This is it--the last monthly baby post I'll ever do!! (cue the hallelujah chorus...and the sobbing tears!) The first year of any baby is always the hardest for me, so to be done with Hallie's first year and have it behind us is somewhat exhilarating--we made it through the last first year!!! But then the thought of not having a newborn ever again also makes me sad. (Not trying to jinx us, because we thought we were going to be done with Hudson, haha, but now we're REALLY sure that we're ready to be done!) ;)
It was a rough year--with adjusting to having five kids (especially having Hudson & Hallie be closer together than any of our other kids have been)...and then adding in all the covid craziness with online school for the big boys and being stuck at home all the time, etc. It was a hard year, but it was also a good year. Being stuck at home meant a slower schedule, which meant more time to adjust to & enjoy having a new baby. And having Curt working from home for the past year has allowed him to be more involved in the day-to-day aspects of Hallie's first year than he was able to do with any of the other kids. I feel like I was able to enjoy and soak up and appreciate every stage of Hallie's first year as well as I possibly could have, so even though it's sad to be moving on, I feel good about it, and I think I'm ready. Plus, Hallie is just getting more and more fun the older she gets, and I love watching how she is fitting into our family.
Anyway, now on to formalities.
Here is Hallie at 12 months:
Compared to 11 months:
She surprised us and gained more than a pound in the last month, and shot up a ton in her growth chart percentages at her one year appointment. Here were the official stats:
Weight: 16 lbs 13 oz (13%!!!)
Height: 29.5 inches (78%!!)
Head circumference: 44.25 (39%)
She officially passed up how much Hudson weighed at her age (she's always been smaller than he was, but still close). He weighed 16 lbs 12.5 oz at one year--so she has him beat by 1/2 ounce now! ;) And I can't believe how high her percentages are...considering how small she still is haha!
Waiting for the dr at her appt:
BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE LAST MONTH:
- Started drinking cow's milk
- Done with nursing...!
- First word: uh-oh!
She LOVES splashing in the bath:
EATING:
- She's been caring less and less about nursing the last few weeks, and I was pretty much forcing her to keep with it until she was officially a year and was good with cow's milk. Thankfully, she took to cow's milk really well (I introduced it to her a few days before her birthday), and at the time of her birthday, she was down to nursing before she went to sleep and first thing when she woke up. (I dropped her middle-of-the-day nursing about a week before her birthday--she just wouldn't sit still long enough to get anything out) And then as of Feb 1st, she is completely done nursing. It's definitely bittersweet to end that chapter--it's crazy to think I've spent five years of my life nursing our babies! And as nice as it is to be done...I already miss the bond it brought. :( But I'm so grateful I was able to do it! And I'm pretty excited to not have to worry about wearing nursing-friendly clothes ever again. :)
- She's getting more picky with what she eats--she still tries and eats everything I give her, but she definitely has favorites that she'll gobble up, and then things she doesn't really care for after taking a few bites. And she wants to eat everything we're eating and gets offended when if we don't/can't give her something, haha.
- Favorites are: oatmeal, toast & jam, scrambled eggs, any form of cheese, bananas, blueberries, canned peaches, mac & cheese, any kind of meat but especially grilled chicken, rice, steamed broccoli, canned green beans, nutrigrain bars, and pirates booty.
- She's starting to show interest in using a spoon on her own, but she hasn't quite figured out how to manipulate it yet, and then she just gives up after a little bit and uses her hands again, haha.
SLEEPING:
- Hasn't changed much in the sleeping department--still takes naps at 9:00 and 1:00/1:30ish, and usually sleeps for 1-1.5 hours for her morning nap, and about 2 hours for her afternoon nap.
- She still wakes up in the 6:00 hour quite often, and just lays happily in her bed sucking her blanket, until she starts making noise at about 7:00 (though the last few mornings she hasn't woken up at all until 7:00!)
