Turkey, Hold the Mayo

Shelby got her first "kid's meal" tonight - a turkey sandwich from Firehouse Subs. Mommy still ate her chips and drink though! Shelby ate most of the sandwich and not much ended up on the floor.

Birthday Party!

We had a great birthday party today. Shelby was so sweet and really enjoyed having lots of her little friends over to play!

One Year Checkup

Shelby's stats at one year old:

• Weight: 19 pounds, 3 ounces (10-25th percentile)
• Height: 29 inches (25-50th percentile)
• Head circumference: 44.5 centimeters (25-50th percentile)

Shelby is still a little skinny minny and about average in height and head circumference. She started drinking whole milk this week and has been doing great with table food. She is completely off of being spoon fed baby food, although she loves being fed yogurt. Her favorite foods are avocado, cheese, chicken, yogurt and bananas at home and apparently she eats anything and everything at school! This week they said her favorite thing was spaghetti.

We had a lovely family breakfast this morning at Oak Grove Market. Shelby enjoyed her first eggs, as well as milk and a pancake! She charmed everyone around her and loved looking at all the people. She's fully transitioned to one midday nap a day now and we are glad for it. It's so much easier to plan around one nap and it's nice to be able to get out and about in the mornings.

Beep Beep!

Shelby enjoying her birthday present on a perfect spring afternoon.

A Comparison

I've been taking a picture of Shelby in her rocking chair every week for a year. I'd like to put them together in a nifty slide show, but in the mean time, here's the beginning and the end of the project. I think I might just continue to do once a month until she's two. It's fun!

One week old ...

And one year old!

Happy Birthday Shelby!

Birthday Mementos

I want to sit down to write and reflect later, but here are some little birthday mementos I want to remember right now:

Shelby's first birthday invitation. I ordered them at Sam's Club and they were only about 40 cents a piece! I order all of my photo cards from them - you can't beat the price and they have pretty cute designs. God I sound like Clark Howard! We are having a small party this Sunday at our house.

The sign that was hanging on the door of her classroom this morning. Isn't it cute? All the babies "sign" it with their finger print!

Her birthday counter on the blog. I guess I have to make a new one to count down to two now? Sniff sniff!

First Birthday Eve!

Eeeek! I can't believe it! Shelby will be a year old tomorrow. Where has this year gone? Can I press the pause button for a minute and remember this moment forever? It seems like she is changing daily now and time is moving way too fast. Here are a few quick thoughts I want to write down so I won't forget them.

• Shelby will repeat "uh oh" now, in addition to mama and dada and some other random noises.
• She is starting to identify where things go or how to work things. For example, she will put a sock next to her foot or put the lid on top of her bowl. She can push a button on one of her toys to make it turn on and will clap after she does it.
• She is great at pulling up now and is starting to push up to a little "down dog" position from her crawling position. She crawls so fast now and will walk pretty fast when you are holding her fingers. She still does not walk or stand by herself. I can't wait to buy her first pair of shoes!
• We started giving her milk in a sippy cup yesterday and today and she is doing pretty good with it. I am so ready to be done pumping at work! But thinking of weaning her at home is sort of making me sad. I guess we will take it slow.
• She had an ear infection last week with an oozy ear! That had never happened before. We went to the doctor and got put on a different antibiotic. She had penicillin for the last infection and broke out in a rash, so we changed antibiotic and she already seems to be feeling much better. Hopefully this is the end of a long string of illnesses! It seems like she has not been feeling 100% for an entire month.
• I brought cookies to our neighborhood play group today and we are having a small party for her at our house on Sunday. I am looking forward to seeing if she will actually eat cake and icing! When I think about singing Happy Birthday to her, I want to cry!
• Random parenting fail moment .... her dress got stuck on her tonight! It went on OK this morning but when we tried to take it off before her bath, we could not get her arms out of the sleeves! She was so upset! Scott suggested that we cut it off her, but I did not think sharp fabric scissors + upset baby was a good combo. We eventually got it off, but only after much wrangling and crying. I felt awful! Note to self: do not buy non-stretchy clothes if they don't unbutton all the way down!!

Shelby Almost Walking... And So Much More!

Here's a video of Shelby toddling around on our church's playground. It's a really nice play space with this weird rubber mulch on the ground that's perfect for cushioning falls. She was really enjoying pushing this wheeled toy around and it was so nice to be outside in the warm weather. I can't wait for spring!

I can't believe she will be a year old next week! This year has gone by way to fast and I get weepy and sentimental when I look at pictures of her when she was a tiny baby! Shelby is changing so much and in the past few weeks especially it seems like she has really transformed from baby to toddler. She waves bye bye, pulls up to her feet, crawls all over the place, points at specific things and is well on her way to walking - she barely holds our fingers when we walk with her now!

I think her official first word is "mama." She says it all the time now, and will say it when I point to myself and say "who am I?" She has pictures of us above her crib at school and her teachers say she will point at the pictures and say "mama," too! She is obsessed with pointing now and loves for me to just carry her all over the house while she points at framed pictures on the wall, things on the fridge, pictures in her room. She's at a really fun, cute age right now and while I am sad she's not a tiny baby anymore, I am looking forward to seeing her grow.

Time Warp

I remember someone telling me this when Shelby was born and as she approaches her first birthday, it really hits home:

The days are long but the years are short.

What's New

Here is Shelby all dressed up for the new baby celebration at our church on Sunday. It's really cute - they had a special service to recognize all the new babies born in 2010. It was separate from the regular service because 30 babies in the sanctuary = mass chaos! More pictures are in the gallery for this month.

What else is new:

• Shelby has really gotten into pointing lately and loves to point at you and point at stuff.
• She will repeat "mama" when I say it and point to myself and say "Who am I? Mama." She also claps when I clap and say "Yay!"
• She is a crawling machine and will crawl all over the room now. Time for the baby gates! She also loves to crawl over to doors and open and close them.
• She pulls up to her knees and her teachers said she will pull up to her feet, although we have not seen her do it at home yet.
• She will walk when you hold her hands for support.
• She reaches out her arms when she wants you to pick her up and will also reach for you if someone else is holding her. I don't know if it's because she has been sick, but she's seems to really be a mama's girl lately.
• Speaking of being sick... just when we thought she was getting over her bad cold, she broke out in a mysterious rash last week. The doctor thought it might be a reaction to the antibiotic she was on and told us to discontinue taking it. And today she was running a fever again! Ear infection was ruled out and she didn't have any other symptoms so far - just a fever. Will this latest round of sickness ever go away?! We are tired of it and I am ready for my poor girl to start feeling 100% again. She's like a totally different baby when she's feeling good and it's heartbreaking to see her feeling bad. Her sleep has been all over the place for what seems like forever, although she did sleep all night on Friday without any intervention from us, so I know it's possible when she is healthy and well.
• We're planning a small first birthday party for her and I am feeling a little bittersweet about it. I can't believe it's already been a year since she was born, even though it seems like she has always been with us. My little baby girl is growing up!

Happy Baby

I think there might be some truth to the theories in The Wonder Weeks. After getting past the developmental leap associated with crawling, and getting better after a bad bout of sickness, Shelby is like a completely different baby now. She is so happy and giggly, and is crawling like crazy now. Sunny days are here again!