Claire is approaching her 13 month birthday, so here's a recap of her at 12 months.
Feeding: made the transition from bottles and formula to sippy cups of milk. Still working on timing but right now she gets 3-4 5 oz cups of milk. Morning, afternoon with lunch or before her nap, and one at night before bed. Sometimes she gets one after she wakes up from her nap, especially if she didn't get one before her nap. Or if she's a real grump. I also introduced some squeeze pouches of pureed fruits/veggies. I avoided them before now since I didn't see the point. It just seemed like baby food in a more expensive package. But she loves them because she can hold them and eat them herself. It has a small, straw sized opening at the top so she can just hold it to her mouth and suck the stuff out. It's nice to have a convenient, portable fruit/veggie option to keep in the diaper bag for when we are out and about.
Sleeping: She's made sleeping through the night a fairly regular occurrence. Woohoo! She has figured out the transition to one nap and settled into a pattern. Timing was a little all over the place for a while but lately she's been going to sleep around 1 or 1:30 and sleeping for 1.5-2.5 hours.
Development: I posted before about her handing things back and forth and helping clean up. She has also learned how to go down stairs backwards. She loves to work on that skill!
Language: She's got a variety of "words." Some are used appropriately, some are just repetitions of what she hears. But I can identify: hi, all done, uh oh, thank you (gah goo), and bye (maybe). These are not used frequently or all in one day. She says mama and dada but I'm not sure she uses them to mean Jeff and I. Dada maybe, but definitely not mama which is said very infrequently. She'll kind of go in phases with one word. It was hi a week or two ago and now it is uh oh or thank you. Both are sometimes used in context, sometimes randomly. It cracks me up that she has "learned" thank you because that is what I say as I'm taking something out of her hands that she shouldn't have. Which happens all the time! I can totally see her in the future stealing another kid's toy and pleasantly saying thank you as she does it!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
One year stats
From Claire's doctor's appointment today
Height: 29.5 inches - 60th %ile
Weight: 19 lbs, 12 oz - 30th %ile
Head: 45 cm (17.7 in) - around 50th %ile (I think)
I would have bet that we had broken 20 pounds!
Everything was great, except Claire's iron was a little low. So we have to start a supplement for that. I did bring up that Claire isn't pointing at all, which is a skill typically shown by now. But since her motor and language development are otherwise good, the nurse practitioner wasn't concerned. We ended the appointment with 3 shots, which Claire wasn't thrilled about.
Height: 29.5 inches - 60th %ile
Weight: 19 lbs, 12 oz - 30th %ile
Head: 45 cm (17.7 in) - around 50th %ile (I think)
I would have bet that we had broken 20 pounds!
Everything was great, except Claire's iron was a little low. So we have to start a supplement for that. I did bring up that Claire isn't pointing at all, which is a skill typically shown by now. But since her motor and language development are otherwise good, the nurse practitioner wasn't concerned. We ended the appointment with 3 shots, which Claire wasn't thrilled about.
New skills!
Claire's development of new skills is really picking up speed. In the past few weeks she has developed the following skills:
Giving something to me/back and forth
Holding something up to show me
AND
Cleaning up!
She can help pick up some of her toys!. She can put her blocks back in the bucket and other toys in our storage totes. She's long been great at making a mess, so it's nice to get a little help cleaning up too.
Today she also she repeated the word Uh-oh! All done and uh oh? Two word phrases? She is advanced, people! :)
Giving something to me/back and forth
Holding something up to show me
AND
Cleaning up!
She can help pick up some of her toys!. She can put her blocks back in the bucket and other toys in our storage totes. She's long been great at making a mess, so it's nice to get a little help cleaning up too.
Today she also she repeated the word Uh-oh! All done and uh oh? Two word phrases? She is advanced, people! :)
The end of an era
Big changes in Claire's food world!
She had her last (successful) nursing session on her birthday, her last breastmilk a few days ago, her last bit of formula today AND, unexpectedly, her last bottle was yesterday.
Yes, that's right, we finally found a sippy cup she would drink milk out of! We tried multiple different kinds with no luck. She would take a few sips out of her straw sippy that we've used for water. But after a few sips she was done. Finally I picked up the sippy cup version of her straw cup. And success! She took it with no hesitation. I think the different was that the spout is all silicone and soft like her bottles, whereas the others were a little firmer to downright hard.
So farewell to bottles and formula. Hello sippy cups and milk!
She had her last (successful) nursing session on her birthday, her last breastmilk a few days ago, her last bit of formula today AND, unexpectedly, her last bottle was yesterday.
