12 month update

Elise is napping and Mike is at Cabela's with Ben, so I am going to take the time to write a quick update so that I can remember what Elise was doing at 12 months old.

We went to the doctor this morning and she is 30.5 inches tall and weighs 24.2 lbs (with a onesie and tights on... it is cold today!). She is still around the 90th percentile in both height and weight. I am going to try to describe each category of development.

Eating:
We are still nursing 4 times a day. At some point in the next few months, I'm planning to replace the daytime feedings with cow's milk. I'm not in a big hurry. She is very efficient and gets right down to business, so breastfeeding is very easy and it doesn't make sense to cut back now. She nurses in the morning, after each nap, and before bed. She eats a good lunch and dinner and sometimes eats breakfast. She still goes down for her morning nap 1.5-2 hours after waking up, so I haven't really pushed the breakfast. When she does eat breakfast, she'll have Cheerios or a banana. For lunch and dinner, she gets a wide variety of foods. If I am eating at the same time, she will have some of my meal. I try to make sure she gets some vegetables, fruits, and protein (meat, cheese, beans, etc) every day.

She is doing much better at indicating her needs during a meal. She will either say or sign "more", will point to her drink when she is thirsty, and will sometimes hold both arms up for "all done" when she is finished eating.

Sleeping:
She still sleeps about 15 hours total between both 1.5-hour naps and about 12 hours at night. Every now and then she will wake up hungry in the middle of the night (I can think of about 3-4 times during the month of January). She understands the words "sleep" and "nap" and if I carry her into her room at naptime or bedtime and mention them, she will put her head on my shoulder and thumb in her mouth. She very rarely makes a fuss.

Playtime:
Most of her wake time consists of walking from room to room around the house. She is walking very well and moved out of the Crawlers class at church last week. She is learning how to stand herself up without pulling up on anything. She will squat down to pick up a small object from the ground and then stand right back up. She isn't interested in many toys right now because she is so busy walking. She usually stops to check out her Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Learning Home (she loves playing with this with someone else, and I can see her enjoying this toy for years), her Leapfrog Fridge Farm, Boss, and her books. She likes to carry small things with her while she walks. Her favorite books are Goodnight Moon, anything by Sandra Boynton or Eric Carle, and Baby Einstein.

Vocabulary:
Here is a list of words that she says regularly and uses correctly: Mama, Dada, Boss, bath, book, ball, hi, byebye, tree, bell, nana (banana), more

She understands SO much. It is amazing how much she has changed in the last few months. In addition to her words, she can identify the fan, lights, crib, glider, diaper, cracker, foods that she normally eats, water bottle, drink (her cup), phone, camera, rocking chair, magnets, music (the buttons that play music), wagon, walker, baby doll, wind chimes, high chair, stacking cups, bow, nose, mouth, head, necklace, door, window, buttons, milk, and many more. When asked, she points to many familiar things that she sees in her books. "Where's ______?" is a common game that we play when she is throwing a tantrum while getting her diaper changed, etc.

She is having a lot of fun trying to mimic us. When she was first starting to walk all around the house, Mike and I followed her on the tile to make sure she didn't trip on anything. We would kick things out of the way with our feet. Well, she started doing the same thing. We have to get it on video. She goes out of her way to kick something out of her way. It is so cute!

She responds to a lot of commands given without gestures, for example "Can you rock Mommy?" (she pushes me in the glider), "Can you put your baby doll in the wagon?", "Can you clap?", "Can you go get a book?", "Can you pet Daddy/Boss/Mommy?" (she pats us with her hand), "Can you turn the page?", "Can Mommy have that?" (if she is holding something I don't want her to play with... this works sometimes, hehe) etc.

Car Toys:
Her favorite car toy is her Little Tikes phone. My mom bought the pink one for her at Target last summer. She loves to open and close it and press the buttons. If she fights going into her car seat, I pretend to talk on the phone to John, who then wants to talk to his girlfriend. It works every time. She also likes to squeak Sophie the Giraffe and shake her Haba toys. She is generally a very good traveler once she gets in her car seat. I am planning to keep her rear-facing until she is too squished or doesn't ride happily in the car.

We love our sweet girl and look forward to many, many more years of fun! Stay tuned for pictures from our January Christmas and family playtime at home. We are excited to celebrate with family and a few friends at her birthday party tomorrow!