Scarlett is One!!

 

In the blink of an eye she went from

to

Today Scarlett turns 1.  As bad as I am about keeping up with my blog, I could not let today go by without writing about our little girl.  My heart is full as I reflect on this past year.  What a joy Scarlett has brought to our family.  She fits in perfectly.  We love her so much.  It is so fun to see her learn and grow and develop her own little personality. She is so much fun, and brings us so much joy.  Over the past few months I started blog posts when she turned 10 and 11 months old, but never posted them because I was waiting to get my pictures edited to post. I think I will post them now.


The 10 month post I started-

Scarlett is now 10 months old and there are so many things that I do not want to forget. I can not beleive how much she is growing and learning each day. Right about 9 months she started crawling. It happened when I went to take her to get her 9 month pictures taken. The photographer had me lay her on her stomach so she could get some shots of her that way. Well Scarlett was not having that at all, and she got right up on her knees and crawled away! We had been trying to get her to crawl for weeks! The great things about it is that we have her first time crawling on camera =)

She started pulling herself up and 9 and a half months. One day I layed her down for her nap. She usually will go right to sleep without much trouble, but today I heard her talking away in her crib. I let this go on for about 10 minutes before I went to investigate. When I walked in, there she was standing straight up, holding onto the side of her crib with the hugest grin! Unfortunately she did not figure out how to get back down yet so I am glad that I went and checked on her! This has made nap times a little more challenging.

Scarlett has yet to sleep though the night. She still wakes up one or two times and wants to nurse. Last week I thought that she slept through the night, and when I woke up I was so thrilled! That is, until I discovered that the baby monitor was turned off! I went running into her room to see her sound asleep on her tummy. Her arms was reaching through the rails in her crib towards her binky that had fallen on the ground. My heart was so sad!! I would think that I would have heard her if she was crying too much, but it breaks my heart still. Ever since then, she has had a harder time going to sleep. The second I put her in her crib she bursts into tears. Something she has never done. I am afraid she is traumatized =(

Scarlett is getting better at eating, and likes most everything. She mostly eats just whatever we are eating, but if it is something that doesn't seem very baby friendly, she is content to eat baby food. She is really good at mashing things up with her gums. Her first tooth arrived a few weeks ago. She had been extra fussy for a few nights, and I was afraid she had an ear infection. Then one day I noticed a cute little tooth had popped through. I have yet to get a picture of it, but it is so cute =)


The 11 month post I started-

Here are some tidbits about Scarlett at 11 months:

• I took her to the doctor a few weeks ago and she was 17 pounds 7 oz
• She is crawling everywhere! And so fast. She is becoming a pro at crawling up the stairs, but can not crawl down them, so we have to make sure to always have the gates up.
• I was feeding her a lot of regular table food, and she does ok with it, but I figured out she still does best with pureed food so I have been doing more of that.
• She loves to drink water. I have been noticing that she is more and more thirsty lately. If she is really fussy a lot of times it is becuase she is thirsty.
• Her second tooth just popped in about a week ago.
• Scarlett has such a strong willed personality already. She knows what she wants and won't give up without a fight until she has it.
• She is soooo wiggly! I dread diaper changes because she is so squirmy and tries so hard to crawl away. She is successful at it a lot =)
• She had her first ear infection this past month. It came with a really nasty cold which then made its way to me. We had a lot of sleepless nights, and she started sleeping with us a lot because that was the only way I could get her to sleep. Now that she is better we are trying to get her back to sleeping in her own bed again =)
• She started saying "hi" and waving. It is the cutest thing ever. It sounds more like, "ha" I love it.
• Her poor skin is getting so dry. I am hoping to find a better lotion for her this week.
• She loves to be held but does not like to cuddle. I try so hard to get her to cuddle with me but the only time she does is when I am putting her to sleep. I will take what I can get though!
• She is still a binky girl through and through. She is great at putting it in, so that is really helpful.
• She still loves to nurse, and actually seems to be loving it more lately. She nurses about 3 times a day and then once or twice in the night. Those night time feedings need to go though, so hopefully we can stop those soon. I actually don't mind though. I just go with whatever makes her happiest.
• She loves to crawl to the back door and stare out the window. Dreaming of playing outside I am sure =)

• She loves to pull things off shelves, out of bags, out of baskets, and anywhere else things seem to be. It makes for a lot of messes, but keeps her occupied for a while so I'm OK with it.
• She loves me to read her books.
• Pulls herself up really well, and walks along holding onto wherever she pulled herself up to.

• She knows she is not supposed to crawl up the stairs. We usually have a gate up, but ocassionally it gets pushed aside. She will crawl so fast over to the stairs and then look back to see if we are looking. Then she will proceed to crawl up as fast as she can gigling away and always looking back at us, until we run over and get her.

