Wiedeman Littles: Clara Irene: 12 Months

Let's completely disregard the fact that my baby is now over 13 months old. Because I know I am- she's still a baby. Not a toddler yet.

I know for a fact that this past year was one of the busiest, craziest times in our lives. When Clara was born, a move to a new state was not even on our radar. I was getting nice and settled into the idea of living in our tiny, imperfect townhouse until our kids were grown and out of the house. We were dedicated to the Christian school Noelle was registered for, and knew we'd eventually be paying tuition for all three kids, therefore, a move to a bigger house was just not as doable. But I was good- contemplating ways to store things better, decorating and painting to make it more of what I wanted, figuring out how to arrange the barrage of toys we own. And then boom, God provided the opportunity for us to move to a new state, and it was go, go, go to clean, pack, move, downsize, move, unpack, settle, find a church, make new friends, figure out all our new places. All that on not getting to completely sleep through the night until Clara was 8 months old, dealing with a never-ending injury that halted my much appreciated form of stress relief, and a steady stream of family and friends coming to stay at our house. (I counted 17 different people and three dogs who slept in our home over the course of multiple visits!)

It's been busy, but I'm thankful to be able to look back and see God's hand in it all. And I'm thankful for the moments I had of nursing Clara to sleep in her room, and just sitting and holding her, and remembering God's faithfulness in bringing us our third little blessing!

Now onto some updates (hopefully mostly accurate since she's 13 months old now.) :)

Height and Weight: We had her 1 year well-check on June 27th, and she was 28 inches and 16 pounds, 14 ounces. A growing girl!

Diapers and Clothing: As soon as we ran out of size two diapers, we opened up our size 3 diapers, which is especially helpful for nighttime when she goes a lot longer without a diaper change. Right around her birthday, I pulled out our bin of 12 month clothes and that's what she's been wearing. For a little while, she was still wearing some size 6 month onsies to bed, but those have been put away now.

Sleep: Overall, we're in a good place with sleep. She sleeps through the night (though decided to wail for awhile at the end of last week and eventually wound of falling asleep in our bed), and she usually naps once a day. I try to keep her awake and active until 12 or 1, and then put her down. She usually sleeps for about two hours, but can also sleep much longer if the house is quiet and she's super worn out. She took a FOUR hour nap last week when we were in the midst of a busy time running around with visiting family!

Eating: We are officially switched over to milk, though still using bottles. The one sippy cup I have leaks, and I hate to use the ones with straws because they're harder to clean. But she does know how to use a sippy cup, just usually drinks water from it. She usually drinks 20ish ounces of milk over the course of 3 bottles, and eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner with snacks of course. She eats black beans with salsa, berries of all sorts, grapes, sweet potato, pureed baby foods like carrots, apples, pears, and prunes. I need to get more veggies in her, which I can get her to eat bell peppers, onion, tomato if I'm feeding her off of my plate. She'll eat chickpeas, chicken, pizza, peanut butter, yogurt, applesauce, and more! I always try to give her a little bit of whatever I'm eating if it's soft/small enough, and most times she'll at least try it!

Social/Milestones: I feel like 11 months to 12 months old was the biggest leap for her physically. She consistently pulls up, can go from laying down to sitting to pulling up, sitting to laying down, pulling up to sitting, and she can hold one of our fingers and walk around. We bought her a push toy two weeks ago, and she can walk around pushing that. She's our latest walker, but she's close! She has her two bottom teeth, and got one of her top teeth. Definitely my baby with the least amount of teeth by age one! She says lots of "dada!" If we're playing in the toy room and someone comes up the stairs, she goes "Dada!" And Luke is so totally her favorite! Breaks my heart a little since ya know, I'm the one who carried her for 9 months, pushed her out, nursed her, and hangs with her all day. But I get it, dad is cool. :)

Likes: Clara loves being with Noelle and Jonah. If they're playing in the toy room, she's a lot happier playing up there as well. They've been having fun with her push toy, and helping her push it around. She loves water- bath time and the pool. And her favorite right now is holding one of our fingers and walking around. Everywhere, all the time. I even started putting shoes on her so it's not quite as gross when we're out and about and she wants to "walk" around.

Dislikes: She isn't happy when someone can't get to her right away when she wants something. And when she's tired, and we're out and about, she can get unhappy. She did NOT like getting left in nursery this past week, and Luke got called to pick her up (I was in Sunday school with the other two.)

Fun things: The end of May through her first birthday involved family visiting, trips to the zoo, pool time, library visits, hanging out with friends, the Moon Pie festival, Father's Day, and lots of time as a family!

Pictures from the month: