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. 

She now has 4.5 teeth. 4 on the bottom and .5 on the top. 

 

Emery brings so much joy to our family. We are all absolutely smitten with her and still can't believe that she is one!

11 Months

 

Our Emery girl is getting so big! Here she is 6 months ago and now. I was somehow able to snap that picture quick with the lotion tube distraction before she flipped herself and starting hustling. She doesn't stay still for long these days! 

  

After her 9 month appointment where she didn't have much weight gain and dropped from the 70th%ile to the 25th%ile, the doctor asked us to come back in for a weight check after a month. We came to the conclusion that someone weighed her incorrectly at the 9 month appointment because she was at the ER a week after that appointment weighing 20 lbs (they had weighed her at 17.5 at the 9 month appointment), and then for the weight check appointment she was almost 21 pounds. So there was really nothing to worry about it with the decrease in weight gain, thankfully. 

She started out the month pulling herself up to her knees.

Which quickly turned in to the full stand up.

She doesn't cruise between places too much yet, but often times squats herself up and down, up and down before ultimately deciding to stay up, or go back down. 

She has also mastered this little balance position and has been doing this a lot in the past week. 

She gets in to everything. Which is good and bad. Leaves lots of messes to be picked up, but finding new things to explore is the only thing that entertains her for very long, making it possible for me to quickly do the dishes, laundry, or throw a grocery list together. We're in that stage where it feels like most of the day is spent tidying up her messes, while at the same time, throwing different things down to her to play with so that I can brush my teeth. 

I love seeing her face when I open a cupboard or drawer that she hasn't discovered yet. Her eyes light up and she immediately crawls over. I imagine her brain saying, "Woah! What's in THERE?"

Bath time has been interested lately as she often times just stands herself up out of the water on the edge of the tub, and a few times now has gone to sit back down and bumps her head right on the faucet which obviously doesn't make her too happy.

Still only has those 2 teeth. 

Celebrity bath treatment. 

Most meals end with her looking like this. She just can't help but play with her hair while she eats.

She still loves eggs, and has them just about every day for breakfast. It's crazy to think that when Shae was a baby we were directed to not give him eggs until he was one. She has eaten SO MANY eggs in her lifetime and it really is such a great baby food. She also really enjoyed the Indian Saag (spinach curry) with Paneer (Indian cheese) we had one evening and gobbled it right up, along with the leftovers the next day. 

She follows these guys around all day and is so excited when they are home from school. It's so fun to see how excited the big kids get to play with her (but also very annoying when they start fighting over who was playing with Emery first). 

We are pretty sure her brain was booming this month because of all the things she was learning to do, and it manifested itself as well in the fact that she had a harder time going down for naps. I rarely have to nurse her to get her to sleep, but that was the only way to get her to nap some days this past month. Enjoying those sweet baby snuggles as I know they are fleeting...

Pulling herself up to standing has been a big milestone for her. She has also added in some new sounds. We here lots of "blah lah." I've been so excited to here some new consonants sound babbling considering up to this point, she would mostly just growl! 

We tried a few nights of "cry it out" a month back as she was still waking a couple of times, and it sort of worked. She started sleeping through the night, but then had the hardest time going down at night for a few days and just cried and cried which was really unusual for her (but like I said, she was doing that during naps too so I think there was more going on), and she also started to wake at 6:15 a.m. on the dot every single day. 

Then Daylights Savings happened and all her little milestones and she started waking around 5 a.m., I started nursing her to get her back to sleep again hoping it would only last a couple days, but it lasted a couple of weeks and I just didn't want that night/early morning feeding to keep going (so ready to be done with the exhaustion of consistent night wakings), so we did another round of "cry it out" this week and she is now sleeping through the night, going down between 7-8 at night (depending on her last nap of the day) and waking around 7 each day and it is GLORIOUS. 

I know people have strong feelings about "cry it out" sleep training, but I honestly don't know how to do it any other way. But also, waited this long because it really is hard to hear your baby cry for a good hour or longer for a couple of nights. Thankfully, both rounds with her and our other two looked like a lot of crying the first night (a little over an hour), about half that the second night, and then the third night and on SLEEP. Just got to break that habit of expecting someone to come in. It's amazing that they really can learn to put themselves back to sleep on their own. Darin did still go in both the first two nights to lay her back down, or sing a quick song to her, more so to check on her and give me the peace of mind that she really is okay. 

Selling our lovely double stroller (which we never use with just Emery) and so sad about it. I have so many fun memories of my two big guys being little guys in this thing. Belen is always begging to be pushed around in it with her and the answer is usually, no way, you're too heavy. She was very excited when I pulled it out to get some pictures of it and then pushed her and Emmy around the driveway. 

Emery is TERRIFIED of the blender. She hated her bouncer for a good two weeks and protested every time we stuck her in it, but recently doesn't seem to mind AS much. She still would much prefer being down on the ground exploring, but sometimes I just need her to stay in one spot while I get something done. She generally has something hanging out of her mouth while she crawls from place to place. 

Up and down, up and down... doing her squats. 

Love this little munchkin so much and can't believe she is already 11 months!