1 year old!

Marie turned one year old on Monday. I'm still a bit in disbelief. This year has flown by!

Current weight: 20 lbs, 9 oz (~65th percentile)
Current height: 28 inches (~15th percentile)
Current head circumference: 45.3 cm (~50th percentile)

Marie has only gained 5 ounces and 1 inch since her 9 month appointment, so her growing has definitely slowed down.

Milestones:
-She celebrated her first birthday! On Monday we gave her a birthday chocolate chip cookie and yesterday at her family party she had her first cupcake. She destroyed them both.
-She drank whole milk for the first time this week. No more pumping at work for me! I've never felt so free!
-Marie had two more bottom teeth cut through in the last week or so. So now she has three bottom teeth and no top teeth.
-We've let her play in the grass at the park more often and she may or may not have attempted to eat a leaf. Or several leaves.
-She has finally started walking while holding onto one of our hands and has taken a step or two on her own. Marie is pretty balanced when standing.
-Marie has figured out how to open the bathroom door (it opens inward, so all she has to do is push on it), which means the toilet is no longer safe. On that same vein, she's discovered toilet paper. We're in trouble!

Current likes:
-Her favorite foods include pasta, yogurt, carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas, applesauce, turkey, ham, oatmeal, and bread.
-Marie likes being outside and swinging at the park.
-Marie has taken a much greater interest in books this month. This may be in part because they're more accessible now -- we acquired a basket to put all her books in, so she's able to reach them better than when they were on the bookcase. So she frequently pulls all her books out and turns the pages as she looks at them.
-She likes exploring the apartment, including finding minuscule crumbs and eating them off the floor, whether they're actually food items or not.
-Marie likes grabbing our hands and making us clap. She still won't clap herself. Silly girl.
-She likes getting tossed in the air.
-In addition to her regular toys, Marie has taken a shining to an empty wipes container. She likes to shake it and hug it like it's her one true friend.
-Marie likes chewing on the ends of our belts. Maybe it feels good on her gums?

Current dislikes:
-She hasn't been a fan of tart or acidic foods, like strawberries, clementines, tuna salad (with pickle relish -- she seemed to like plain tuna fine), and a sweet-and-sour type chicken dish.
-She's a little bit of a mama's girl, and when other people hold her she looks a little uncertain and tends to hold her arms out to me. But let the record show she doesn't cry when this happens! She really is the best baby.

Other odds and ends:
-Marie has started imitating us more and has gotten much more interactive with playing games. She was copying me playing Peek-a-Boo by covering her head with a blanket one day. We also took turns balancing cups on our heads.
-I've started letting her spoon-feed herself thick oatmeal (so it doesn't fall off the spoon when she inevitably turns the spoon upside down). I load up the spoon and hand it to her, and she hands it back to me when she's finished with it and wants more.
-Marie might have a patch of eczema on her knee. It doesn't seem to bother her too much, but it's still a bit sad.
-Now that I've finished a year of updates for Marie, I may be making this blog private again in the next few months. While there aren't any immediate plans for baby #2, when the time comes it'll give me a chance to document that process before we're ready to announce anything.

Sometimes Marie wakes up for a not-quite-midnight snack and gets a fit of the giggles.

11 months

Milestones:
-Marie finally got her first tooth! It showed up right around Valentine's Day, so at ten-and-a-half months. She may be working on one or two other ones, but it's a little hard to tell for sure at this point.

Not the most flattering picture, but it's the only one where you can kind of see her tooth.

-She's getting better at standing on her own, and has stood for maybe 30 seconds as her personal record.
-Marie colored for the first time. If by "colored" you mean "drew on a Magna-Doodle with some guidance from her darling mother."

Her first masterpiece.

-We've taken Marie to the library plenty of times, but she's always been in the stroller and the trips have been quick ones to pick up items that were on hold for us. This month, I actually carried her to the library and let her crawl around the cubes and play with the books for 30 minutes or so. It was a nice change of pace.

Current likes:
-Marie loves taking my lunch sack out of my old lady teacher crate, as well as pulling other items out of it and dropping things in.

The old lady teacher crate.

-Her favorite toys right now are diapers. She'll pull them all out of the bag and carry and wave them around. Fortunately, she generally only plays with clean ones, but if we leave a used one on the ground, she'll make a break for it.

I think we counted seven diapers on the ground that she was playing with.

-She continues to enjoy playing with my name tag. This led to a semi-panicked morning when I couldn't find it when I was ready to leave for work one day. (It was under the couch cushions.)
-Marie likes being bounced and going outside.
-She loves to eat still! Favorites include carrots, bananas, pears, peaches, and bread.

Current dislikes:
-For a period of time this month, Marie developed a fear of being tossed in the air. But only when Jacob was standing up -- if he tossed her from a seated position, she was fine. She's seemed to gotten over this, though, and Jacob can toss her without her crying now.

Daddy-daughter bonding.

