Monday, August 05, 2013

Adley Lynn-13 months


Well, Baby Girl is already 13 months old! A post about her first birthday party is coming soon...clearly long overdue!  Until then, here's a quick update of what our baby girl is up to these days. I know it’s cliché, but it has to be said: I can’t believe how fast this year (and one month) flew by!  It is truly amazing how quickly she changed from a tiny little newborn to a determined, energetic toddler!

Adley is quite entertaining these days.  Her personality is so cute & she’s generally a very happy baby.  She jabbers non-stop, although we can’t understand most of what she says.  She does say “Ma-ma” and “Da-Da,” “Bye-bye,” and “Ca-Ca-Ca” (for “car”-her little tykes car she got for her birthday).  She occasionally will slip in another word here or there, but we can never get her to repeat them!
She is quite dramatic with her cries these days--sometimes she even puts her hand over her mouth for added effect!

Her major accomplishment this month was taking her first steps (July 1st) to walking all over the place!!  Her first steps occurred when she was throwing a bit of a fit after I told her she couldn’t climb the stairs & stood her on the ground at the bottom.  Whether she meant to or not, she took a couple of steps amid her loud protest & tears. 

She has also mastered the art of giving sweet little kisses & has started blowing kisses, although she does that backwards.  She makes the “mmma” sound but then puts her hand over her mouth instead of “blowing” the kisses out.  She loves to give kisses, and sometimes stops in the middle of playing just to give me or her daddy a kiss.  She also likes to “kiss” Papa and Mumsie when she’s telling them goodbye on Facetime.  This generally results in a slobbery phone screen!

Although she spent the first few months of her life as what I would call a terrible sleeper, she now seems to be sleeping like a champ!  She goes to bed at 8:00, generally without fussing, and still usually takes 2 naps every day.  I nursed her for 13 months, and I was dreading the weaning process.  To my surprise, it wasn’t hard at all!  One night we just went straight from bath time to Matt reading her a story (skipping the snack in between) and that was that.  She didn’t even seem to notice that anything was missing!  She seemed to wean herself off her early morning feeding as well.  Although she still woke up around 6 for a few weeks, she quickly started falling back asleep when I didn’t get her up to feed her.  I’m thankful that it was an easy process, but it’s a little sad that this chapter in our lives (and bonding) has come to a close!  When we started the breastfeeding journey, I had serious doubts that I would be able to make it 1 month, much less an entire 13 months.

We have spent lots of time in the pool this summer, and Adley has become quite the water bug.  She loves to play with the fountain, and insists on walking on the steps of the pool by herself (with someone holding on to her, of course).  She likes to “slide” down the angled tiles in the pool & always wants all of the pool balls gathered up on her float!  We have plans to get her started in swimming lessons, but the summer seems to be flying by & we haven’t enrolled her yet!  Although the pool is lots of fun, we know that it can also be dangerous, so we definitely want to make sure that she learns to swim as soon as possible!  Well, I could talk all day about our sweet baby girl, but I think this update pretty much sums up Adley at 13 months!