Addison Celebrated her first Birthday at Alexander Park here in PA, with many close family and friends, it was a Special time for us and for her. She LOVED her cupcake and we couldnt keep her off the slide! She recieved alot of clothes and some fun toys.. a Truly SPECIAL day!! Addison had her 12 month appointment and now weights in at 19lbs 8oz .. not that big, but big enought that I feel it.. luckily she can walk. I started to give her milk 2 weeks prior to her Birthday to help her start tranisitiong fully into it and I would say in the last 2 weeks (after her Birthday) she has really transitioned well at this point. I havebeen able to move the 1:30PM bottle to milk then the 10:30AM and now the 5PM to milk without any major problems. Still drinking formula for AM and bedtime bottle, but we are slowly getting away from formula. WE are Still having to drink alot of the Milk out of the bottle, as she is having a hard time adjusting to drinking milk out of a sippy, but we are getting there. She has basicallly moved to big people food, hardly taking jar food, as I think she associates the jar food as "Baby food" and then refuses it. Such a Stinker!! Still babbling away... she definilty has A LOT to say... still no words other than "MAMA" and "DADA", sometimes it sounds like she says words, but nothing is clear yet. She is still shy at first, but luckily warms up pretty quickly! She has now fully mastered walking and she now walks a TON or should I say RUNs a TON!! Haha! She can definitly move fast, especially when she has something shes not supposed to have. Just FULL OF IT!! LOL!
I would say our biggest challenge this last month, was, it was litterally one day to the next, that Addison woke up one day and I was like " I no longer want you to rock me to sleep for my NAPS" I have always rocked Addison before all naps and bedtime. Most of the time, I would only have to rock for a few mins and she would be down for the count, but it was litterally like a light switch and she REFUSED to go to sleep..... So needless to say, This was and has been a very difficult challenge for me. I felt at first, like She doesnt need me anymore and How will she ever go to sleep without being rocked, but this is an important lesson to be learned for her, as I was reminded, DO I REALLY WANT TO BE ROCKING AT 2 and 3 when she can talk back to me, or kick and scream...,.. Sooo, That first weekend, I still tried to rock, but to no avail, I was getting frustrated and someone would just NOT go to sleep. So the next weekend I caved.. no more rocking!! Soo now its quiet time, light rocking.. snuggling with Mommy and with Bear-Bear and then off to bed we go. I AM still able to rock for bedtime and she will almost always pass out in my arms, but NAPTIME - NO rocking to sleep. This WAS always something I enjoyed, quiet time with Addison before she headed off to sleep and we still have that.... just different. She is doing so much better too with going down on her own, that first weekend did not go to HOT, but slowly she has figured it out and for the most part will pass out pretty quickly once in there. I can say we do have our days of non-stop chatter that then turns into yelling and sometimes tears... but I just go back in, give her her and Bear-Bear, lay her blanket back over, rub her back and slowly walk out.
ALL in ALL Our little girl has just completed our lives! She has brought so much laughter and joy. So full of life and energy, yes very full of it, but never a DULL moment! Soo excited to see whats to come in this next year!
