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.
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!
