Cara is 12 months old!

We made it! One whole year. I know I'm a little late in posting, but I wanted to wait until we went to the doctor for her official stats and measurements. We have a sweet one-year-old little girl who is SO MUCH fun!

Stats:
Cara weighs 23 lbs 1 oz (70th %ile) and is 29 3/4" long (75th %ile). Her head is 18 3/4" (90th %ile). No wonder her headbands haven't been fitting right! She weighs less than I thought, but her length is on target with my guesses. She is a big girl, and it really shows!

Milestones:
verbal:

• Cara says mama, dada, Do or Bo for Po, mo for more, bah bah, ah dah for all done, uh oh all the time, and she says these on command most of the time. She waves hi and bye on command too.
• signs more, all done, sleepy, and we're working on signs for milk and water. She also touches her head when you say her name and reaches to touch us when we say mama and dada.
• shakes her head no, usually in response to us doing it.
• points at certain things, reaches with her outstretched hand at many things
• imitates sounds and words--nonsense sounds and noises we make up, and she tries to imitate the words we say. She ends up making the O face a ton because of lots of words we say (uh oh, whoa, wow, ooooh, Po, more, etc.)
• mimics facial expressions--sticking out tongue, fish face, O, open wide, etc.
• babbles all the time

gross motor:

• cruising on everything, for really long distances
• stands up on her own!!! (This happened after 12 months, but we're counting it.) She gets in her squat stance, presses her legs up, stands up for many seconds (and can even clap or wave while standing) and then lowers herself back down. She knows "stand up" and does it on command. Proud moments!

fine motor:

• drinks from a sippy cup like a champ
• drinks from a bottle and a cup with no spout
• feeds herself food of all textures and sizes with a pincer or raking grasp
• uses a pointer finger to play with toys with small holes
• puts objects into a containers (not the fine sizes like a shape sorter, but big sizes like toys into a bucket)

personality:

• imitates and mimics actions--touching face or body parts
• plays with her lip to make a babble sound
• plays "where's Cara", peek a boo, blows kisses, etc.
• DEFINITE clinginess and separation anxiety with mama. When she turned 1, the switch flipped, and she is desperate for me in most cases, even if Chance is there. It's especially bad if we're at church or a new environment, but she even gets anxious when Chance takes her to school in the mornings and she tells me bye at home. She lunges for me, cries mama, gets upset if I set her down. It's a stage, I know, and in little ways it's nice for her to need me, but it is hard to see her upset or not be able to do something because she clings to me.

Behavior:

• clingy, like I said before
• content to sit for longer periods of time, especially with a book or favorite toy
• proud of herself for accomplishments
• is a little bit of a diva in her demands for food or other wants, and has a fake cry/whine to show us
• flexible in her schedule, but still prefers a routine
• LOVES to be with her family (Mimi & Buck, Aunt Cayce, all the Edisons, etc.)
• gets excited and kicks her legs vehemently
• social among friends at school
• watches others around her before making her own decisions or actions
• curious about everything around her and loves to explore with her hands
• She's so fun--I love this age so much!!

Sleep:

• sleeps 7:30/8 to 6:50 when we get up for school
• still takes 2 naps a day, from 10-11:30/12 and 2:30/3-4:30
• likes to be rocked and shushed at home before sleeping
• knows "lay your head down" and does it when we rock
• spends a good deal of time at night rustling before she conks out. Naptimes are easier to go down, but she likes to nestle in really well at night.

Clothes

• an anomaly: can wear a few 9M onesies and outfits, fully in 12M clothes, and can wear a few 18M things like jammies and tops.
• 18M pants are about too long, 12M shirts can't contain her belly, 9M bottoms are too short
• wears a size 4 shoe, and we've started putting them on her because she'll be walking soon. She's not a fan of them, though. Yet.
• wears a size 4 diaper. We finished off the last of the size 3 recently (and said goodbye to the lovely yellow/blue wet line. They don't make bigger sizes with that line anymore--guess we're expected to be pros at identifying a wet diaper by now.)
• refuses to wear a headband or hairbow. We can try to distract her and help her forget, but she always realizes at some point and pulls it off to eat it. I hope she gets used to them again so I can start accessorizing her again!

