Twelve Months on July 31, 2018
Just as other mamas had foretold, this lady’s first birthday was a huge milestone in more ways than one. Obviously it was a celebration of a whole year of her life and parenthood for me and Will, as well as a lovely time to celebrate the blessing she is and to remember that sweet day in the hospital when we were first introduced. But more that those cultural things we attach to a date on a calendar, July 31st marked a seismic shift in our house from infancy to toddlerdom. She walked across the room on August 11th, and we have a had a very different kid ever since. Now she runs around and goes down the slide (on her own!) at the park, follows directions, communicates clearly with us, dances, repeats words, and eats with a fork and spoon. It was like around her birthday the speed of learning accelerated by about 10 times what it was before! This has been a fun (albeit sudden) transition, but sometimes I do miss my little baby.
We didn’t have professional one-year portraits taken, but I did take no less than 215 photos on the blessed day itself, including a second cake smash for good measure. We had a party on the Saturday prior, but on her birthday itself, we went to a doctor’s appointment (and happened to be at the hospital at 11:17, exactly when she was born!), went out to a special birthday brunch at Le Pain Quotidien, and then went about our day as usual and went to VBS that night. It was a sweet time, and I felt like throwing the party and taking tons of photos helped me have closure that the first year was over.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. This is her 12 month update, so here’s what happened in July.
Milestones
Her two front teeth appeared. The right top tooth appeared on July 9th, and then the second followed shortly thereafter on July 24th. She looks so much older with two front teeth!
She started attempting to take a few steps with help. She started standing unassisted at the beginning of May, so it was a long time between standing and walking, but in July she started taking some steps with help and then one or two on her own before falling. I didn’t count any of this as actual walking until the great living room walk of August 11th, but there were precursors. When her grandparents were here for her birthday party at the end of July she could take about two steps.
Playtime became more independent and purposeful. In July she developed the all-important skill of being able to drop blocks into a bin or bucket when asked to clean up! She really started enjoying her playroom more, which will be especially useful this winter. She loves to drop her long narrow blocks into an empty milk jug and do shape sorting toys, and she started playing more independently. On July 21st we went to lunch at a some friends’ house, and she played with the toddlers for about an hour, and we didn’t even hear from her! Other favorite toys include her talking parrot that records her voice and “repeats” back what she says. She started delighting in squealing at it this month. 🙂
Other favorite pastimes include getting into and out of her little armchair and spinning around in circles on her bottom in July. This girl is so full of energy and fun. She also loved to smile really big and stick her tongue out at us in July.
She started feeding herself with a spoon. This was her new favorite thing in July, to the point that she won’t eat unless she has a spoon and if she sees you with one she will scream until you give her one. I don’t know how many babies eat their birthday smash cake with a spoon, but mine did!
She loved to play with Pippa this month. Favorite things include feeding Pippa and giving toys to her and then laughing when Pippa takes them from her.
Events and Outings
We really didn’t have a ton of events in July besides this one’s birthday party! Her birthday party theme was “A Puppies and Pineapples Pool Party,” and we had lots of friends and family over on July 28th to swim and eat burgers and hot dogs. All five of her grandparents were here, as well as her Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Andrew, my Aunt Angie and Uncle Paul, and cousins Alden and John. It was so much fun!
We had swim lessons at our house every day! We did Infant Swimming Resource lessons with an instructor who came to our house (thank God, because the lessons are every day, Monday-Friday for six weeks). We had good weeks and bad weeks (particularly when she was teething), but she was learning to float on her back on her own in July, and we also enjoyed going to our neighborhood pool club many afternoons. She was my little fishy!
James and Taylor got engaged! We couldn’t be happier for my cousin and his looooongtime girlfriend Taylor, who got engaged on the 4th of July!
We had neighborhood friends over for a backyard barbeque for the 4th of July. We all have kids, so we didn’t make it to fireworks, but we sure had a fun dinner by the pool!
A funny one: on July 16th she woke up screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night, which never happens. We went into her room, and she had TAKEN OFF HER DIAPER and of course soaked through her sleep sack and all her sheets. We have no idea why she decided to do that, but it hasn’t happened before or since!
We had a sweet day on her actual birthday, a simple Tuesday! I have not known joy in my life like I do now that every day is full of only things we love to do, and her birthday was a simple celebration of that. I wrote about this a bit above, but here is what we did on July 31st for posterity. I took some photos with her “ONE” balloons leftover from her party when she first woke up on my cell phone. Then she took her morning nap, and we went to Virginia Hospital Center for my doctor’s appointment, and celebrated that we were on the same floor of the hospital where she was born at the exact time, 11:17AM! Then we did some Lilly shopping in Clarendon and went to lunch at our favorite, Le Pain Quotidien, where I let her have a waffle with strawberries and powdered sugar and got all emotional about how big my bestie was. Then we went home for the afternoon nap, followed by this photo shoot, and then her swim lesson and a mad rush to get to Vacation Bible School, which we were all helping with! We took the cake leftover from her Saturday party to share, and the middle school kids were THRILLED. 🙂
We sure loved our first twelve months with this one and are just enjoying each month and all the changes and fun they bring. 🙂 Here are more of the 215 photos I took on July 31st!
You can see all her monthly updates here.
