In Your SELF Interest: 12 Months (plus a bit)

Getting pictures of a 12 month old is basically impossible.

She was a little kinder with the floor/bloomer pic.

When all else fails, there is the swing. (Started the month with just 2 teeth and ended with 4!)

We were able to celebrate her birthday along with my dad's the weekend before her actual birthday, and then celebrated her birthday the day of with Sharon and Amelia which felt really special since it was also the day that they finally met.

By the end, she was definitely more interested in the hat than the cake.

Smash cake number 2:

And the after party:

She always has her tongue out.

We got her this little toy that converts in to a stand push toy to help her walk.

She was gifted some fun things from family members: a set of musical instruments, a baby piano, a ball, and some adorable ladybug clothing.

Oooooh sleep. She had started sleeping through the night and we got to enjoy it for about a week before she started standing up on her own and in her crib, and then she got sick with a bad fever for a few days, and then she had teeth popping up, then we had family in town and rooms were switched up a bit and then our cross country move...all that to say, she wakes once or twice a night most nights. I'm excited to settle in to our new place and hopefully work on getting back to sleeping through the night because it really was AMAZING.

We had two straight days where Emery had a high fever. Darin called me as I was getting off work on the second day to say that he was on the way to the clinic because her fever was almost up to 104. The doctor checked her out and said that it seemed to be a virus of some sort (not Covid as they checked for that. Poor girl has had move Covid tests than I have) and to bring her back if the fever didn't go down in a day. Thankfully, the fever did subside and she started to have a bit more energy. It just feels so scary to have a sick baby! They can't explain what they are feeling and you just don't know what it is! While it was really hard to see her so lethargic, it was also really sweet to have pretty much two days of straight cuddles with her (gave me a good excuse to take a break from packing and sit down!) She's always on the move these days, so it was crazy to have her sit on our laps so calm and then to just fall asleep on and off all throughout the day. Poor girl.

We had some rough nights with her waking up a lot, she seemed to only want to sleep if we were holding her, so we took turns on the couch with her.

It seemed like she started standing over night. All of sudden she could push herself up to standing and was so steady.

At this point, she will take a step or two at a time, but not much more. She took 4 steps towards Ibu at church the Sunday before we moved and took 10 itty bitty baby steps in the kitchen just a few days ago. I'm sure she'll take off one of these days, but she is taking her sweet time getting there.

She gets into e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Such a hard age, as I find myself throwing stuff down to her to entertain her so that I can get something done, but then spend so much of my day cleaning up after her.

We made the switch to whole milk right around her birthday. Every couple of days dropping a nursing session and replacing it with milk instead. At this point, the only time I am nursing her is in the middle of the night during this transition we are in. Hopeful to drop that once we are settled in our new home and things are a little less crazy.

I'm really really grateful that I've been able to nurse her this past year and for all the tender moments we have shared together, with that said, it has also been really nice to have a little more freedom and not worry about her needing to nurse at certain time (like first thing in the morning! :)

She wore shoes for the first time this month. (While visiting Lake Erie on our drive to UT).

We moved her into a bigger car seat.

She has started mimicking certain things we do. One of which is patting our heads. Shae has always patted her on the head saying, "pat pat pat." Now he will do it to her and she will do it right back to him. It's insanely adorable.