Yes, that's right, we finally found a sippy cup she would drink milk out of! We tried multiple different kinds with no luck. She would take a few sips out of her straw sippy that we've used for water. But after a few sips she was done. Finally I picked up the sippy cup version of her straw cup. And success! She took it with no hesitation. I think the different was that the spout is all silicone and soft like her bottles, whereas the others were a little firmer to downright hard.
So farewell to bottles and formula. Hello sippy cups and milk!
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| Sippy time! |
Friday, March 2, 2012
First word!
Ok, I'm going to call it! Claire's first word is ........
HI!
(Or "Haaa" as she says it. And accompanied with enthusiastic waving.)
She's been doing it for a while so I can't say when the first time was. But it's only recently that she's done it in the right context with enough consistency for us to be sure it was really a word.
She also has started imitating the sign for and verbal phrase "all done." The sign for that is to hold your hands palm up, and then flip them inward to put palms down. Claire's version is more like little flapping hands with the phrase "Ahh Dah." Freaking cute! She doesn't do it on her own yet, but if I ask if she is all done (while sitting in her high chair) she will often respond.
Combine that with her ability to correctly (well, sometimes) use the sign for more and imitate the sign for milk and we're getting somewhere! (Also, notice how it's all food related. Big motivator there!)
HI!
(Or "Haaa" as she says it. And accompanied with enthusiastic waving.)
She's been doing it for a while so I can't say when the first time was. But it's only recently that she's done it in the right context with enough consistency for us to be sure it was really a word.
She also has started imitating the sign for and verbal phrase "all done." The sign for that is to hold your hands palm up, and then flip them inward to put palms down. Claire's version is more like little flapping hands with the phrase "Ahh Dah." Freaking cute! She doesn't do it on her own yet, but if I ask if she is all done (while sitting in her high chair) she will often respond.
Combine that with her ability to correctly (well, sometimes) use the sign for more and imitate the sign for milk and we're getting somewhere! (Also, notice how it's all food related. Big motivator there!)
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Claire's First Birthday party
We had a nice family party at our house on Saturday, Feb 25th to celebrate Claire's birthday. The food and cakes I made turned out great, which made me very happy. (Although I later discovered the chips that never got put out. Whoops!) The decorations came together nicely as well. And we had great company! Claire seemed to enjoy her day. I know her Mommy and Daddy sure did.
All the photos are at this link. Scroll down for the highlights.
All the photos are at this link. Scroll down for the highlights.
Friday, February 24, 2012
ONE!
Happy Birthday Baby Girl!
At 5:38 this morning, Claire was officially one year old!
(Fortunately, we were all sleeping at the time)
One year ago today, we were at the hospital awaiting her dramatic arrival. My how our lives have changed.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
11 months!
Claire turns one tomorrow! Here's a look back at her 11 month old self.
Feeding: Nursing in the morning and 3 bottles during the day (6 oz). 3 meals a day. She eats a lot of things including olives and pickles. Pasta and peas are still favorites! She makes a cute mmm noise when she's eating something yummy.
Sleeping: She sleeps about 11-11.5 hours a night. Most nights she sleeps through, but there are still plenty of late night wake-ups that are no fun. Bedtime is between 7:30 and 8. Wake-up is usually between 7 and 8. She has just recently started transition to one nap. When it was two naps, she'd go down around 11 and again around 3 or 4 and sleep 1 to 1.5 hours at a time. We're still figuring out the one nap thing. She seems ready to go down between 12:30 and 2:00. On a good day she'll sleep 2 hours but usually it's more like 1-1.5, which doesn't seem to be enough. We're dealing with a good bit of crankiness.
Development:
Motor - We are up to 5-6 steps at at time! She prefers crawling to get around and is very speedy. She also loves to climb up the stairs, but is no good at coming down!
Communication - Definitely an increase in vocalizations. She finally said ma ma! It doesn't mean me yet, but at least she can say it. Da da is old hat, but she doesn't seem to associate it with Jeff just yet. She babbles with increasing inflection. She has a lot of "sh" sounds in her vocabulary. "She she" or "shish shish" are frequent sounds. She can imitate the sign for "more" and is getting closer to using it appropriately. Right now she is over using it but at least she'll make it independently. She can also imitate the sign for milk, but not "all done" just yet. She has mastered waving and clapping. We tried working on blowing kisses. She doesn't do any motions, just make the mmwha kissing noise, which is totally adorable. Especially when tucking her into bed at night. She knows her name and understands the word no (not that she always listens to it!). She loves peek a boo and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. She'll even try to the hand motion for the spider.
