Twelve Months

Oh, Jocelyn.....

I was not looking forward to seeing my baby turn ONE this soon. Seriously, where has the time gone? Jaina's first year lasted so much longer. Even Jayce's did! All I had to do was blink and my third baby sped through all the months just like that.

I was, however, looking forward to being done with her 12 month onesie collage.

It was getting increasingly difficult to keep said baby on her back on the blanket. This is one of the rare times that I'm thankful she can't walk yet. Its much easier to catch a crawling baby and keep putting them back in place.

Things I learned from doing this collage:

- I should have aimed to take the picture at the same time of day each month.
- using a textured and heavier blanket would have reduced the amount of wrinkles and creases
- I should have used a stool in order to stay the same distance away from her when snapping the picture. Its hard to see how much she's grown when each image fills the frame completely. Plus, it was really hard to get her entire body in the frame once she hit 7 months.
- If I had to do it again, I probably would have used a slightly darker blanket.

Oh well. You live, you learn. You grow as a photographer :)

And yes, I do feel slightly guilty that Jaina and Jayce do not have similar collages. Well, Jocelyn also hasn't had her professional portraits taken each month at a Picture People Studio, nor do I have framed portraits of her hands and feet like I did with the other kids. So, its all good.

Let's see what she's up to:

- Says "uh-oh", "bottle", "daddy", "dora" and says the sounds for cow and dog.
- Points to nose and eyes and mouth on dolls when asked.
- crawls up and off belly on all fours.
- Is getting better with table food. She'll eat bananas, apples, green beans, corn, rice, potatoes, chicken, scrambled eggs, muffins, pancakes, and cheese. She will NOT eat any kind of pasta.
- Wears size 12-18 months. Size 3 in shoes, though.
- Takes two good naps. 1.5- 2 hours each.
- Drinks three 8 ounce bottles (1/2 formula, 1/2 whole milk) during the day and one at night.
- Yes, she still wakes up once a night. She's hungry. She'll stop when she's not. Or else when I wean her from bottles :)
- Only wants water in her sippy cup. She thought juice was nasty.
- Learned how to drink from a straw. Unfortunately, there was coke in the cup and she DOES like coke. Yeah, definitely my daughter.
- Wants her mommy 95% of the time. If she knows I'm not leaving, she'll go to other people 5% of the time.
- Pulls up to her knees. (When she does this, we help her to stand)
- She can bear weight for about 5 seconds when we support her under her arms. She still does not like her feet to be flat on the floor.

Don't worry, we've got an appointment on February 27th to get her evaluated. I am hoping its just a sensory issue thing (we at least know how to deal with that!) and not something else physical or developmental that is going on.

Jocelyn continues to be my favorite thing about being a stay-at-home mom right now. While the bigs are off learning in school, I get to play and cuddle this tiny human for 6 hours. Just me and her. I cherished this time with Jaina and Jayce, too. There is just something about feeling your baby's weight on you while you lie on the couch together. Jaina and Jayce will still give me cuddles every once in a while, but I have to ask for them. And they have to sit next to me now. Its just not the same.

So, I hold on to these last fleeting moments with my baby.  Knowing soon she'll be a toddler. Then a preschooler. Then a big kindergartner.

But for now, she's just my baby :)