The Little Family: About AJ

Wow! One! 1!

I know I've already posted some about the birthday girl, but I have more to say. ;)

This has been one of the best years of my life. Definitely one of the most challenging, but amazing, nonetheless.

Our family is complete! I love my kids so much and the addition of Amelia Jayne has been fantastic. I stick by my original statement -

Best.Baby.Ever!

David and I were just talking recently about how amazing she's been from the very beginning. We are so very blessed.

Here are some of the things she's up to this month:

She signs thank you. And she blows big kisses - those two hand signals are basically the same thing. But she does them appropriately which is the impressive part. She's still saying all the words she did last month - I don't think she's really added any new ones. But the word "bahboo" definitely means Xander. She calls for him all the time. I'm working on getting it on video, but haven't quite gotten it yet. If he's not in the room, she looks around and says, "Bahboo!" Sometimes I refer to him as brother, plus his name is 2 syllables, so I guess that's where she gets her word for him. It melts my heart how much she loves him.

She can make a new sound. She's learned how to click her tongue behind her teeth. She loves doing it! I often hear her clicking noises over the monitor.

She wants so badly to walk. She's not quite there yet, but she has been letting go while standing a lot more lately. Her balance is pretty good. She likes to walk holding onto your fingers and just over the past couple of weeks has been able to walk while only holding one of your fingers. Just a couple of days ago I noticed her let go of my leg and reach out to her push toy while taking a step - she didn't make it and sat down, but she's so close!

Up to this point I've been a little concerned about her feet. She has incredibly flexible ankles and often turns her feet all the way in when she's sitting. I was a little afraid this might affect her ability to walk. She also seems to be pigeon-toed. David was pigeon-toed when he was a little boy, but it eventually corrected itself. I asked the doctor about it at her 9-month well visit and he said that her ankles should straighten out as she continues to put more weight on them. I'm hoping that's the case, but I will be asking him about it at her one year well-visit.

Speaking of feet - here she is showing hers off :)

She's been a bit clingy lately. She's more clingy with me than anyone else. If I'm in the room, she wants me to hold her. If I put her down to play, she usually crawls back to me and pulls up on my leg, wanting to be held. I typically give in unless I'm doing something that requires two hands. That's probably one of the reasons she wants to be held so much - she knows I'm a pushover. :)

I dug out the infant carrier last night and put her in it while I was making dinner. I didn't figure that would last long, but she seemed to really enjoy it! I think she just wants to be close to me right now.

She's very persistent and will continue to do what she wants to do, regardless of the consequences. I can move large toys in front of the stairs and she still attempts to crawl through them to climb up. She will burrow her way into any small space and sometimes can't get back out, but yet she continues to go back to that small space. And continues to get stuck. :)

She, like her brother, tends to have texture issues. She's somewhat opposite of him, loving to touch soft things and squishy things, but she's also fairly timid about touching (or eating) things that feel "different" to her. She is very tactile, though. She loves the books with textures and, as you can see in the picture above, is interested in fabric textures. She had a lot of fun with that skirt.

I know the skirt is ridiculous. I couldn't help myself. She is just too cute for words in that thing!

She continues to be a picky eater. I've learned that if I just shove something in her mouth quickly, without her noticing, she'll usually eat it. She just doesn't want to try new things. Her brother's going through that stage right now, so I'm a little bummed that she's already there. Maybe she'll be a good eater when she's his age?

I know, I'm not holding my breath.

We had a big part-ay last Saturday. Wouldn't you know that our camera decided to have a dead battery right before the big event, (even though I had checked it the night before!) so I need to get pics from my mom. I'll post them after I get them from her, and when I have time which these days feels like never.

David created a video for Amelia Jayne's first year, just like he did for Xander. We watched it at her party. I'm going to attempt to put it on youtube and then embed it on here. It is 30 minutes, so we'll see if that's possible.