• She got a walker toy for christmas as loves to push it around everywhere. She can't turn it when she is walking, but she will walk and walk with it until she hits a road block.
• Alexis is determined to get her to walk. She has been practicing helping her stand by herself. She has gotten her to a few times.
• She loves her baths. Right before Christmas I started giving her regular baths in the bath tub instead of in her baby tub. She was so scared at first, but now she loves them. She slashes and splanshes, and crawls around. She loves to lay on her tummy and play with all of the toys.
• She still grabs onto people's faces really hard and squeezes. Ouch!!
• We spend most of the time with her in the hall at church becuase she wants to be on the ground playing. She will wiggle and squeal until we put her down to play, and then she will take off crawling as fast as she can.
• A little unknown fact about me is that I dance and sing around the house all day. It is always silly. I make up songs about anything and everything. The majortiy of it happens in the kitchen. Well, I have noticed lately that as soon as I start dancing Scarlett will start bopping her head up and down to dance along with me. I love it!

OK now back to today =)

Here are some things that I want to remember about Scarlett at 1 year old:

~ She still only has two teeth.  They are both on the bottom. I check daily to see if anymore are getting ready to break through, but no such luck yet!  She is really good at mashing her food with her gums though, so that is good.
~ She has already developed quite the sweet tooth, which I am afraid is totally my fault.
~Thanks to Alexis, she has officially mastered going down  the stairs now. Alexis worked really hard at teaching her and now she is a pro.  We still like to make sure we are near by when she is going down, but it is nice not to have to stress too much about her falling.
~She is not saying too many words yet, but I am trying!  Mostly dada and hi.  Occasionally she will throw a mama in there.  The other day when she was eating I asked her if she was done, and clear as day she said "no mama" Alexis was there to witness it too! Today wehn I was giving her medicine to her (which she hates) I had her laying across my lap.  With the saddest face she looked up at me and said, "no" That's the first time she has said no, and it broke my heart!!
~She is already so independant.  She likes to feed herself.  Even if I manage to sneak something in her mouth, she almost always takes it out and exmines it before putting it back in.
~When she decides she is done eating she will start to chuck everything onto the floor.  Misty loves that and is always sitting beneath her high chair waiting to grab anything that falls.
~If she doesn't want what we are feeding her she will grab it out of our hand and immediately throw it to the floor.  She does that quite often with her sippy cup.
~She is still nursing about three times a day and once in the  night.  My plan is to start slowly weaning her now that she is one.  I am not in a hurry though.  I tried giving her milk the other day, and like my other kids, she hated it.  I am hoping to try a little at a time until she likes it more.
~She loves her binkys.  She loves holding several at a time and switching them out whenever she wants.
~She loves to "help" with the dishes.  As soon as I open the dishwasher, she crawls as fast as she can over to it and climbs on it.  She will pull out anything she can get her hands on.

~We still can't get this girl to give us many kisses!  She certainly knows how because I caught her giving misty one the other day.  She will every now and then humor me with one, but for the most part it is not her thing =(
~She is really good at pushing her walker around, and walking along the edge of things.  I am thinking she probably has at least another month before she starts walking, but we will see!
~Her most favorite thing to eat is cheese

~Every morning when Brandon and the kids leave for school, she will crawl as fast as she can over to the door after them. 

~When she is riding in the shopping cart at the store, she always wiggles herself around until she is turned backwards.  Then she will stand straight up and hold onto the cart.  She will stay like that the whole shopping trip (with me holding onto her of course).

~She absolutley hates laying on her back to get her diaper changed.  She will start screaming and wiggling all over the place as soon as I lay her down.  I have learned to get her most of the way dressed, sitting on my lap.  It makes for pretty eventful diaper changes!
~I had to take her to the doctor yesterday because she has been really sick with a horrible cough and cold.  It turns out she has a double ear infection.  It's her second ear infection in a few months =( 
~She weighs 18 pounds 14 oz.  That was with all her clothes on at the doctor yesterday.  We will get a more accurate reading and her percentiles when I take her in for her 12 month checkup.
~She is already a little climber, and is always trying to climb onto something.

~She takes two good naps a day.  One around 8:30-9, and then again at 1.  I try to stick to that pretty strictly, because I am working for my dad and work when she is napping.  Luckily she still loves her naps.  She goes down really easily. 

~She is not a cuddler.  The only time I can get her to cuddle is when I am putting her to sleep.  I stand by her crib and wrap her blanket around her and she instantly lays her head down and snuggles.  I love it so much!
~She is never short on playmates and has all of us wrapped around her little finger =)

                                 

Happy birthday sweet girl!  We love you so very much =)