Alice Catch-Up

Sigh.

I'm back to check in, and here I see how much time has passed... and I feel the mommy guilt.  The mommy guilt that makes me feel so horrible that I have to swallow back tears.  I haven't been back to write about my sweet baby and her second half of her first year of life.  I was so diligent writing about Eliza - every month, I looked forward to writing about her every single step, her every development, every new food she tried.  And now I feel like I've let Alice down.

Alice, my sweet baby, I love you to the ends of the earth and back, I hope you know that always and forever.

Alice, you are almost one year old.  My baby, you are such a delight to us.  You are happy almost all of the time, you are funny, you are mischievous (it is so cute!), you play with us, and you are just plain FUN to be around.  Everyone who meets you sees it.  You have a personality that is undeniably wonderful.  People see your sweet, spunky, fun spirit and they just want to be around you!  You have a growing fan club, my sweet.

You can be coy and shy, too, when you are around new people.  When strangers approach you to say hello, you bury your little face in mama's neck or turn your head and lay your cheek on my shoulder and it just melts me like nothing else in the world.  This is also how you give hugs.  I love it!

On the go.  Between 7 and 8 months old, you started crawling.  Then, just before 11 months you started walking!  My early walker!  Now, at almost 12 months, you are walking everywhere. I don't think I've seen you crawl anywhere for at least a week or two!  You're getting faster, too.  Right now you've got that awesome toddle where you kind of lead with your belly.  Heheh.  I just adore this stage! You're into everything now that you can walk, all the cabinets and drawers in the house have been ransacked by you recently!

Sisters! I don't know how to accurately put in to words the relationship between you and your sister.  It is priceless; something of true, pure beauty.  You adore her like no other.  I mean, mama's pretty great, and so is daddy, but oh. Oh there is NO ONE quite like your sissy.  She was the first to get your kisses - you would ONLY kiss her when you first started kissing.  Even when Daddy or I would ask for a kiss, you wouldn't give one - you'd look around for Eliza and plant one on her! It was like you thought kisses were ONLY meant to be something you gave your big sis.  It was so cute.  Now, I'm happy to say that I am worthy of your kisses as well.  And you've given one or two to Daddy, too :)  The way that Eliza loves you is nothing short of amazing, too.  I love seeing you two together, it is my favorite thing to watch.  You play together now, and I think I could watch that for hours.  When you two sit in Eliza's bedroom in the mornings and play, I sneak around the corner and watch you.  Or I just sit and listen to you both. It is pure joy and music to my ears.  It's something to behold.  I hope you two can continue to grow together and love one another like you do now.  You are both so lucky. 

Signing. -You have started signing and it is very handy :)  You sign 'milk', 'more', 'all done', so far.  We are working on 'thank you', 'please', 'drink', 'eat', and 'fan'.  Yes, fan.  Eliza used to do it and it was cute.  She looooved fans.  Ceiling fans, that is.  So Eliza is teaching Alice the sign for 'fan'!

FIRST WORD! You said your first word, and I think you said it for Grandma and Grandpa the first time.  It was "Boom!".  Like, when something gets dropped or you go down on your bottom, it's "boom!".  IT IS SO FREAKING CUTE.  Definitely an interesting choice for a first word!  You also say "Mamamamamama" and "Dadadadadada" and you're pretty reliably correct, so we're counting those as words, too.  You say "Dah!" when you see a cat, so... I guess that's your word for cat, then?  Haha.  It's the same sound each time you see a kitty, so it seems like that's just your name for them!

You are independent!  You can sit and play by yourself for solid chunks of time and for this I am so very grateful, my dear.  Classic second child, perhaps?  I am so proud to watch you gain confidence and see you go off an explore your surroundings.  You are at home in your house, and you get enjoyment out of books, toys, instruments, pots, pans, spatulas, pyrex bowls (!), bread loaf pans, sponges, ziploc bags (haha probably not a good baby toy)...  I'll cook dinner and you'll toddle off (on the days when you're not clinging to my leg, because there are many of those days too!!).  I'll keep an ear out for you, and when I go check on you I'll find you looking at board books in the living room, or banging on your drum or your xylophone on your music table.  Oh my GOSH how you love music.  Seriously! You love making music, and you love listening to it.  You're a little dancing queen!  Any beat that's around gets your little legs kicking and your head bopping.  Just like your sister!

