HAS IT BEEN A YEAR ALREADY?

Mommy here:

My little baby doll has turned into a little girl right before my eyes. In some ways her birth a year ago seems like such a long time ago, but then again, I look at her and think, "My how time flies. I can't believe she is one already!" It was one year ago that we were holding her finally after 31 hours of labor and an eventual c-section. We were just starting on our journey as parents, learning how to change diapers and interpret her cries. We were just starting our "adventures" of breastfeeding struggles, reflux issues, and allergy diagnoses. But we made it, and now here we are a year later with a beautiful, healthy, inquisitive little girl, and we couldn't be more blessed.

Just in the last week, she has suddenly become my big girl toddler... She just one day started crawling instead of rolling, she can pull herself up to her knees and balance on her knees as well, she can then get back down on her own without fallling, she can push the gadgets and buttons and such on her toys purposefully, and she has gotten a bit fiesty now with her independence as well. She is working on teeth #9 and #10, and she is eating pretty much table food now with some baby food thrown in every once in awhile. She loves to hear her voice, and her favorite words are "hi" and "up." She uses them correctly in situations to communicate (for the most part), too. In other words, she doesn't just put sounds together and babble like she used to. She will say "hi" when she comes into a room or sees someone, and when she wants to get up or out of her highchair, for instance, she says, "up." She also says hot, hey ya, uh-oh, today, and nana a lot, though not necessarily knowingly. She just thinks those sounds are fun to make. In other instances, she will say endings of words to indicate something. For instance, /ks/ or /x/ for "books," /k/ for "walk" and "clock," /t/ for "eat," /st/ - or more like /ts/ - for "breakfast," /g/ for "dog," and /s/ for "shoes." Very interesting to me, but not necessarily too out of the ordinary, I guess. Another big girl step is that she only takes a bottle at bedtime now. We have gone to drinking formula from a sippy cup at mealtimes now. Surprisingly, it really was a pretty easy process. Granted she still drinks formula due to her allergy, and she tends to still down it from the cup all at once like she would with a bottle, instead of taking drinks/sips as she eats, but it's a step anyway. The bedtime bottle, however......well, that's another story. :)

Anyway, it's hard to believe my baby isn't so much a baby anymore. Kinda sad in some ways. It's amazing what she has learned to do in just one year. It'll be fun to see what this next year brings. We love you, MJ! You truly are a joy to us and the love of our lives.