The Simple Life: Emilia

It feels like her birthday already passed because we had a birthday party on Sunday, but my little girl turns 1 today. She is such a fun, beautiful, determined little girl and I can't wait to see who she becomes!

Here is her Birth Story!

Dominic at 1 year

It's interesting to me to see what similarities and differences the two have at this age. Emilia is more physical, Dom was more verbal apparently.

Weight: 21 lb. (70th percentile)
Height: 29 inches (45th percentile)

Likes:

Exploring and playing, but always comes back to me for a quick snuggle/recharge.
David. As time goes on she interacts more and more with him and seeks him out. I'm still #1, but he's a close second!
Feeding herself.
Chasing Dom around the house. We have naked time before bed most evenings now, and both the kids run like mad and giggle like crazy around the kitchen.
Animals. This is definitely nature, not nurture. We exposed both kids to stuffed animals and to cars. Dom likes cars, Emilia LOVES stuffed animals. She lights up and snuggles them. She also squeals and points any time we see a real animal. Can't wait for our first trip to the zoo!!
Music. She loves to "sing" (dooooo daaaaaaaa) and dance along. Her favorite song is Baby Beluga, and will find the book we have and start singing as she flips through it.

Dislikes:

Being told "No." Tantrum city with this one, already! Yikes!
Being spoon-fed. Must do it herself, which makes every morning start off messy with oatmeal and yogurt. *eye roll*

Notes:

Size 3 diapers. She could and probably should be in size 4, but I had another Costco box of 3's, so I might as well use them up before moving on to 4's. I think I've been saying this for 3 months now.
Size 12-18 month clothing.
What we call her: Emilia, Yaya, Little One, and "Missy missy missy". This last one Dom just started recently; we haven't figured out where he picked it up, or if he came up with it on his own.
She still has 2.5 teeth, two on the bottom with one nubbin on the top. The other 3 on top are SO close to coming through. They have been for months.
Naps once per day. We cold-turkey cut her first nap this week and it has been magical. Both kids are in bed from 12-230 at least. I could be getting so much done! (Could be being the key there).
She loves her bed. Especially since we cut her nap and she gets so tired, she will push me away and leap for her bed at nap/bedtime.
Her eating has gotten much better and she'll try most things now that we let her feed herself. She still has preferences, but it's no longer a huge fight at every meal.
She is stubborn and is easily frustrated. When she wants something, she lets you know it and doesn't stop complaining.
I can't tell if she's saying any words or not yet. It's rather inconsistent. Sometimes she'll point at Dave and say, "Da". Sometimes we'll walk in a room and she'll say something sounding like "Hi", and the other day she pointed to a ball and said, "Ba". But those are also just sounds she makes, so who knows.
Whether or not she's saying words we understand, she's definitely a talker! She has all sorts of stories to share and songs to sing. Last week in church I was holding her and she was singing along, probably louder than some around us would have liked.
She is in her big girl car seat, the Clek Foonf. She loves it so far, but she's always been good in the car. She just smiles at herself in the mirror and looks out the window. Easy peasy.
I asked Dom this week, "Dom, what can we say about Emilia?" He said, "Happy dappy Yaya!" She's pretty happy dappy most of the time, but when she's not... she's NOT!
She's a stinker. She'll go for something she knows she can't have (stairs, a cord, or the laptop) and look back. If we're watching she starts cackling and crawls/walks even faster.
She is 90% walking now. She's steady, fast, and will walk in whatever shoes I've put her in so far!
She has yet to learn how to drink out of a cup or a sippy cup. She'll do it if I help her, but I often forget and then she gets thirsty and grumpy!
Such. A. Monkey. She will climb anything she possibly can. She's going to be a trouble-maker! Just yesterday she climbed up into our "helping stool" at the counter. Dom never did that.
She tries to put on socks and dress herself. Her shoe came off in the stroller on our walk a couple days ago and she spent 30 minutes focusing and trying to put it back on. I certainly wouldn't have the patience for that!
Her motor skills are becoming more refined and she figured out this week how to do the IKEA stacking toy with the rings on the rod.
If given a comb or a makeup brush she will try her best to use them appropriately.
Sometimes when she poops she walks over to "tell me". Grabs my legs and talks/yells at me til I figure it out and change her.
We do the chicken dance with Dom and I caught her trying to follow along. She waves, waves some more, wiggles and claps.
She can walk carrying pretty big and heavy objects. I've heard this is a milestone in the second year, so figured it might be worth mentioning(?)
She's the kid that eats everything. Bark mulch? Sure. Bird poo? Sure. Dead bug? SURE! Dom was never really like that and I think I took it for granted.
She's getting better at independent quiet play. She can be kept very busy puttering around in the play kitchen for a while.
Started to color/scribble if given a crayon and paper. Can't be left unsupervised for a second though, because the crayon goes STRAIGHT to her mouth the moment I look away.
May not have any words, but she can do a few animal noises when prompted. Moo. Snort like a pig. Elephant trumpet (pretty weak one because I'm horrible at animal sounds).
If we ask where's Daddy, Dom, puppy/Sherlock, or Mommy she will find and point to us.
If she finds Sherlock somewhere she will go up and bury her face into him. He then either rolls over onto his back or snuggles and kisses her ear. She must be gentler than Dom, because Sherlock wasn't such a fan of him at this age. She just loves him so much!

A Typical Day:
0700: Wake and 8oz bottle whole milk
0730: Oatmeal with honey & cinnamon and some fruit/yogurt with Dom (we JUST started honey, so don't panic about the whole honey before turning 1 thing. Before that it was peanut butter)
0930: Snack if she's lasted this long
1100: Lunch with Dom
1130: 6oz bottle whole milk
1145-230: Nap.
230: 6oz bottle whole milk
300/330: Snack
500: Dinner
700: 8oz bottle whole milk and bed!