-She doesn't really like her jumper anymore, which is unfortunate. We'll put her in there if I'm making dinner or we're trying to clean the apartment, and she isn't a fan.
-On a similar note, she gets fairly clingy after I get home from work, and she doesn't like it when I put her on the ground if I'm trying to make dinner.

Who wants to be productive when you have a baby to play with instead?

Other odds and ends:
-Marie still doesn't know how to clap. I'll try playing pat-a-cake with her, but when I try to bring her hands together she'll shake me off and then grab my hands so I clap instead. She does this every time. It's pretty funny.
-Her sleeping has gotten a little weird this month. For a while we were putting her to bed between 6:00 and 7:00 and she would sleep for a couple hours, then wake up and not want to go to bed for at least another hour or two. One night she woke up multiple times while we were still awake, and I think it might've been because she was cold. So we've started putting her in a sleep sack on top of her pajamas again. Then yesterday we gave her a third mini-nap around 5 and then she went to bed around 7:30 and slept through the night.  Fingers crossed her sleeping gets back on track!
-I'm so over pumping. I've stopped pumping in the mornings if she's woken up to eat, and I've decided that when she turns a year old, I'm going to stop pumping altogether. I'll still nurse her when I'm home, but she can have whole milk while I'm at work. That's the plan, at least.
-For the most part, we've been limiting the pacifier to naps and bedtime for the last couple months. Sometimes when I get her out of the crib, she'll spit out the pacifier because she knows she's not supposed to have it when she's awake. Of course, this does not stop her from seeking it out if she sees it in the diaper bag.
-I'm sure this is entirely coincidental, but Jacob and I both clearly heard her say "yum" during dinner one night. It made us laugh. She says "mama" and "dada" but I'm not convinced she means us when she says it.
-Marie has really taken to sticking her fingers in our mouths. If her interest in prodding teeth and tongues continues, I'm sure she'll have a bright future as a dentist one day.

She pushed this toy into the bathroom and was quite pleased with herself.

She'll shove the entire foot of this ant into her mouth and carry it around like a chew toy. Which I guess it is, if she's teething.

10 months

Milestones:
-Marie slept for 12 and a half hours straight for the first time last night! It was bittersweet because I wasn't even able to see her (aside from checking to make sure she was still breathing) before I left for work. But sleeping through the night was awesome, especially since the day or two before she woke up at 1:30 and it took me over an hour and a half to fall asleep again after feeding her. We'll see if this is a repeat occurrence or just a one time thing.
-Marie is able to cruise along furniture and pulls herself up on everything. Which leads to the following milestones . . .
-She received her first nosebleed after face planting on a wood floor and her first goose egg after slipping and hitting her head on the edge of our dresser.
-Marie has stood on her own for a second or two at a time, but not very frequently.
-She rejected her first food this month. Apparently she isn't such a fan of steamed broccoli (though she did eat it earlier when it was in broccoli-cheese soup).
-Marie can drink from her sippy cup while she's holding it and feed herself pieces of food pretty proficiently if they aren't slippery.
-She's discovered our DVD collection and has pulled out a couple. We've been able to stop her before she causes too much destruction, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
-Marie followed me into the bathroom for the first time this month. She also follows us into the kitchen.

Current Likes:
-Minestrone soup, carrots, peaches, pears, bananas, bread, strawberries, raspberries, and pretty much any other food besides the dreaded broccoli.
-Playing with her toys, especially her maracas and keys.
-Picking up minuscule crumbs off the floor and trying to eat them. We need to be more vigilant about vacuuming.
-Playing with buttons on clothes.
-Chewing and sucking on tags.

Current Dislikes:
-She still dislikes getting her nose, face, and hands wiped.
-Broccoli (Heather says she doesn't blame her, because "broccoli is nasty".)

Other odds and ends:
-She pretty consistently goes to bed at 7 now and wakes up for the day between 7:30 and 8:30. Lately, she's been going down for the night really well, but naps can be hit or miss. We think she may be starting to drop her second nap (too soon!), which is slightly unfortunate, but we really can't complain about the sleeping department.
-Still no teeth!
-She's stopped saying "mama" as frequently, and now says "yayayaya," "gaga," "hm hm" and my personal favorites, "ha ha" and "ho ho." Our little Santa Claus.
-One night when Marie's two-year-old cousin, Kayla, was over, we measured both of their thighs to compare. Marie's thighs were an inch and a half greater in circumference. We love our little chunk!
-Marie is really good about entertaining herself, and doesn't really demand too much attention. For the first 30 minutes or so after I get home from work, though, she likes me to be close by and hold her. I certainly don't mind!

A little father-daughter bonding time.

Love her eyes!

Cousins.

She doesn't mind the bib so much when it isn't around her neck.

We still haven't put any batteries in this toy, but she enjoys it just the same.

Contrary to what this might indicate, we have not been giving her any booze.