Happy Birthday my sweet Aubrey!!!

I will write the official 12-month post soon, but for now I just wanted to say what a surreal day it was. Even after anticipating it for the last 12 months it still just didn't seem real that my baby girl (and not even really a baby anymore.. sniff, sniff) is really 1. I kept thinking back about where I was or what I was doing this time last year. We even drove the same route this morning to take Aubrey for her well visit that we drove going to the hospital to deliver her and it made me a little teary-eyed. So, silly, I know. But my little girl is growing up and it just makes me a little sad.

This time last year...

we were timing contractions on our living room floor. How is that possible? Has it really been a year since I was huge and pregnant and dying for Aubrey to come out? It just doesn't seem real.

Cow's milk and real food

That time has come for Aubrey to start drinking cow's milk and she is not happy with it. We have been trying for almost 3 weeks to get her to drink milk and most of our attempts have been big fat FAILS. Sigh... We have resorted to adding cow milk to the breast milk in her bottles so hopefully she will learn to drink it as we slowly lower the amount of breast milk over time. But, I was really hoping to be done with bottles soon and this is stretching that out a bit. I know, it's not about us, but man, Todd and I will be ecstatic when we can stop washing and packing bottles everyday. She is down to 3 bottles per day right now and I think after this week we will drop her day care bottle. She doesn't drink a lot from a sippie, so that's the only concern that I have at this point because she needs to continue to be hydrated and get her calcium. I know she might never drink enough milk and I can't say I blame her because I really don't like milk unless it's loaded down with chocolate syrup, but she's got to get her milk without all that sugar at this point in her life. So, instead we will keep fighting the battle and hope that we can win.

In other nutrition-related news, Aubrey has started eating the big kid food at day care, which is a pretty big step. It's so much easier to not have to pack her breakfast and lunch every day. Plus, she gets to eat a bigger variety of food that we don't eat here. Maybe slightly less healthy than I would give her, but it's free so I don't complain too much. Her teachers say she eats very well which makes me feel good. But, her lunch does include milk, which from what I've written above, you can tell not much is getting down with her lunch. At least she drinks her water with her snack, so she is getting some liquid in her. The next step will be when she moves to the toddler room in a few weeks she will be eating at a table, in a regular chair, and from a plate. Right now, when the give her a plate with food, she takes a few chunks of food from it, puts it on the table, eats them from the table, and repeats. I bet that is too funny to watch. Oh, well. As long as she is eating, who cares what the process is.

Working on walking

Even though it seemed like Aubrey was late crawling, she is doing pretty well with trying to move on from four-legged movement. She is trying to stand up most of the time now, whether that means pulling up on us, the couch, her toys, or anything that will let her be straight up. We are trying to encourage her to start walking (do you see the gray hairs already forming underneath my scalp?) by getting her to use the walking toy she got for Christmas. At first, she was not so sure about this thing that moved when she stepped forward, but now she seems to enjoy it. I think she likes riding on it even better, but that kills my back so that only happens every once in a while. The biggest problem we have with getting her to use this toy is she LOVES to push the lion's nose because it makes noise. And she has learned that when it moves it makes noise, so she stops walking, cruises around to the front of the toy, and starts pushing its nose like crazy. It's really funny, but slows the walking progress down a bit. I don't want to push her too much, but I also want her to be able to walk soon because she is moving to the toddler room at daycare and I don't want her to get run over by the walkers.

Please pray for Harrison

I am thankful for Facebook. It has allowed me to reconnect with many old friends that I haven't seen or spoken to in years. One of those friends is Lisa. I've known Lisa since sometime in elementary school. Like many people, we lost touch after high school. Even though we ran into each other a few times over the last 12 years, we never really had a way to keep in touch. Due to the wonder of Facebook, we became "friends" again and could keep up with the other one. She offered some encouraging words to me after Aubrey was born and I appreciated that. After some time she announced she was pregnant with her 2nd child and I was so happy for her. About halfway through her pregnancy, she found out her son has a serious genetic condition called Cat Eye Syndrome. He was born in December and it appears he has a pretty tough road ahead of him. Lisa has created a blog about son's life and I wanted to share it with everyone. Please read about little Harrson and give a special prayer for him and his family. He is fighting so hard for his life and I am sure every extra prayer can help.

http://www.cateyesyndrome.blogspot.com/