Play - Her interests and skills are much the same. She still loves to pull stuff apart - the ring stacker, a bin of toys, the tupperware in the cabinet - it all needs to become a jumbled mess. Occasionally I'll call her Captain Destructo. She loves her Fisher Price Learning Home and playing peek a boo with Mommy in the little window that goes up and down. Or getting mail in the mailbox. She is no longer afraid of the busy ball popper that her aunt and uncle got her for Christmas. However, she'd rather just grab the balls instead of letting them cycle through the popper. She likes balls of all sorts and will sit for a minute or two to roll a ball back and forth. She will even attempt to roll it back a few times before she gets impatient and just comes at you to get it. Something that is rather recent is an interest in books. She loves to flip the pages. Touch and feel books are a big hit. Those actually allow us to get through a story, rather than just flipping through the pages quickly.
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| Playing "bongos" at the park |
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| At the zoo with Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma Schulze |
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| I like to climb in the toy basket |
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| Help! I'm stuck in this one! |
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| Hanging with Uncle John and Auntie Jess |
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| Mmm, Super Bowl snacks! |
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| Go Patriots! |
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| Who needs the sides on this thing? |
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| Stole Mommy's ice cream cone!! |
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| "Reading" |
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| Happy Vaentine's Day! |
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| I'm a big, standing girl!! |
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| Honey, I'm home! |
Thursday, January 26, 2012
10 months
Claire turned 10 months on Christmas Eve. We celebrated by opening presents!
She is making great strides (pun intended!) in her move toward walking. She received a Radio Flyer walker wagon for Christmas. She was able to take maybe a step or two with it. Two weeks later she was able to push it from one end of house to the other. In early January she began standing on her own, unsupported. Shortly thereafter she was able to push herself to a standing position without holding on to anything.
In late December we worked once again on sleeping through the night. We had a few fits and starts with teething and a cold. We had 3 good nights in a row and then New Year's Eve came. We had a lot of crying around 2 or 3 that night/morning, just when my parent's happened to be staying over. But finally from the 5th to the 12th we had a whole week of sleeping through the night! Fingers crossed that this is the new normal!!
Eating wise, Claire is starting to exercise her right of refusal! She is pushing away foods she once liked - bananas, avocados, fish, cottage cheese. Sometimes she just seems to get tired of a food for a little while. Guess she doesn't like too many days of leftovers. She loves peas and pasta.
January 20-22nd we took a trip down to Savannah. It was Claire's second visit. We were there before on Mother's day. Grammi and Aunt Jamie babysat Saturday so Jeff and I could go to Jekyll Island. We had a nice day out.
Sunday we helped Jamie load up some things to come back to my parent's house in preparation for moving out of her apartment at the end of February. Fortunately, Claire and I had to go with my mom to buy some tarps, missing out on the hauling of stuff down 3 stories. Claire has her 3rd and worst cold of her short little life. So it probably wasn't her favorite trip ever.
And finally, here are some photos. They are from my phone since I've finally figured out a good way to get them on here. The ones on the real camera will sit there til Jeff gets around to them.
She is making great strides (pun intended!) in her move toward walking. She received a Radio Flyer walker wagon for Christmas. She was able to take maybe a step or two with it. Two weeks later she was able to push it from one end of house to the other. In early January she began standing on her own, unsupported. Shortly thereafter she was able to push herself to a standing position without holding on to anything.
In late December we worked once again on sleeping through the night. We had a few fits and starts with teething and a cold. We had 3 good nights in a row and then New Year's Eve came. We had a lot of crying around 2 or 3 that night/morning, just when my parent's happened to be staying over. But finally from the 5th to the 12th we had a whole week of sleeping through the night! Fingers crossed that this is the new normal!!
Eating wise, Claire is starting to exercise her right of refusal! She is pushing away foods she once liked - bananas, avocados, fish, cottage cheese. Sometimes she just seems to get tired of a food for a little while. Guess she doesn't like too many days of leftovers. She loves peas and pasta.
January 20-22nd we took a trip down to Savannah. It was Claire's second visit. We were there before on Mother's day. Grammi and Aunt Jamie babysat Saturday so Jeff and I could go to Jekyll Island. We had a nice day out.
