12 month stats

Emma had her 12 month check up with the doctor this week. All is well. She is petite but growing beautifully. She cried for her vaccines, but only for a second, and has otherwise had a wonderful week.

Weight: 18 lbs 2.2 oz (8th percentile)
Height: 28.25 inches (23rd percentile)

She started walking at about 11.5 months. She now has 8 teeth. She waves hello and goodbye. She says "Hi" and "Dye dye" (instead of "bye bye"). She points at things and says "Dats". She jabbers on and on in baby language, nodding her head and gesturing to emphasize her points. I nod and agree accordingly. She knows when I'm asking her a question; sometimes she understands, other times she just nods "yes" in hopes of getting something out of the deal. She loves food, particularly whatever I am eating. She's still trying to figure out how to drink milk out of a sippy cup without spitting it out. She still nurses several times a day (and at night). She still doesn't sleep straight through. She loves bath time and has to be told a thousand times each bath to sit on her bottom. She adores the cats and dog. She's starting to throw tantrums and I'm trying to learn how to not give in. She is my greatest source of joy.

ONE YEAR!!!!

I will have to post all of the fun stats later, especially after we go to the doctor and I find out how much little Emma has grown. I can't believe my baby is a year old. I have survived the first year of motherhood and it has been amazing.

We had an incredible birthday party for The Bean today at my parents' house. A ton of people were there. I was so overwhelmed before hand, I got there late and in a sour mood, but when I walked in the door and heard so many familiar voices of people I adore, I almost cried with joy. Thank you to my family for your support, my amazing husband for doing so much prep and set up, and for all of the people who came and shared their love. Everything was perfect.

In other news, we had a quick trip up to Eureka earlier this week for Great-Grandma Loie's memorial service. She was Barry's great-grandmother and she lived a full life for 99 years. We were both very sad to see her go, but so thankful to have known her.

On the way up 101 Barry said to me, "I don't think your speedometer is working." Sure enough it decided to go haywire on us. It continued to move up any time the car accelerated, but it did not go back down when we decreased speed. All we could do was go with the flow and guess our speed. There was a time when we were "going" 120mph, which we figured was about 65mph based on where the needle was when the car turned on. Oh my goodness. As if I don't stress out enough when Barry's driving. This just made it worse.

Magically, it fixed itself. Fine, super, fantastic. I didn't really want to pay the $$$ that the dealer would have wanted for a replacement. Let's see how long it holds out before I look down to find myself driving at excessive speeds again.

Excitement!!!

We bought a huge couch and Emma is starting to walk!

I've had back pain and all sorts of issues in the past year that caused me to visit my chiropractor more than I liked. Pregnancy then carrying a kid around had something to do with it, but our couch was also to blame. When we got our first couch (a really wonderful hand-me-down blessing) Barry removed all the cushions and cleaned it really well. He also removed all of the extra stuff that the previous owner had placed below the cushions to give it more support. Whoever shoved that stuff in the couch did it for a reason. Removing it was a bad idea. The couch became way too squishy and gave no back support.

After ages of complaining, Barry finally agreed that it was time to buy a new one! Wahoo! We looked online and shopped a little bit in September or October. The weekend after Thanksgiving we decided it was time.

I called up the saleslady we had dealt with before and asked if they had any holiday sales. She didn't say yes or no, but rather, "Come on down and I'll see what I can do." Her tone of voice definitely said yes. When we got to the store I apparently wasn't being tough enough and clearly didn't know what I was doing, according to Barry. He played the part of the hesitant husband with the final say, hoping to get their prices to come down. Dude. The lady was already going to give me a deal. I talked to her on the phone.

One way or another, we got a discounted price and the promise of a new couch in four to six weeks. Two or three weeks later we gave away the old couch so that we wouldn't end up with too much furniture in our little house. Having no couch for a couple of weeks was kind of fun and made the living room seem huge.

The new luxurious piece of furniture finally arrived, we set up the baby jail anew, and all was well.


Yesterday Emma began taking four or five steps by herself instead of just one or two. It was extremely exciting and loads of fun. It also made me realize that she needs a bigger space and less furniture to hold on to for support to really challenge her to walk more. Today I disassembled the baby jail and now my living room looks like this.




It is a beautiful and wonderful time in our lives. Last week I was complaining about how I know she can walk, but she just doesn't know she can. I would have to pry my fingers from her hand in order to get her to take one step on her own. Today is a completely different story. This little girl is finally gaining enough confidence to take steps on her own! It is an amazing thing to watch a child grow so rapidly and find so much joy in the everyday activities us grown ups take for granted.

Enjoy: