Dear Baby K, you are ONE year old!!! I didn’t even try getting the letterboard out, because I knew you wouldn’t stay still. Letterboard days are over, for sure!
You can walk on your own, although you fall sometimes, you spend most of your day walking around exploring. Within the last few days, you mastered squatting down to pick something up and then standing again. You’re a total pro!
Of course, you always want to go to the “forbidden” areas of the house any chance you get. Dog kennel, gym, and Mommy’s office are your favorite places to “make a break too, whenever possible.”
You can still say “itty” for kitty, but no new words yet. We’re working on keeping your binky’s only in the crib because I noticed you talk a ton more if you don’t have a binky. After your nap, I ask you, “where does your baby go?” and you throw the binky in the crib. Then, I run out of the room with you before you realize what you’ve done and want it back!
You are fully weaned off nursing. Mommy weaned you down one feeding a week until right before her trip, then we stopped nursing. Nursing wasn’t easy for either of us, but we made it one day shy of a full year.
You were starting to skip morning nursing sessions, but our last nursing session is a memory I’ll hold onto forever. It was one of the rare times you were really happy to nurse and very cuddly. Since then, you haven’t pulled at my shirt or acted as you cared about it in the slightest, so I think it’s the best thing all around that we are done.
Mommy is enjoying all things dairy and loving it! Speaking of that, your doctor wants you to try dairy and see how it goes. I’m hoping it goes well but not holding to high expectations given your violent reaction to the first formula you tried with dairy in it. Right now, you are still doing dairy alternative products and elemental formula.
At your Doctor’s appointment (one week after your first birthday), you were 30 inches long and weighed 21lbs and 8 ounces. After a slow start, you’ve gotten to be a big boy!
Your Grandma made you a dairy-free birthday cake that you did not care for. You kept doing the wiggles when you tasted the frosting.
We did get you to eat some of the cake, though!
Thoughts On Motherhood One Year In
When I was pregnant, I wanted so badly to get you into this world where I could “protect you.” I was scared of losing you before I got a chance to meet you. But now, one year into motherhood, I know that being a mother does not come with any guarantees, and I can not protect you from everything. I’m constantly filled with joy and fear, watching you experience this world around you for the first time.
Being a mother, being YOUR mother, has required more planning, grace, patience, perseverance, and flexibility, then I could ever imagine. It’s also brought more joy and frustration to my day then I could ever imagine.
I expected frustration. What I didn’t realize were the opportunities you’ve given me for joy. The chance to pause my day and smile at something new you’re doing, or a memory of something you’ve done. When they say children change your world, I now understand what people mean.
I may have given you the gift of “life.” But it’s you who made my life worth living.
Thank you for every moment this past year, the hard and the joyful, you’ve changed my world forever.
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