1st birthday party

There is a reason I am sad that Aubrey's birthday is in January and that is that there will always be the potential for bad weather. Mother Nature decided to show us that that potential by giving us a lovely snow storm that started the day before Aubrey's scheduled party. I did the no snow dance and made lots of prayers, but alas, none of them worked and the snow came anyway. We decided on Friday that the chance for snow was so great we would move the party to Sunday. Not a huge deal, but we knew that would limit some people being able to come, but we had to do it. We ended up getting about 4 inches of snow plus a nice layer of sleet/ice on top of it. Needless to say I was pretty upset by Saturday morning. Then, about 10:00 Saturday, the manager from Chick-Fil-A called me and canceled my party food order because the store was not opening that day. He said he could try to come in the next day and cook them, but there were no promises. Now, I was in real panic mode. We still planned for 20 people to be there and I had no idea what to do for food. Around lunch time, Todd, my mom, Aubrey, and I bundled up and threw the truck in 4-wheel drive and made the trip to Harris Teeter to pick up the cake. While we were there, we noticed a display of party foods in the frozen section that we guessed were being readied for Super Bowl parties. So, we gathered up a couple of boxes of frozen chicken nuggets, frozen pigs in a blanket, and a huge fruit tray and decided to cook the food ourselves. I called the manager at Chick-Fil-A back and told him thank you for his offer to come in and cook, but we would just take care of it own our own.

By mid-morning Sunday, the sun was shining and we noticed the snow was melting on our street so we started feeling a bit better about the party. Then, the emails and texts started coming in from people who couldn't make it. And my heart just sank. I was not mad at them because I didn't want anyone risking their life to make it to a party, but I was disappointed. We still decorated and made all the food and decided just to go with it. We ended up having 9 people make it out of the 40 invited, including 1 of my brave coworkers. We did have a nice time and the food turned out pretty good. We also watched the slideshow of pictures of Aubrey from the past year and it was so bittersweet to watch. The cake was fantastic and of course, Aubrey wanted nothing to do with smashing her big cupcake. She liked the cake once I started feeding her, but really never dug in. She started getting fussy around 2:30 and we ended up laying her down for her nap while everyone ate cake. I realized after the party, I never got my video camera out so I missed that opportunity as well, which made me even sadder. I know I should be grateful that we had sunshine and were able to have a party for her and I am. I am just sad that we didn't get to share it in the way we planned and hope that next year can be better.

In her party outfit

Her giant smash cupcake

After the party was over

1 year old!

It still seems unbelievable that I have a 1 year old. In reality, there is nothing different from January 25th to now except that number, but that number is a big deal. She had her 12-month check-up on her birthday and she continues on that 25th percentile curve in height (27.5 inches) and weight (19.3). Her noggin is still in the 75th percentile (46 cm). She was none to happy about her doctor poking and prodding her so by the time the nurse came for the shots, she was over it. Luckily, the nurse did all 4 shots in rapid fire, but Aubrey was pitiful. It was just as hard to watch her get these shots as her 2 month shots. We finally got her calmed down just in time to take her to the lab for blood work. To get her blood, they pricked her finger and squeezed 2 vials out of her finger. She was screaming and thrashing around so much the phlebotomist had to get another staff member to help her. Aubrey's screaming was great for making the blood flow fast but not so great for getting it to stop. She screamed for a good 3-4 minutes after they were done and no paci would help calm her down. She ended up getting blood on her onsie (which for future reference, I don't recommend putting your child in a white onsie to go to the doctor) and was just generally pissed off at us for an hour or so. She came home and took a nap and woke up back to her old happy self. While she slept, we put her birthday present together (all 38 screws by hand, thank you very much) and after her lunch she played like a champ. Unfortunately, we had to go to a visitation for my great uncle later that night, but we did eat some yummy Japanese food on the way there. After reading all of this, it doesn't sound like she had the greatest birthday and I am really glad she won't remember it. Hopefully, we can make up for it next year.

Milestones
***Attempting to drink cow's milk--still not going well, but we are making slow progress
***Dropped down to 3 bottles, working on weaning off
***Started eating real meals at day care
***Will now feed us some of her food if we open our mouth for her
***Started transitioning to the toddler room at day care
***She now says uh-oh, mama, and dada and makes a whole lot of other sounds
***She is pretty consistently signing the words eat and sleepy (even though I am not sure she is signing sleep on purpose)
***When she wants your attention, she will pull on on your leg and use her free hand to smack your leg until you acknowledge her
***Started actually petting the dogs instead of just grabbing their hair
***First New Year's Eve (which she slept through)
***She can now walk quite a few steps when holding someone's hand

***Still wears mostly 6-12 month and a few 12 month size clothes
Eating her birthday cupcake

Playing with her birthday present

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/