- I stopped swaddling her and started just giving her blanket to her to hold, and she's done well with that transition.
- She still soothes herself by sucking on her blanket...and I'm not sure how we're going to wean her off that, but it's so cute and funny to watch her find her blanket in her sleep and jam as much of it in her mouth as she can! (I just hope it's not causing major orthodontic problems...!)
- We also got her real bedroom set up and moved her into a full-sized crib (instead of her mini crib in her closet room) a few days after her birthday, and she's done great with it! (pictures of that to come)
In her new big girl crib!!
Sweet girl, just happy to have her blanket:
MOBILITY:
- She has gotten really fast at crawling, but it's still more of an army crawl (or it reminds me of a lion creeping through the grass, getting ready to pounce on its prey, haha!)
- She loves to go around and find the tiniest pieces of trash, leaves, dog food (face palm), etc, and jam it in her mouth as fast as she can (and she loves it and laughs when we're running to try to stop her and she gets it into her mouth before we get there, haha)
- She hasn't shown too much interest in the stairs yet, so we haven't put up gates yet, but she did start to fall down one stair one time, but thankfully her shoulders caught her and kept her from falling down any more before I was able to get to her
- She pulls onto her knees quite often, and has pulled onto her feet a few times, but other than that she hasn't shown any interest in walking. But I'm trying to work on it with her!
- In the last little bit she's started doing this downward dog-type yoga pose when she's going from her stomach to sitting, and it's pretty funny to see
- She's super flexible and can do full-on splits as she goes back and forth from crawling to sitting
- She's learned she can follow me from room to room, and it's so fun to watch her come around the corner and smile when she sees me
- She doesn't really get into too many things yet; at this point the boys were all emptying cupboards and making huge messes all the time...so it gives me hope that maybe she won't be as hard in that department. ;)
TALKING:
- Her first official word was "uh-oh"--when things fall or drop; she used to just mouth the words, and then she would say just one syllable or the other, haha, but now she's starting to actually say the full word :)
- In the last few days she's also started saying "hi"
- She occasionally says mama & dada, but I don't think she associates them with us, and she doesn't say them very consistently
- She's been starting to try to sign (& say?) "more" when she's eating, and it's so cute
OTHER:
- She's started "dancing" when she hears music, and it's so adorable
- Has 6 teeth total--4 on top and 2 on bottom
- I've finally started reading stories to her before naps & bedtime, and she LOVES it! She smiles & laughs at all the pictures (especially the animal sounds), and she loves to turn the pages.
- She still appears to favor her left hand...which would mean that 4 out of our 5 kids are left-handed!!! (so crazy!!)
- She has this adorable, sweet, high-pitched voice that she uses when she is holding/playing with/eating her bear or little doll--it makes me wonder if her little nurturing side is coming out already? So, so cute!
- She love, love, loves paper--she loves to rip it and eat it, and she knows she's not supposed to, so she does it as fast as she can before we can get over to take it away from her, hahaha
- The best word we can think of to describe her personality is "spunky": she's not quite mischievous, but she knows when she's not supposed to do something, and she loves to do it anyway to get a rise out of us, haha. She has a funny little sense of humor, and she's starting to have opinions about things and gets upset if we take something away from her or take her away from somewhere she wants to be. She LOVES her brothers and gets the biggest grin when she sees them or hears them. And she's starting to give these open-mouthed kisses that are the sweetest. Oh how we love this little girl!!
She loves her dad SO much--she get's so excited to see him, and gives him the biggest, cheesiest smiles when he walks in the room. It just melts my heart seeing them together.
Every day I love her more, and I just can't get enough of her!! I feel like she's fitting into our family more and more every day, and I'm so, so grateful to have her. Oh Hallie--we love you SO, SO much!!! I'm ready to pause time here and keep her this small and adorable forever!
And just as a recap, here are all of her monthly posts together. So crazy how much she's changed...!
We love you Hallie!!
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