My Cute 1 Year Old

I really can't believe that my tiny baby is a year old - 14 months at this point - but I am loving this age so much. She is so bright and happy, and has so much personality, it's like getting to know more of her every single day. So here are some of the things she is up to these days in her busy little toddler life...

She is eating a variety of foods, though some are still a challenge to get in her. Her favorites are scrambled eggs and toast, yogurt, multigrain Cheerios, grilled cheese, and just about any meat. She's not much for pasta or rice, and I have a tough time getting her to eat vegetables. She has figured out that the inside of a pea is better than it's shell, so she bites them and sucks the insides out. It's pretty impressive. She also loves peaches, pears, and mandarin oranges.

She has lots of hair and we sometimes have trouble keeping it under control. The hair that's on top of her head includes the stuff that never fell out, so it is very long and falls right into her face. It's actually long enough to swoop across her forehead and tuck behind her ear. Most of the time I pull it up in a little pony tail on top of her head - sometimes piggy tails. It's pretty cute :)

Like most kids her age, she is totally into anything with buttons - except baby toys, of course. She loves the remotes and knows where we stash them. She still snags one from time to time and suddenly the channel will change or the volume will go way up. She also loves our cell phones, naturally. We've given her an old one to toss around and play with, but she still knows which ones work.

She also really loves our dog, Shep. Luckily he's super-tolerant and she's very gentle. She has noticed other dogs though and even started saying doggy - well in her own way. She says, "gaga" but points to any dogs we see.

Like her mommy, she has developed a taste for chocolate. She recognizes Oreos, cupcakes, and even wrapped Dove chocolates if she sees them and has no problem demanding a bite :)

She is beginning to realize that books are for reading and not eating so we're encouraging that. She's still not super patient with the reading part and mostly wants to turn the pages herself to look at the pictures she likes. This is fine with me, it's a start. Magazines on the other hand....

She doesn't really watch TV, but there are some kid-show theme songs she likes. Angelina Ballerina is one of them. She will drop anything when she hears that song come on. She actually goes over to the coffee table and stands on one leg with her other leg up in the air behind her, like she is standing at a ballet bar. Kind of cracks me up. I promise she has not watched enough of that show to know. She usually goes to play when the song is over.

This girl is also turning into quite the little sports fan. She loves to clap and cheer and sometimes even yell when we're watching Os games either on TV or at the park. We were driving to a game just last weekend and I said to her, "We're going to see the Orioles! Do you want to see the Orioles?" And when I looked in the rearview mirror, she was pulling the straps of her carseat so she could see the word Orioles on her shirt! I was surprised that she knew without me saying anything prior, that that was her Orioles shirt. Her daddy is proud of that one!

Still a music fan, she definitely favors the toy instruments we have to the other toys. She has two different drums, a piano, two microphones, a guitar, and a xylophone. Sometimes she turns them on just to let them play while she is doing something else!

We've been lucky that we haven't really gotten into tantrums yet. I can tell that she is trying to find ways to express her anger though. A few times she has sprawled on her belly on the floor when she was mad, and I've also seen her swat at things. Once or twice she has even bitten the couch cushions, hopefully that doesn't become people. I expect a full-on tantrum to hit one of these days and I just pray it's not in the middle of church, or a nice restaurant.

Our little goof-ball definitely loves to make other people laugh. She learned when she was very young through peek-a-boo that it's funny to give someone a little startle. That turned into her saying "Boo" back to us, and now to pretty much everyone and everything. She has gotten good at her "Boo" so it's not just cute, she's out to scare. And she will do this to strangers in the store, babies, and me when I catch her doing something she knows she shouldn't be doing.

We took her for her first swim and she loved it! Not to mention, she was irresistible in her little bathing suit. She has several actually and has yet to wear the same one twice! As much fun as she has in the bath tub, I knew she would be a fan of the swimming pool. She was a little more intimidated when we got out into the middle of the water, but still enjoyed it as long as she was holding on to mama :)

As you saw in a recent post, she has started walking unassisted. At first she would only go from one person to another. But now she is going from person to object and sometimes between pieces of furniture. She is getting braver every day. She still doesn't just take off around the house. If she wants to get somewhere quick she will crawl, but I know those days are fast approaching. Just this morning I looked over and she had climbed up onto a speaker we have sitting on the floor... now we have that can of worms open!

She still sucks that thumb, though thankfully only when she's tired or snuggling. Hopefully that will make it an easier habit to break, or one that goes away on its own. She has been such a calm and adaptable child, I think she will grow right out of it without a problem.

We practice our animal sounds with a farm puzzle she got from her aunt and uncle. Sometimes she repeats them, but her favorite animal sound is "Rooooaaaaaaar" and so usually that is what all the animals in the puzzle say.

She's a Cheerio fiend and would probably subsist on them entirely if I let her. I have to hide the box if I don't want her to have them. She also knows there's a stash in the diaper bag and will ask for them non-stop in the car if she sees it. I can't complain, there are far worse things for your toddler to be obsessed with than multigrain Cheerios and your water bottle.

While I could go on and on about her for at least decades, nap time is only so long. I've hit on a lot of the big stuff to summarize her cute little personality well enough for today. My hope is always to keep up with my blogging better so that I don't have to think back over several weeks or months to catch up on what we've been up to. And as always, we'll see how that goes :)  As much as I like guarantees, unpredictability is one of the things I love most about life!