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| Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island |
Sunday we helped Jamie load up some things to come back to my parent's house in preparation for moving out of her apartment at the end of February. Fortunately, Claire and I had to go with my mom to buy some tarps, missing out on the hauling of stuff down 3 stories. Claire has her 3rd and worst cold of her short little life. So it probably wasn't her favorite trip ever.
And finally, here are some photos. They are from my phone since I've finally figured out a good way to get them on here. The ones on the real camera will sit there til Jeff gets around to them.
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| HI! |
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| What do you mean I'm supposed to push it, not sit in it? |
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| Ready to go out with the recycling |
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| Got my car seat strap to play with, all is good |
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| Jammie time |
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| WARNING: Baby nudity! |
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| Yay, KEYS!! |
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| Who doesn't love a baby in overalls?? |
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Claire meets Santa
Jeff and I took Claire to see Santa the week after Thanksgiving. We just went to the local mall, which has a pretty nice set up. One definite plus of Jeff's job is that he has random week days off, so we didn't have brave weekend crowds. There was no one in line when we arrived. But we had to change Claire into her dress first and a few people showed up in those couple of minutes. But still pretty painless!
The first shot we got was the best. Nice big grin at Daddy. It went a little downhill after that. It picked back up at the end when a female worker came over and started making faces, but those pictures didn't seem to make it online. So here's what we got.
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| The winner! |
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| See how the savvy Santa quickly grabbed her hand to prevent the glasses or beard grab. |
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| Daddy? I see you over there. Come get me! |
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| Why am I still sitting here? *sigh* |
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
9 months
Claire shared her 9 month birthday with Thanksgiving and my parents anniversary. Big day!
Much is the same as last month with her sleeping.
Eating is much the same except we introduced some formula. November 29th was the big day for Claire's first 2 ounces of formula. So we made it to 9 months and 5 days old with exclusive breastfeeding. Now it's nice to be able to give her a bottle when we are out and about and to not worry about my supply.
We are moving along multiple areas of development.
-She is waving at everyone! She's definitely mastered that skill. Sometimes she makes a noise that sounds like hi or hey. First word potential??
-By the end of the month she started clapping. She also seemed to make the sign for "more" a few times, which I've been showing her at meal time. But then she started confusing the sign and clapping, as they are similar. So who knows if she really gets it.
-The big news was in gross motor development. She started standing up holding on with one hand. Then she started cruising a little bit along the couch. And eventually she was transitioning between pieces of furniture.
-She's making a wider variety of sounds and putting more sounds together. Jeff is convinced she'll be quite the talker.
-She learned how to shake her head no. This may have coincided with our Christmas tree going up and being told no, not to touch it. Or when she discovered the electronics cabinet and lots of fun cords! She heard/saw no quite a few times with that one. It's hilarious to try to sternly tell her no and have her shake her head at you while grinning about her skill. Pretty impossible to keep a straight face!
And squeaking in at the very end: TEETH! After 4 months of no tooth activity, Claire's top two teeth decided to come in at the same time. Once again they were discovered by my mom, on December 20th or 21st. Four months after her first one was discovered. So we can say Claire got her two front teeth for Christmas!
Much is the same as last month with her sleeping.
Eating is much the same except we introduced some formula. November 29th was the big day for Claire's first 2 ounces of formula. So we made it to 9 months and 5 days old with exclusive breastfeeding. Now it's nice to be able to give her a bottle when we are out and about and to not worry about my supply.
We are moving along multiple areas of development.
-She is waving at everyone! She's definitely mastered that skill. Sometimes she makes a noise that sounds like hi or hey. First word potential??
-By the end of the month she started clapping. She also seemed to make the sign for "more" a few times, which I've been showing her at meal time. But then she started confusing the sign and clapping, as they are similar. So who knows if she really gets it.
-The big news was in gross motor development. She started standing up holding on with one hand. Then she started cruising a little bit along the couch. And eventually she was transitioning between pieces of furniture.
-She's making a wider variety of sounds and putting more sounds together. Jeff is convinced she'll be quite the talker.
-She learned how to shake her head no. This may have coincided with our Christmas tree going up and being told no, not to touch it. Or when she discovered the electronics cabinet and lots of fun cords! She heard/saw no quite a few times with that one. It's hilarious to try to sternly tell her no and have her shake her head at you while grinning about her skill. Pretty impossible to keep a straight face!
And squeaking in at the very end: TEETH! After 4 months of no tooth activity, Claire's top two teeth decided to come in at the same time. Once again they were discovered by my mom, on December 20th or 21st. Four months after her first one was discovered. So we can say Claire got her two front teeth for Christmas!
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