Amélie Twelve Months

My little happy baby turned one last week. She's been all smiles most of the time, smiley at everyone she encounters and waving hello. She really is becoming a little girl and her personality is coming through more each day. She's just recently learned how to give kisses, but usually will only give them to us at night before bed and also cuddles every soft stuffed animal you offer her especially her bunny and pooh bear. It's the cutest how affectionate she is with them. 

The good news is Amélie has been sleeping through the night for the past few weeks, mainly from 8 or 9 until 6ish. She still takes two naps, usually one in the morning around 8 and another in the afternoon after lunch around 2. These last anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours depending on the day. 

Her favorite foods are definitely still strawberries, blueberries, clementines, meatballs and any kind of bread. She's also been liking shrimp and roast chicken lately though vegetables are a different story. Cubed and roasted sweet potatoes and butternut squash are okay with her, but anything green is a no go. Usually I'll try to hide some vegetables in her pasta like peas, spinach or kale, but avocado, green beans and broccoli are just swiped off her tray. I've also dropped her middle of the day milk feed and tried replacing it with whole milk, but she's not a fan of it. I just breastfeed her when she wakes up and before she goes to bed, which makes life a little bit simpler. 

Amélie has been cruising all around furniture for the past couple of weeks and is becoming very good a walking around the house with her walker. I'm not sure when she'll take the leap to her first steps, but A has caught her a few times letting go and standing without holding on to anything, We'll see though, I'm not in a huge rush for her to start walking for some reason. She's just growing up too fast. 

More on her first birthday party in the next post, but here are a few pictures from her actual birthday last Saturday. We all had pasta and meatballs (her fav) and carrot cake to celebrate. 

^^Patiently waiting for her dinner while we do a test balloon with the helium tank we bought

^^Nonna feeding her pasta and meatballs

^^Either very excited or a little bit confused by the cake

^^Happy birthday little miss

^^A few presents from mommy and daddy

^^She loves those wooden blocks. 

Happy very first birthday Amélie! 

Amélie Eleven Months

The baby is asleep, I'm having a brownie with strawberries & whipped cream, and I'm actually blogging on time, which makes for a great evening in my eyes. Though A has been away on a business trip all week, Amélie has made it pretty easy for me to take care of her all by myself. She's been a very happy baby recently despite having 5 more teeth trying to poke through at the same time. 

I wish I could say that Amélie has been sleeping through the night consistently, but lately she's been waking up at one point in the middle of the night just wanting a little bit of comfort. Nothing is particularly wrong, but I usually just lay by her crib for a little while until she falls asleep again. I think the problem lies in the fact that she is standing up in her crib and not knowing that she can get herself down/back to sleep. There are still nights when she sleeps through, but not nearly as many as I would like! 

In the past month, Amélie has been learning how to feed herself so well. She's great at picking up blueberries now with her forefinger and thumb. Almost every meal involves finger foods unless I'm giving her small pasta, cereal, soup or anything stew-y which I will still feed to her. She is starting to become a little bit of a picky eater though with berries, bread, pasta and meatballs at the top of her list and salmon, avocado and melon at the bottom. Her absolute favorite food in the entire world though are clementines. She is so obsessed with them and gets so excited when you even show one to her. If you start peeling it, she is even more elated. She gobbles down an entire one within minutes.  

In the past few days, Amélie is loving being upright. She pulls herself up every chance she gets and is slowly starting to cruise around furniture. I am very excited for her to walk, but I know that means even more chasing around the house. She's also learned how to clap last weekend. It happened all of a sudden while she was having dinner and now she's all about clapping, giving high fives and shaking my hand. Plus, she continues to say "da da da" almost all day plus "ma ma ma ma" in a whiny voice when she first wakes up and when we approach dinner time. 

The other day while we were paying for something in line, Amélie turns around to the man behind us and says, "dada....DA DA?!" and his simple, but stern response was "NO." It was one of those you had to be there moments and the man was seriously not impressed, but I thought it was funny! 

^^Leave her for a minute and she's off to find her bath toys or the recycling. 

^^Her favorite spot in the house to destroy. 

^^Being silly with daddy after bath time.

^^Slightly too big for her bouncy chair, but so sweet clutching her toothbrush while napping. 

^^Easter selfie attempt, having cake at a first birthday party, standing like a boss and watching cartoons

^^Easter fun with Auntie Maria and getting into those cookies! 

^^And finally, some prepping for Amélie's first birthday party. 

Happy 11 months Amélie, just one more month until you are ONE! 

Amélie Ten Months

^This face sums up her general mood this week.

^^The path of destruction she leaves behind as I am trying to keep her busy as I cook.

Amélie is 10 months old this week and in general has not been a very happy camper. I think this is the longest stretch since she was born that I’ve seen her in such an overall grumpy mood for so long. I blame it on teething (she has three poking through now) since I’m not sure what else it could be. She’s just over 18 pounds now (8.25 kilos) and growing longer each day.

As for sleeping, Amélie has been great at sleeping through the night from about 7 or 8 pm until 6 or 7am. There was a week where she was waking up around 2am, but I think it was because she learned how to pull herself up in her crib and didn’t know how to get back to lying down. One night we didn’t see her in the baby monitor and thought she has escaped in her room, but she was just out of the frame sitting in the far corner of her crib crying. It was cute, but sad. She’s back to her normal sleeping through now though and it’s really really wonderful.

As for eating, Amélie fed herself blueberries last week and I almost cried. I was just so happy she finally figured out she could eat the food I’ve been putting on her tray for months now. It all started with mini pancakes and bread, but with blueberries in particular she loves to try to feed herself. I say try because it’s pretty much her whole hand that goes into her mouth and a blueberry almost makes it in there. It’s all about the effort though, right?

As for her developments, my favorite is when Amélie puts things away. She puts all her play food back into its basket and what I like to think of cleaning up. It’s all about putting cups into cups and her toys into other things. She’s also the learned how to give stuff to us when we ask, which is just too adorable. She also has learned how to play ball with daddy. In these past couple of days she’s been reaching out for mama or toys and waving, but just to the baby in the mirror (I wonder if she’s figured out it’s actually her yet). Dancing is another favorite of Amélie, her favorite song is Mine by Taylor Swift! She also knows the areas in the living room she is not supposed to go to (the desk & plant) and whenever I turn my back, she’s off and quickly crawling to the restricted areas. I tell her no, she smiles, bring her back to her play area, and she’s off again. That pretty much sums up my day of chasing her around.

^^Teddy bear's picnic, cuddles and having fun at baby sensory class. 

^^I wouldn't recommend hiring Amélie to fold your clothes, but she's good at taking selfies. 

Happy 10 months Amélie, I can't believe you're just 2 months short of being one!