12 Months! (AKA 1 Year Old!!!)

Claire is now One Year Old!
We both made it through our first year of baby & motherhood! Haha!
But really!

So first off, her 12 month stats are:
Height: 29 3/4 inches         50-75%
Weight: 23 lbs. 4 oz.         75-90%
Head circ: 45.6 cm            50-75%

So overall, she's pretty average size. A sturdy little girl.

Claire is VERY active! She absolutely LOVES to run and play. She only sits still so you can put her shoes on or read to her. She thinks that if her shoes are on, we're going out! Haha! She's definitely happiest when she's on the move. Except for when she's tired. Then she only wants to be held by mom.

Last month I forgot one of her other most treasured books, Pat the Bunny

In the Amazon.com description, it says that this is a "board" book. This is a lie. It's not necessarily a paper book either though. It's like a shiny cardstock. She loves this book SO much. She has torn the cover off. Not necessarily a hard thing to do though. The book is spiral bound with a plastic ring. That perforation is not very child friendly. BUT Claire's absolute favorite part is when you're told to read Judy's book. She hurries through patting the bunny, playing peek-a-boo with Paul, looking in the mirror, smelling the flowers, and feeling daddy's scratchy face, so that she can open that little book and show how big bunny is...."sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo big!" She also hasn't figured out how to smell the flowers. They smell like sunscreen and she likes to put her face into the book and lick them. Big open mouth lick. We're working on it.

Not my picture, but pretty much exactly what our book looks like! That's what happens after 4 kids & 20+ years

When she finds a book that she wants to read, like Supper Time for Frieda Fuzzypaws, she picks it up, walks over to me and says "ugh." I tell her to "say please" and she hurriedly rubs her chest and starts to turn around so I can pick her up and set her on my lap. She settles in so cute and perfectly! It's just adorable!

We talk through pointing and grunting. She says "pictuh" and points to framed pictures on the wall expecting to be told who/what is in the photos. She also says "og" for dog and "buh" when she hears birds. She recognizes planes in the sky and makes a funny growling noise to mimic the roar of the engines. She also says "mama" and "dada," and she signs and says, "ah duh" (all done) when she's done eating.

Claire also LOVES music. She sings herself to sleep and will bounce and sway back and forth to any kind of rhythmic sound; commercials, toys, movies, radio, or just whatever you happen to hum or sing. She especially loves "If You're Happy and You Know It." 

Claire also loves to play "This Little Piggie." She always wants her shoes taken off so that she can show you how to wiggle her toes. When combined with a grunt, it means, "please play with my toes!"

She drinks a 5 oz. bottle before each nap and at bedtime. And our bedtime routine is back to singing and leaving. I only rock her as long as she's finishing her bottle. It's a nice relief. After we were able to train her to fall asleep on her own, she also stopped needing me when she woke up at 2 in the morning--again. She hadn't done that for months, but then she was teething, and I caved thinking that my baby was in pain. Claire got used to the mid-night company and kept it up. Then I had had enough and ignored her for a night or two. And that was the end of that. The initial sleep training also took place while Peter and I went out to a movie and our friend came to babysit! (Thanks Christine!) So she took the blunt of the crying. It made things SO much easier. It almost felt like cheating. Almost.

Claire also uses binkies. Mostly at night. I try to keep it to a bedtime thing, but sometimes she just needs some extra comfort.

Claire is still super curious about EVERYTHING. She loves to figure out how things work and how they go together. She likes to pull everything off of shelves or out of boxes by tossing things over her head and then tries to put them all back again, only to repeat moments later.

As you've probably noticed from these pictures, she is a lot more social. She's started being more free with her smiles. She loves to give hugs and kisses to mom and dad, and loves to play peek-a-boo.

She is so much fun to be with right now! I feel so lucky to be home with her every day!
Happy Birthday Claire!