Natalie Claire: 12 Months

Ok, so she turned 12 months two months ago, but I have to at LEAST do a 1 year update since I dropped the ball on the last few updates. I hate to say it, but I'm so glad these monthly photos are over. She is constantly moving and will not sit still for a second, so getting posed shots of her is literally an exhausting task. I kind of dropped the ball on these last ones. I normally would have taken the time to get better ones, but I just didn't have the patience with her this time. 

Name: Natalie Claire

Weight: 21 lbs. 8 oz.

Height: 29.5 in

Health: She had a cold right around the time of her 1st birthday (and I think the croup for like one night, when she sounded like a barking seal when she coughed...but that literally was for one night and then it turned into a cold)

Sleep: Sleeping 12 hours from 8pm-8am, with one wake up between 4am and 6am to nurse. If I was working full time and had to get up early to get ready for work, these early morning wake ups would be the bane of my existence, but since I can go back to bed if I need to, I don't really mind them. I think I will start trying to drop these though.

Social: I worry that my little one is a bully! Or, that I'm not socializing her enough. At Gymboree she's very precocious - into everything, goes everywhere, and has started pulling other kids hair or wants to touch their faces. It's out of curiosity of course, but she does seem to be more up in people's personal space than the other kids there.

Diet: Now that she's one, nothing is off limits, I can try (and have started trying...since I'm writing this two months after the fact - peanut butter, citrus, whole milk) There is really nothing I won't try with her (except of course, coffee and alcohol, hehe). I made it to my goal of one year exclusively breastfeeding (with a bit of food throughout the day), but I never fed her formula or milk!! Now that she's one, I can slowly start introducing cow's milk. I will drop one nursing session a day and replace it with milk for a few months. Then I will drop another session, and so on and so forth. So I will nurse her 4 times a day and give her 1 sippy cup of milk (which she is being very resistant to drinking)

Likes: 
* 3 words - THOMAS THE TRAIN. That theme song can come on in the other room and she will come running to the tv. She LOVES Thomas and loves the song, it's the funniest/cutest thing ever.
*She loves shaking maracas or anything that makes noise.
*The dog's water bowl. OMG how she loves the dog's water bowl. It is all. she. wants. all. day. long.
*Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" - She loves dancing to that song, but really, who doesn't love Taylor Swift?

Dislikes: I can't really keep up with her food preferences. One day she loves eggs, the next day she can't stand them. One day she's eating broccoli and I think I've got the best baby in the world, and the next day she won't even touch it. It's very hard to prepare meals for her, and it's hard to know what is her not liking the taste of something, or if she's just not hungry.

Milestones:
*Walking - she started walking two weeks before her birthday, so she was 11 1/2 months. It's the craziest thing, one day she just starts walking and from that point on, that's how it is. You could see in her eyes the excitement and the determination she had as she was figuring it out - this foot, then that foot. And the rest is history.

*First Halloween - she went as an octopus

*In her first wedding as the ring bear-ess (she was 10 months)

*TEETH: She has 4 teeth on the bottom and 2 teeth on top. I think the worst of the teething is over (at least until molars come in? I hear those are hard)

*Talking: Says "Dada" and "Mama" alll the time.

PS: I can't believe I have a 1 year old.