now.

Playing. The current favorite activities are still much of the same. She absolutely loves books and emptying baskets, shelves, drawers, etc... She does now put things back sometimes but only to take them out immediately. Ally loves to play catch and fetch which is very funny to us. Toys that play music and light up are favorites and she is in need of more things to push around. As of this week she has taken to emptying the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen and playing with plastic bowls. She is very good at stacking them and she likes putting spatulas in the dog's water dish.

Other miscellaneous obsessions: stairs (up and down), TV remote, drawers, dog dishes, books, commercials on tv, music, bouncing up and down.

We have been very busy traveling this month so between the fun trips and the new camera, I have hundreds of good pictures to share from this month. Enjoy a few below and more to come from her birthday parties and her one year photo shoot. Happy Birthday baby girl!

Birthday Week

Its Ally's birthday week and we have been busy! On Sunday we had a small celebration with family in Lafayette, Thursday we will celebrate at our place with Uncle Corey and Saturday we will have one last birthday bash in Oshkosh with my family. It is obvious that Ally has no idea what is going on and Karl doesn't seem too emotional about it but its a big deal to me. Its been tough since we moved but playing with her and watching her learn more and more every day has been pretty amazing. Hard to believe I have spent so much time with her! I am working on a list of all of the fun (and not so fun things) she has been doing as well as a lot of the things we have learned over the last year. Its going to be a long list but I'm having fun putting it all together and hope Ally will appreciate it some day. Lots of pictures from the past month, her birthday parties and one year shots to come soon as well as her official one year stats from the doctor next Monday. We really appreciate all of the work our families have been doing to make these parties special and fun, even if Ally doesn't seem to notice!

New Skill: Stairs

Ally is a fantastic climber. The video shows her first efforts at climbing the small steps a few weeks ago. Since then she has mastered every set of stairs in Karl's parents house, both up and down. Just say "turn around, turn around" and she knows to go backwards now. She has even figured out how to get around the dog cage to get to the big set of stairs when someone isn't looking. She is very sneaky! All day long this is what she does there, no toys necessary.

New Do

I realize that posting pictures of naked children online can be dangerous but these are just too cute. Also note that the only reason we took these was to test out our new fancy camera (and possibly to embarrass Ally at a later time when she really deserves it). After having her hair in pigtails all day, she looked like a crazy person once I took out the rubber bands. I got her into the bath and she was splashing around like crazy with her curly hair bouncing all over the place. Her hair is getting so long on the top! Here is the before, during and after hairstyles of Allyson.

Our new camera is amazing and I can't wait to use it more. It can take up to 10 pictures at a time so I am guaranteed to get at least one good picture before she runs away!

Pigtails

Football Season Kickoff

On Friday we traveled back to West Lafayette for the first home football game. It was so great to be back! On Friday we enjoyed the Gold and Black dinner on the football field. Ally got a chance to crawl all over the perfectly prepared grass and loved it while we enjoyed the meal catered by the Beef House. We tried to make it to the volleyball game after dinner but Purdue beat UConn to quickly and it ended just as we got to the door. We still got to see a lot of familiar faces so that was nice.

Saturday we loaded up everything we could possibly need and got to the tailgate spot around 10. This was my second time being there to tailgate for more than just a quick stop by to steal a cookie and Ally was only a month old last time she did. The rain held off and it actually ended up being nice weather for football watching. Ally got her very own purdue chair to sit in and she enjoyed some gold fish and yogurt before heading into the stadium. We made it in time to see most of the band pre-game show and all of the usual elements I am always busy coordinating rather than watching. I was trying really hard not to think about what I would be doing down on the sideline or about things I knew were not going right so it was a challenge. Ally slept for most of the first quarter and did pretty well playing in the stands. She definitely was a big hit with the fans around us, everyone just wanted to touch her and play with her. It was really humid so her hair was in tight little ringlet curls so she looked so adorable in her new jersey! She loved to wave at everyone, bounce to the band music and clap for the good plays. The game wasn't too exciting and Ally was getting restless so we headed home mid way through the 3rd quarter to get Ally some lunch and a much needed nap.

We discovered later Saturday that Ally hasn't been eating or sleeping well all week because she has a little virus going on. Happy for a Purdue victory but hoping Ally gets over this so we can do it all again this weekend! I'm looking forward to catching up with some old twirling friends and taking more pictures of a happy baby.

Chatham Library

Ally loves to go visit the Chatham Library not to read the books but to play with all of the fun toys. They have a giant tree for climbing in and around, a little play house, stuffed animals, puzzles, blocks, legos and much more. We haven't gotten a library card because she has zero interest in the books when we go. I thought we would go look for new books and read a few there but nope. Its actually a lot of fun to watch her terrorize a place that's not our little apartment. Ally is happy as can be crawling from one toy to the next, emptying various containers, pulling toys from shelves, and climbing up and down the tree slide. She thinks the library is awesome!

Where is Ally?

This is what I saw on the monitor at 8am yesterday morning so I had to go make sure she was alive! She was sound asleep and it was too cute not to get the camera.

11 Months Old

On Monday, Ally celebrated her 11 month birthday. She has been a busy little bee this month, just growing and growing. She has fine tuned many of her skills and is working towards the big one- walking. The teeth count has also been growing as she now has her bottom two and top two teeth sticking out.

Ally stands on anything and everything but really doesn't show much interest in standing on her own yet. She thinks that her toys and books are now for standing on and she thinks they help her reach more things she shouldn't if she uses them as steps. She is into cruising around furniture and her jumper and always has to be sure someone is watching when she gets adventurous and starts to move or only hang on with one hand. She will push anything and everything around on the floor but she really likes her stroller, push toy and high chair. She is starting to take a few steps at a time holding onto my hands and yesterday she even did some only holding on to me with one hand. She is not very balanced yet so we really need to work on that. She knows that she can crawl super fast so she gets frustrated easily and just wants to be on all fours.

Waving is the current obsession and has replaced giving kisses. Her waves are the cutest thing, always with a smile, and she waves at everyone we pass. She has now started to carry objects with her when she crawls too which is entertaining. She likes to carry her boppy pillow and lay in it in various places in the apartment. Laying down in general is sort of new as well. She will just put her head down in random places and lay on the floor for a few seconds. Its really cute when she lays down next to Ella but it never lasts longer than 10 seconds. Ella has become very tolerant and lets Ally lay on her, pet her face, push on her paws, pat her head, just about anything really which is a big change.

Not much has changed in terms of eating or sleeping. She is working on more table food and getting a little harder to feed baby food but that's to be expected. She loves chicken, cheese, noodles, and goldfish crackers. She has mastered the sippy cup but I have only been putting water or a water/apple juice mix in it for now.

We really think she is getting tall now and her hair just seems to get more curly by the day. We are busy making plans for her 1st birthday parties (yes, she gets at least two) and she will have her big 1 year doctors visit on October 4. At this visit she will get a lot of shots and will get the go-ahead to move from formula to whole milk. Hard to believe how much our life has changed in one year! Summer is coming to a close so we will have to find other things to do now that the pools are all closed. Enjoy some photos from this past month and the ONE YEAR update is soon to come.