I'm so sorry that it took me so long to come back to write a blog post about you, my sweet boo.  I love you and I want you to know how much I enjoy being your mama.  Knowing you as a baby has been so incredible, and I don't ever want to forget it.  It is a privilege to get to be your mama every day. I loved the baby stage with your sister, and I am enjoying it just as much - or even more - this time around with you.  I am more confident, more laid back, and I'm just having so much fun with you!

xoxo

Mama

Not too shabby!

Turns out this parental unit cleans up pretty well:

We went to hubby's holiday party last night and it was quite a fancy affair. I wore a gorgeous black dress that my good friend was kind enough to loan me (thanks T!). I didn't have anything suitable since I think it had been like five years since I'd dressed up that fancy (not including weddings I've been in, that is). 

We had a really fun time being adults for the evening and mingling with people. The dinner was delicious, and there was a mock casino that was set up so we played some black jack! Chips were redeemable for raffle tickets :)  

My dear parents took over dinner and bed time duties at home for the night, and everyone was peacefully sleeping when we returned. It was a great night! 

BLW update

Doing baby led weaning with Alice has been so much fun. She's taken to it really well. It's been about 7 weeks since we started and already I can see her pure excitement for food and the enjoyment she gets out of sharing meals with the family. She's recognizing cues that tell her when we're getting ready to sit down for a meal (bib goes on, in her high chair), and I think she recognizes the sign for "more" now, because when we do it, she gets really bouncy and smiley! She clearly knows she's going to be offered more of that delicious food she just ate (or threw on the floor!). 

Not much else to say, just wanted to give a little update how it's going. Pictures speak louder than words, anyway, in this case! And you can see how messy blw is, too... Because, oh boy is it messy!!!

7 Months Old

Mah second baybee is 7 months old!  She is so lovely, she is so happy, so easy going, so cute.  I can't get enough of her.  It's true, I'm sort of obsessed with my Alice Rose.  

The girl is a charmer.  She can be a coy little thing, when she wants to be.  She's known to give a shy smile to someone and then quickly look away, or bury her head in the shirt of whomever is holding her. It's very precious!  She does it most with strangers she takes a liking to (like the server at a restaurant last week), and her Grandpa.  

She's a music girl.  Music and swaying can put Alice into a trance, and it's how Grandpa has started to put her to sleep.  This is by far one of the sweetest things I've ever seen!  My dad can put her to sleep - easy peasy - just by rocking and singing to her, and playing her music (swedish folk music is a favorite).  I love it, he loves it, and Alice does too.  It's not only sweet and touching, but it's simply awesome that other people can put her to sleep.  After Eliza and her...er, trying... sleep habits, this is refreshing.  Makes me feel like I can actually leave and not worry that Alice won't sleep.  It's really really freeing.  Daddy can do it, too, of course!  But Grandpa was first to discover it.  :)

Alice is enjoying eating, and we are enjoying watching her enjoy it!  She's taking to solids just like her sister did, and BLW is going well.  Some highlights thus far, judging by intensity of screeching for more when she runs out (we've also been working on signing with her, but she hasn't started using any quite yet - will be handy when she does, though!), have been: banana, pasta sauce, polenta, guacamole, raspberries, mango, string cheese, peanut butter toast, hummus, steamed baby carrots... ok now that I've started listing things, I realize she's pretty much loved everything, to be honest.  But seriously, the pasta sauce was the most hilarious.  She couldn't get it to her mouth fast enough.  It's clear she has some Italian blood running through her veins!

A few other random things for me to note and keep track of, mostly:

• She's wearing her cloth dipes on the largest setting, she's a big girl! When she's in sposies she's in a size 4.
• She's almost outgrown her infant bucket car seat - the weight limit is 22 lbs, and at her six month well baby exam she weighed 20 lbs 4 oz... so, yeah, we'd better make sure that we check in and weigh her again soon!
• She's sleeping about 12 to 13 hours at night.  Waking up a few times to nurse, of course.  She's taking two or three short naps during the day. We call her our cat napper.  But she's quite flexible about when/where she naps, so that's nice.  She's a classic second child, apparently! 
• She's not quite crawling, but she is thisclose.  Eliza crawled at 9 months, and I am fairly certain Alice will crawl earlier than that.  She can pull herself to standing already, which was surprising to see, and she can army crawl fairly well too.
• She loves to play "so big", "patty cake" and all those baby songs and games.  She is just SO happy, so so happy and smiley.  I love her to pieces.

Her first Christmas was so much fun.  I know it was just another day for her, so really it was just fun for us.  Watching our baby's first Christmas, just being a family of four together... it was so wonderful.  Just plain amazing, really.  I'm not really feeling with the words tonight, so I'll stop there and just post a bunch of photos :)