12 Months!

My little photo shoots are increasingly more complicated these days. It's so hard to get good pictures of babies who just do not want to sit still! So this time I divided and conquered and did Amelia's on one day and then did Eleanor's the next day. Well I tired to do hers at the same time but I only got one good picture. Warning: this post got really long. Not sorry about that. ;)

Amelia Claire transformed into a toddler on her first birthday. She hardly ever crawls, she's great at throwing fits, she learned how to chuck toys across the room, and she is in constant motion. She's doing so many fun things and is so interactive with us and with Eleanor. The way she interacts with her toys is very toddler like. We've moved beyond just banging stuff around (though that does happen) to putting things inside other things, stacking things, and knocking things over.

We are in the thick of teething. Amelia has two bottom teeth and one top tooth, but basically all of her top teeth are RIGHT there almost through. We had a rough week of not sleeping while the teeth were ridging up a lot. I hope they pop through with no big deal because we do not want more weeks of bad sleep. After her bad week or two she's been sleeping through the night for the most part. She occasionally gets up once. Unfortunately, she also wants to be up for the day at 5 and sometimes 4:30. It's unfortunate because Brad wants to get up to do school work at 4:30 am before work (ick) but he's been thwarted more often than not. So that sucks a lot for him, but I'm glad he takes that one for the team and at least lets me sleep until 6 when he has to leave. Edited: this post literally took me a week to put together. I typed this part about sleep on Tuesday night. Ever since then we have had really bad sleep. Rule 1: never celebrate any sleep victories. ;)

We had our 12 month check up and all is well. Amelia's growth chart is amazing. She's in the sixty something percentile for weight and is basically the same height as Eleanor now. I can't remember the exact percentiles right this second, but the Ped is very pleased with where she's at. She is also not anemic nor has she been exposed to lead, according to the blood work we did. (Side note: People have told me this is weird, but I thought at the 12 month appointment all Peds send kids to the lab to do a CBC and lead test? Did everyone else do this?).  Probably the biggest thing is that we got the OK to switch to whole milk and get off of formula. Yay! Milk is much cheaper than formula. ;) We are slowly switching over, but I'm almost out of formula so it will be soon that we put the cans of formula behind us for good! 

Eleanor Jane is taking steps independently, but isn't walking full time quite yet. Her favorite game to play is peek-a-boo followed by knock down the block tower. She spends a lot of time putting rings on the stacking toy, throwing things, and putting other things inside bigger things.

Eleanor has developed a ton of expressions. She scrunches up her face and makes a little piggy noise sometimes and it's so cute. She smiles a lot and she laughs a lot (usually at Amelia). I give Eleanor a cup of water with meals and sometimes in between but I don't worry about giving her whole milk. She still nurses a lot so I don't think it's necessary at this point. Eleanor wasn't feeling well last week so she didn't eat a whole lot, but since her appetite has returned she eats a lot of things I didn't expect her too. I made some cheesy quinoa last night and she tore into hers like it was the most awesome thing. I don't mind. Quinoa isn't a bad thing for her to like!

The Ped was also pleased with Eleanor's growth at her 12 month check. She's in the fifty something percentile for weight and her growth curve is trucking right along where it should be. We did have to go back last week because Eleanor was having some tummy troubles, but after some probiotics everything is back to normal again.

I just liked this picture. It makes me laugh.

It's been so fun watching them over the last couple weeks go from babies to toddlers. Just the way they play is so different from what they were doing a month ago. Everyone said they would start going in opposite directions, but I haven't found that to be the case. They go everywhere together. They make each other crack up in ways no one else can. They reach out to hold each other's hands at lunch time. They get into things together. It's a very special bond I get to see them form.

Since this is getting very long, here's just a quick blurb about their birthday. We didn't do much, but we did give them cupcakes at community group to celebrate. Amelia ate some of the cake part but wasn't a big fan of the frosting. Eleanor just was not a big fan in general. I'm actually ok with that though. Cake isn't something they need to love. ;) One of the traditions we have started at gift giving occasions (Christmas and Birthdays) is to follow this rule in selecting presents: something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. As they get older we probably will do less and less combined gifts but this year we got them a baby einstein music table (what they want) as their big gift. Amelia got "Iggy Peck Architect" as her book and Eleanor got "Rosie Revere, Engineer" as hers. Instead of a card Brad and I both wrote a note in the cover of their books. Each girl got a pair of shoes and a sippy cup (what they wear and what they need). Unfortunately, the style of the sippy cup isn't one they drink from but hey. Whatevs. haha.