Lizzie at One

Dear Lizzie (at one),

It is hard to believe you are already one!  You are such a joy to have in our family.  We love that we get to see your personality grow and develop more and more everyday!  You have a strong personality, strong, yet very easy going.  You make yourself known when you want or need something.  Even from the first night in the hospital, when the nurses came to tell me that you wanted me, they said you were definitely not shy about it!  You shocked me the first day we were home from the hospital with a smile, a true and genuine smile.  I knew I was not just mistaking it as over the next few days you smiled at 5 people!  It brings us great joy to see that you smile almost non-stop these days.  I often get comments where people ask me if you are always happy.  The answer is of course no.  When you are tired or hungry you let us know.  You also love to be with me, so as long as I am around and you have your needs met, you are as happy as can be.  The other thing that can make you angry or sad is if you do not get what you want.  If your sister is playing too rough, or if something gets taken away from you let me know and often try and stand your ground.

You and your sister really have a wonderful relationship, sure you guys don't always get along, but often you do.  One of my favorite sounds is when you guys are playing and start makinig each other laugh.  It makes me even more happy as lately you are often the one to start it.  Sometimes when you are in the car you look at Anna and start laughing to get her going.  It melts my heart!  I love seeing the way you guys take care of on another.   In fact, Anna helped you out so much, that when you were four months old and had your immunizations, she made you laugh during the first injection.  You looked a bit confused for a second, but again she made you smile during the second one.  What a great big sistser to have!

You are an amazing swimmer.  You have been going under the water since you were 6 months old and still to this day have never once cried while doing it.  Going under is not your favorite, but it is not distressing.  You are relaxed enough in the water to pick up on how to do things in your swimming class that some other babies who are even a year older then you have not yet mastered.

You are curious.  You love to explore and although you like having me around, you are happy  to go off and explore in other rooms and look at things to try and figure them out for long periods of time.  You also know what you like, which is great!  When I read you bedtime stories you have had a favorite for at least 6 months now.  I have always given you the choice of what stories to read and now that you can crawl, sometimes I will put your favorite book almost at the otherside of the room.  You will crawl over all the other books to get to it.  It is called "Hello, Baby"  It was given to Anna by my old college roommate, Heidi.  She chose the perfect book!  You also love anything that has to do with technology.  However, you don't always use things in the way that we would like.  You love to look at daddy's smart phone, but you also like to chew on it, which poses a problem.  You also love the tablet, playing with keyboards, and of course chewing on old computer mice.  One of your favorite things is our camera, which works out well as it is waterproof and baby proof.  You can chew it, drop it, or throw it with no complaints from us!

We have done several things differently with you than with your sister and you have suprised us by how you do.  We use cloth diapers with you, which has worked out well.  You also suprised me at 6 months old when I put you over the toilet and turned the water on in the sink.  You peed right away.  After that point you knew how to go in the toilet.  You are happy to go, as long as you are not busy doing something else, and you actually have to go.  When you were 8 months old, you went an entire month without pooping in a diaper!  Also, we did baby-led weaning with you. We started you on solids from the beginning.  You did fabulous!  You managed your food well and only really gagged every once in a while during the first month.  You actually gagged more while nursing than eating which I always found a bit funny.  You definitely know what you like to eat as well.  Your favorite foods are strawberries, oranges, and blueberries.

You started crawling when you were 9 months old.  You have always wanted to get around, which I think comes from having an older sister that you try to keep up with.  Lately your desire to explore and your ability to get around does tend to get you into some trouble.  We only have two stairs in our house but once you mastered those, anytime you are at someone's house who has stairs you head straight for them.  You have not yet mastered how to get out of your bed correctly.  It is not really dangerous as you sleep on a matress on the floor, but when  you do try and you ussually end up on your back and rather unhappy about it.  Also, it is really cute (although it gets you sad) that whenever you try to get from one room to another you shut the door instead of opening it, thus locking yourself in the room.  You share a room with Anna and your matresses are next to each other on the floor.  One night Anna woke up crying because you had crawled over to her and gave her a bloody nose by bonking her in head while presuably trying to lay next to her or to play.

You are very brave and enjoy things that a lot of babies of your age don't.  You like going down slides at the park.  Swinging high on the baby swings, and being thrown in the air.

You notice your reflection in everything.  Even in the bath you bend over to look at relection in the water.

You are a great napper.  Still taking two naps a day.  You will sleep in your baby carrier if we are out (not usually for as long as if you were in your bed but, enough to take the edge off).  You also sleep well at night for about 12 hours.  I sleep with you for 6-8 of those, but you still do will.

You love music.  You often start dancing (swaying back and forth) the second music comes on.  Daddy can get you to relax and sometimes fall asleep by playing you music as well.  You get happy when we sing songs and sometimes try to join in.

As we call Anna Boca, we tend to call you Baby Bokes.  You were also given the name Lizzie lizard breath, which I have a feeling you might not like so much as you get older.  Most recently I have started to joke that I am changing your middle name to Trouble as you keep getting into everything.  The truth is that I think it is great, and I am very happy with your curiosity.

You started to say "ma" at about 5 months old and when Tasha came to stay with us, she said, she thought you were calling for me.  As I listened more it became clear that you were.  Daddy is very happy that you use the word 'da' for both Daddy and happy (or play).

In your life so far you have traveled to: Whitby (England), America (Maryland, Utah, Arizona, And Florida), and most recently Germany.

You are beautiful, curious, and great fun to be around.  You are at such a fun age of exploration and discovery and it is a joy to see you grow and develop each day.  We want you to know that we love you so much.  Happy birthday to you!  Thank you for being in our family!


Love,
Mommy and Daddy

First family Photo

First time Anna Held you

Three days old Photographer photo shoot

First Bath

Happy Sisters, a few weeks old

Playing

Bath in Sink

First outing with Wilkins Cousins

First Christmas gift from Santa

First time meeting Great Grandma Betty

Working on tablets with Anna

Spring picnic with Anna

Happy Getting Ready for swimming class!