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I’ve spent this past week mulling over my feelings that my daughter is now one. How did this happen?

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I remember going into labor in the middle of the night, advancing pretty quickly, only to stall for hours after not being able to push her out. I remember questioning how and why the hospital let us bring this sweet and precious baby girl home?

While, yes we had been preparing for that moment for 9+ months, I felt not at all prepared to leave with a baby!

And then I remember the 6-month stage, starting to crawl and introducing solids. How I used to be so paranoid about choking when feeding her. Now, I’m so relaxed and pretty much give her anything.

All of these changes seem so cut and dry, but there was such a gradual transition. I look at pictures of Camryn from the first few months and wonder how she morphed into the light haired, big blue eyed gorgeous girl she is now.

And you don’t necessarily notice the subtle changes day by day, but isn’t it cool how monumental they are when you look back?

Camryn’s Personality, Likes and Dislikes

This is probably my favorite topic to write about. Camryn continues to be a curious and very active baby (toddler?). Do I call her a toddler now? I’m kind of still in a denial phase about that.

She walks, runs and climbs on everything. She’s a dare devil. She’s even learning to climb “down” from things and get off the couch. I’m working to teach and remind her, “feet first.”

She barely crawls anymore – she started walking around 10.5 months and hasn’t looked back. Sometimes I see her “running” across the floor.  We had a few walkers and this one really helped develop her confidence.

She started pulling up on things around 8-8.5 months, and really started pushing the walker around 9.5 months. Finally, she tried on her own and took her first steps around 10.5 months.

She just loves being on her feet, and she’s really quick now. She hates shoes, although I’ve started implementing them in the last few months. Until then, she was always a barefoot baby.

My husband works in the footwear industry so he was very particular about which shoes he wanted her to wear (aka he wanted ones that shape to her foot and allow foot space).

So after lots of research, we ended up with Robeez shoes, and Camryn is learning to like them (in public at least). She’s still a barefoot kid most of the other time.

She still loves climbing stairs. She loves this lego set, and as of her birthday party, she loves her new basketball set. Rather than playing with toys, she would much prefer to move and walk around and explore.

She loves finding cords, my straightener, my computer and mouse, still loves my pump and loves opening drawers and cabinets. Camryn also loves taking things off shelves and has started putting her feet in our shoes, which is just so so cute.

She does great in the Bob Running Stroller and also loves swim class.

She has a few words in her vocabulary, too! We think her first word was “hi,” and she waves to pretty much everyone. She also says “uh oh” (my favorite), “eye” while point to your eye, “baby,” “mama” and “dad.” She makes a lot of sounds (“a”, “ba”) and loves to point.

In the beginning, she wasn’t into reading and books but now she is so engaged and it’s so fun. She points to the animals and she loves the ones with fold outs and flap-ups (like Dear Zoo and How Many Bugs in a Box).

She knows the signs for “milk,” “all done,” and “more” but sometimes she confuses “more” and “all done.” So, I’m not sure if she’s really done eating. lol

Sleep

She’s a pretty good night sleeper these days. Bedtime typically falls somewhere between 7 and 8pm, and she’ll usually wake up between 6:30 and 7:30. Naps have gotten much longer than they used to be, and we’re still on a two nap schedule (generally an hour to an hour and a half each). I feel lucky for her sleep now, though it wasn’t always this way!

This noisemaker and blackout curtains (which are great for traveling) have helped. The best part about Camryn is that she wakes up HAPPY. She waves, she says hi and she genuinely smiles when she’s up. I’m learning so much from this kid!

My sleep has gotten better, but it’s still not where I’d like it to be. For the first 9-10 months, I ruined my sleep by checking the monitor constantly to make sure she was okay. Now, my body is trying to adjust to not having to wake up every few hours.

But, as I’m sure most moms can attest to, your brain is always on and you just don’t stop worrying.

Solids & Breastfeeding

We’re slowly working on the sippy cup transition. We have the weighted straw cups now (which she’s getting better at), the mini open face cup, and I just recently bought the Oxo Tot after hearing good feedback from other moms.

I think it’ll be a slow transition because she loves to just throw the cups on the floor. She’s getting better with utensils (I just ordered these forks) but always wants to use mom and dad’s forks, which are too big and dangerous for her.

Curious if other moms have tips for the transition?

She still loves blueberries, raspberries, eggs, bread, chips (anything crunchy), hummus, peanut butter, sweet potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes and apples. She will walk around holding an entire apple taking little bites and sucking the juice out. It cracks me up.

She has 6 teeth (just had a new one poke through), 3 on the top and 3 on the bottom. And I think they are the cutest things when she smiles and shows them. We’ve started brushing her teeth twice a day (using these toothbrushes) to get her used to the feeling, and sometimes she’ll hold the toothbrushes and move them around.

Speaking of solids, she wasn’t very into her cake smash which shocked me. But it was still cute!

At this point, I’m probably nursing her 4ish times/day. I don’t know how weening will go because she knows the sign for “milk” and she gives it when she wants it. I feel like I can’t say no when she’s asking.

So, we’ll keep going as we are. I think as her solid intake goes up, the milk intake will go down, naturally. I haven’t introduced cow’s milk yet, and I probably have a month or so stored of frozen breastmilk. So I’ll probably start with that, and then slowly mix some in with cow’s milk for the introduction so the breastmilk will last longer.

I also want to save a little stash for if she gets sick for the antibodies.

We’ve come such a long way. In the beginning, nursing stressed me out so much. It was hard. It was something I wanted to quit every single day. I’m so glad we were able to figure it out because it is time I cherish.

Although she’s still grabbing at things left and right (always likes to have something in her hands), she is at least somewhat snuggly during those times.

Favorite Toys

Aside from what I’ve already mentioned throughout this post, here are some of Cam’s favorite toys

• Drumset (She loves to hear the noises, bang anything and everything with the drum sticks, and can blow into the whistler/recorder)
• Bike – She loves pushing it around, not so much riding it yet.
• She also likes non toy items, like tater’s food and water bowls, cords, measuring cups and spoons, pots and pans
• Finding Nemo Fish Faucet Cover
• Water table – She loves anything water and this was a hit for her birthday

This year has been monumental in terms of adjusting to a “new” life. What used to be normal is just in the rearview window now. I’ve talked before about adjusting to having less time and flexibility, getting less done (but learning to be more efficient). All of that still stands true.

We would like more children, but we’re not in a rush. I would love to run another marathon before that happens, but we’ll see. I also just want to cherish this time with Camryn and learn what my “normal” is as a mom, because I feel like I’m still learning!

Other Updates

• 10 Month Recap
• 8 Month Recap
• 6 Month Recap
• 4 Month Recap

Any advice about the sippy cup transition?

Any things your one year olds are into?