Food:

• fully weaned and on whole cow's milk from a sippy cup
• drinks milk with breakfast at 8:30 and with veggies for lunch at 11:30, has a snack at 2:30 and 5:30 and dinner at 6:30/7 with more milk before bed.
• drinks about 20-22 oz of milk a day. That's a half-gallon every 3 days, if you're calculating. A half-gallon of organic whole milk costs about $3.50 at HEB. $7 every 6 days=$35 a month on milk. It's like buying formula!
• won't eat food, especially fruit, that is straight from the fridge. The princess requires her food to be served at a moderate temperature, otherwise she won't touch it and spits it out if fed.
• LOVES chicken and ground beef, cheese, all orange food, graham crackers, macaroni noodles, donut holes (birthday treat) and chocolate! She's had small bites of chocolate chip cookies and always smacks her mouth open for more bites.
• HATES ice cream (!!!!) because it's cold and any other cold food

Likes:

• walking with her walker
• shaking her shaker toy
• babies and bears and soft dolls
• reading Oh The Thinks You Can Think from Aunt Manda
• "flying" from one person to another
• going upside down (she throws her head back, kamikaze-style)
• riding in her new wagon for her birthday
• sitting in your lap, babbling or making faces
• eating Po's hair (yuck!)
• getting in and out of chairs (her PBK chair and her mini rocking chair that was I got for my 1st birthday-Mimi brought it to her on her birthday)
• splashing in the tub--still! She's almost too big for the ducky tub...

Dislikes:

• being set down on the floor
• leaving Mommy
• getting stuck places when she wriggles in
• going to church (Ha! She cries hardest at Sunday morning and Wednesday evening childcare... But they tell me it's only for a few minutes after we leave.)
• being still for too long

Favorite moments:

• watching my baby become a little girl
• talking to her and watching her learn things
• reading books with her in my lap
• hearing her say "mama" and ask for me--they are the sweetest 2 syllables in the world
• celebrating Cara's first birthday party
• seeing her growing curiosity and independence
• going to the first Baylor game of the season! It may have been 1 million degrees, and we may only have stayed until halftime, but it was fun!
• seeing her standing up milestone in person. I cant wait for her first steps, but it was fun to have another milestone to cheer over!

Most challenging:

Cara had a tummy bug in the middle of August that led to the worst diaper rash I've ever experienced. They said at school that she wouldn't even sit on her bottom because it hurt so bad. We just couldn't get ahead of it to get her tummy under control to make her diaper rash get better. It was days of crying and fussiness, bleeding bottom, heartbreaking screams and pain. We spent 2 evenings at home without a diaper on her. The first night, I put down towels and sheets on the living room floor and cleaned up messes with paper towels and Resolve. The next night, we moved to the kitchen instead. It took more than a week for her tummy to get better and more than 2 weeks for the rash to clear. We got a prescription butt paste that started to help, so now we have it on hand if it gets bad again. It was the worst!

Looking forward to:

• first steps and mobility--I won't wish it earlier than it should happen, but I just feel like it will complete the transition from baby to little girl, and I'm excited.
• more words! Cara is signing well, but I can't wait to have full-on conversations with her.
• Now that I'm back to work, I look forward to every weekend so we can spend time together

Now that Cara is 1, I sometimes get the "When are you going to have another?" question from people. And this is my answer: I am enjoying Cara so much that I can't think about adding another to the mix right now. She is so much fun that I can't imagine giving up a single minute with undivided attention on her. I want to soak up everything she does and all the milestones, great and small, and savor everything. And y'all, having a newborn is HARD. It wasn't so long ago that I was slogging through sleepless nights and confusing days. They are sweet, fleeting moments in time that I wouldn't trade for anything, but this age (and I'm sure the ones coming up) are so wonderful that I'm not ready to go back just yet. I'd like to wait a few more years before we have another baby, but we all know it's not just my plan. But I just love my girl so much and enjoy every minute with her that I want to keep that going. I'm thinking lots of y'all understand what I mean by that.

It's been the best year of our lives, and my heart is so full of thankfulness and joy for all we've experienced.