And just like that... we have a ONE year old! My tiniest baby is not a baby anymore. How did that happen so quickly?! I can't believe, even after doing this one time before, just how quickly that first year flies by. We have snuggled up every second of Acelyn's first year and couldn't imagine life without her in it.
Acelyn's personality is really blooming, and she's a funny, cuddly, feisty little babe who knows what she wants and usually gets it! She is all over the place and loves to go, go, go... and keeps Mommy on her toes. She loves to be where she knows she's not supposed to- in the pantry, the laundry room, darts for the bathroom and loves getting into the trash. Dancing is still her favorite, she jams out at least twice a day and has a signature stepping/stomping move that cracks everyone up. She absolutely loves being outside, whether its at the splash pad or the park, in the backyard, or even just outside walking from the car to the store. The wind is her favorite and makes her giggle every time it blows in her face. She's a fan of the water and has had a successful first few times at the splash pad, and enjoyed the pool (if the water isn't too cold) the couple times we've gone this summer so far.
She loves to play- with toys, with us, with Nolan, or by herself, she loves toys and will entertain herself for a bit by going through buckets of them and examining each one before moving on to the next. Her absolute favorite thing is reading books, and will ask to read books every hour of the day. She understands to pick a book, bring it to you, sit on your lap and flip the pages, and can even bring it back and put it away to get another one in return. Her favorites are her Peek A Boo animal books, Eric Carle's ABC Book, any lift the flap or touch and feel, the Baby Loves series and her Trolls music book. Her favorite game to play is Hide and Seek, and knows how to quietly hide with Mommy and put her finger to her mouth to say, "Shhhh", and also understands to wait to count and then go find Nolan while he's hiding when it's time! She loves Peek-a-Boo and will play with anything; a blanket, her clothes, behind a wall or curtain, or even just her hands.. and it's the cutest thing!
Acelyn's understanding is developing quickly and she can follow multiple tasks like, "Go put your book back and get another one!" or "Pick that up and give that to me, please!" She correlates things like nap time and waiting at the gate when we say it's time, or walking over to her high chair when it's time to eat or the fridge when she is hungry. Her vocabulary is constantly growing, and she can say, Mama (Maa-Mee (Mommy) just started a few days ago), Bro Bro (for Nolan), go, Yaaa (yes), up, ilk (Milk), baba (for any type of drink/cup as well as nursing), baa-ooon (Balloon), kee kaaa (Kitty Kat), Mee Mou (Minnie Mouse), bur (bird), and CaCa (for anything yucky- usually dirty diaper or trash). She can sign "More" perfectly and does so often, mostly when eating, but that's about it when it comes to sign language. She knows how to wave Bye Bye/Hi, blow kisses, give high fives, and can identify where body parts are like her head/hair, eyes, mouth, belly button and toes.
Acelyn has entered the Mommy-obsesesed stage, where all she wants is me and freaks when I'm not around. She's definitely a Mama's girl and has a hard time separating, even if it's just another room away while I'm cooking dinner or cleaning up. She's very serious when it comes to being around others (not just strangers), and takes a while to warm up and really makes you work for a smile. She's got that RBF face (like above) most of the time and will usually just stare at you until she feels like smiling! No offense to anyone... she's just fiesty. Little lady sure does take after he family (Mom, Dad and brother) when it comes to stubbornness and her temper tantrums have started to become fierce. If something is taken away from her that she's not supposed to have, she automatically throws herself backwards to fall down and screams in tears. She's a spitfire although she is more docile when we're out and about, she runs wild around the house and quite frankly, I'm terrified to see how she's going to be when she's two. Yikes!
With all of her sass comes so much sweetness, and I adore the cuddles and love Acelyn has to give. She's a smuggler, and she is constantly giving hugs and kisses to us, unannounced and randomly. Every day when Nolan wakes up from his nap, she runs to him and throws her arms around him for a big hug to say, I missed you! My heart melts every time. I love that she wants to snuggle in bed in the morning with us and am taking in every tiny wet kiss and little arms around my neck because I know this stage flies by so quickly!
Here's what else our ONE YEAR OLD is up to!
Height, Weight and Sizes:
At her one year well check, Acelyn clocked in at 19 pounds, 4 ounces ( 40th percentile) and measured 29 3/4 inches long ( 49th percentile). She is averaging right in the middle for her age and has stayed consist to her growth curve through basically the entire year. Her head continues to measure super tiny, at 42.5 around in the 4th percentile! She's looking more and more like a toddler rather than a baby and her baby rolls are thinning out due to her constant activity, which makes me sad! Her thick thighs, especially, are losing their baby-look, wahhh! Her hair is getting even longer, and she has enough for me to put a ponytail straight up or even two pigtails that stick straight up and are the cutest little things! She's starting to get a little wavy curl to the back, especially as it's drying after her bath, and it's probably one of my favorite things ever.
She is currently wearing 12-18 month clothing all around, and I love putting her in summer staples like playsuits and bloomers to show off the last of her baby chunk. She is also fitting in a size 3 shoe/moccasin, and a size 4 diaper. Since her hair has grown, we've started using bow clips rather than just the nylon headbands, so of course that means... more bows!
Acelyn is way behind on the teeth game... she just barely cut her third and fourth tooth right after her birthday! Her third (top front left) came in the day before her birthday, and the fourth (top front right) cut through two days later. At one year, she still has her Mongolian Blue Spots and they look exactly the same, with zero fading, and we've also discovered she has a birthmark that is starting to become more pronounced with each month that she grows.
Feeding:
Acelyn continues to eat solids and is constantly adding new things to her palette as she grows. She likes most anything and will always be willing to try something, but isn't too fond of bread products, and picks at waffles, pancakes, and any type of sandwich. On the contrary, some of her favorite foods consist of scrambled eggs (seriously, she could eat these everyday and eat like 4 at a time), bananas, anything with cheese- grilled cheese, string cheese, quesadilla- fruit cups, chicken (LOVES it), ground beef, veggies (all kinds), cottage cheese, yogurt, veggie soup, avocado and all types of pasta (with our without sauce). She's had her fair share of sweets since turning one, and loves ice cream but isn't sold on cookies, especially chocolate kinds. I recently made brownies and she wanted nothing to do with them (WHAT!?), so her chocolate tooth hasn't quite developed yet!
Acelyn drinks whole milk now (thank Goodness) and will typically have a cup of milk when Nolan has his in the morning before breakfast when we go downstairs, and also drinks a little bit at each meal of the day. Other than milk, she only ever drinks water, and typically uses her RePlay sippy cups and water bottles for water and straw cups for milk.
As far as Acelyn's nursing schedule, she nurses when she wakes up in the AM, before her nap, and before bedtime. She also has gotten into a crazy sleep schedule, waking every 2 hours or so recently, so she's been nursing on demand that way. Because her sleep is so crazy and we're all going a little sleep deprived over here, we're just in the early stage of gentle sleep training, and shortly after we get a good routine with that down, I'll be starting to night wean. Ideally I would love to keep the session before bedtime, but we will see how it goes!
Sleeping:
As stated above, Acelyn continues to fight her sleep and each month has gotten worse and worse over the course of 3+ months, now. It can take anywhere from 40 minutes to over an hour to get her down, after she fights and flairs and kicks and squirms. On most days, we've moved to one nap a day, because I figured it wasn't worth fighting for an hour to get her down when she would only be asleep for 30 minutes or so for the AM nap! So, this week, we've just started gentle sleep training, where we are hoping Acelyn can start to put herself to sleep better. She's never had to learn to soothe herself back to sleep, so it's a big task but we're certain once it's learned, she will be sleeping much more sound (and us too!) I'm also planning to begin our weaning adventure as soon as we make some progress with sleep training, with the night feedings to go first.
As of right now, Acelyn's day usually starts at 7AM when she's up for good. She naps around 1-2PM, the same time as Nolan, and will never sleep more than 1.5 hours (for the wholllllllle day)! Bedtime is always around 8PM, but takes longer on nights she fights harder. She'll typically wake around 11PM, 3AM and is up again at 5AM, where I've been bringing her to bed with us to snuggle for a bit longer before everyone is up for the day!
She no longer sleeps in a sleep sack and is still in our room in the Pack N Play, but also loves to snuggle in the AM in bed with Mommy and Daddy. With sleep training comes sleeping in her own crib, which I'm not sure who is more sad about, me or her! She continues to use her pacifier and also has started snuggling with her Jellycat Bunny, when she wants to. Lots of changes to come with this topic in the next few months... wish us luck!
Likes:
Hide and Seek
Reading
Jellycat Bunny
Dancing
Moana, Trolls, Monster's Inc.
Learning animal names and sounds
Snuggles in Mommy and Daddy's bed
Water play/splash pad/pools/bath time
Emptying the dishwasher with Mommy
Eating and making a mess with it
Throwing things from the highchair
Being outside
Snacktime
Playing chase and peek-a-boo
Checking the mail
Putting things in/out
Climbing the stairs
Dislikes:
Diaper changes/dressing and undressing, doing her hair, anything that keeps her down for more than .5 seconds!
Careseat still (we switched to a Convertible seat, and she fusses a little less but definitely still doesn't like the carseat much)
Being told No
Stranger Danger
Her crib
Being away from Mommy (even for a second in the other room)
Cleaning up after eating
Happy first birthday, sweet girl! We love you so much and enjoy watching you grow and complete our family with each day.
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