My Baby-Baby Turned 1!

Madeleine, who quite enjoyed the cream puffs mommy served

Reese on her 1st birthday (notice the dress?)

Ah, where did the time go?  Not surprisingly, I am late with posting about Sprinkle's 1-year birthday. Part of it is that I'm in denial that's she's already one, and part of it is that I find the annual birthday posts a bit intimidating. It's such an important milestone to document, so I find myself putting it on the back burner until I have time to sit, reflect, and say something profound about motherhood.

Alas, it's been over a month since she turned one, and as I should know by now as a mother of two, the time to sit and reflect is never going to come. I figure better to log a stream of consciousness post than not to do one at all, eh?

Oh, No, I Blinked!

Seriously, I know all parents say this, but I do not know where the year went. It seems like yesterday she was still in my belly and I was threatening my builder that I had to be in the house before I dropped the baby right on the porch. The past year has flown by even faster than it did with Reese. While I'm excited that Mads is getting to that "fun" stage (my favorite baby age is 1.5-2.5 where they're learning so much and starting to be like little people), I do feel a bit of regret and guilt… In my mind, that first year with Reese was all about Reese. Of course it's in part that I have two children who divide my attention, but also Madeleine is very definitely the stereotypical second child. With Reese, I spent tons of money on cute new outfits, got professional pictures taken MONTHLY, made sure that every holiday was commemorated (pictures with Santa and the Easter Bunny, personalized Valentine's Day cards, etc.). With Madeleine? Um, aside from her school pictures, we haven't had any professional pictures done and she's never been on Santa's lap. Now that I have two, I don't think this sort of stuff is very important (obviously!), and it's more important that I spend time to *make* memories with the girls rather than documenting them…but still, I hope that Madeleine doesn't look back one day, compare her shoebox of pictures next to Reese's storage-unit-full, and think she was any less loved. Although they have really different personalities and there are different things about them that elicit a smile, laugh, or a tug of the heartstrings, I can truly say that I love them both intensely and equally. Some days one or the other (or both, Lord help me) will drive me bonkers, but I can't even fathom life without either one of them. As I live and breathe, they are my monkeys!

Jabberwocky

Oh, does Sprinkle like to talk. Loud. Several of her teachers have commented how she has full-on "conversations" with them. You can talk to her, she'll blabber nonsensical sounds back to you, and then she'll pause waiting for your response. It's really cute, and it makes me wonder if she thinks she's actually saying something since she gets such intense facial expressions when she's "converses." She does have a limited verbal vocabulary which she uses in context:

• Thank You ("ta-too!)
• Bye
• Hi
• Ball (which she drawls - baaawwwlllll)
• Mama
• Dada
• Nose (which is more like "Noooohhhw" as she touches your nose and sometimes her own)
• No-no! (sigh… the joys of having an older sibling to teach a younger one. She says this and swings her arm around in front of if you're doing something she doesn't like)

She's very alert and recognizes a few names as well. If we ask "Where's Ong Ngoai?" or "Where's Ba Ngoai?" she'll look or point in the direction of her grandfather or grandmother.

Oh, and she blows kisses (puts open palm on her mouth and then makes a "Mah" sound) and waves bye-bye (opens and closes her fists).

Let's Get Physical

Since she was a large baby at birth and a very hearty eater, I've always considered her my BIG baby. At her 12 month appointment, however, she was just in the 80th percentile in height and weight (and 90th in head size - that's Jim's genes, I'm sure). She's by no means a delicate flower, LOL, but Reese was close behind in the 75th percentile at the same age, and in my mind Reese was small. Clothes-wise, she's starting to outgrow some of her 12-18 months outfits and is wearing 2T in some brands that run small (like Circo from Target).

Little (one of her nicknames - Reese is "Big") started walking at 11 months and of course immediately made a beeline to our stairs. The first time she escaped, she was all the way up to the first landing before we could catch her. We've put a baby gate in between the family room and the front of the house where the stairs start, and it's been working fairly well. If we forget to lock it or close it completely, she'll actually walk through and shut the door behind her. Sneaky monkey!

Like Big, she started getting teeth early (5 months) and now has four upper and four lower teeth.

Life's Essentials

She continues to eat and sleep well. We feed her adult food, and she's switched to cow's milk. I forgot how much I loved this stage because it means we always have whole milk in the fridge. Oh my god, whole milk is heaven! The week after she turned one, we cut her off from the bottle cold turkey. I was a bit worried - not so much because of a love of bottles but because she would never take her milk unwarmed. We gave it a go with unwarmed milk and after a couple of days of drinking less than normal (never outright refusing a sippy), she made the switch to cold milk sippies. Relief! In the first few weeks when I was feeling kind of like a sucker, I'd warm up her dinner milk, but she's fine without it. Foodwise, I'll say she's an adventurous eater (which is a nice way of saying that she'll inhale anything put in front of her and steal your food while she's at it.) Reese is in this extremely finicky stage and hardly eats, so it's nice that one of my kids will eat what I make for dinner without tears and threats involved.

She's doing two naps a day at home (around 11AM and another around 4-5ish. Her morning nap is usually about 2 hours and her late afternoon is 1-1.5). At school, they only put them down for a nap once, and she sleeps from 11:30-2:30 there. They just transitioned her to sleeping on a cot because she sleeps better for them on the cot. Apparently she'll sleep the full 3 hours on the cot, but in the crib, she'll only sleep 1-2 hours, get up, and start talking and rattling the side of her crib. Go figure! I'm definitely not doing a cot/bed at home yet - I have no doubt that she'll be off somewhere with her sister rather than sleeping.   Bedtime is at 8, and we usually hear from her around 7-7:15am.  If we're unlucky, then 6:30am, but we put pillows over our heads until 7, because we're good parents like that.

Mostly Mama's Girl

By all accounts (my parents, sisters, and her daycare teachers), Sprinkle is very easy to watch - cheerful and low maintenance.  When I'M in the room, however, she becomes oh-so-clingy and gets so mad and throws the most dramatic fits if I don't hold her.  We're talking full on laying on the ground, sobbing, huge wet tears... you'd think her very soul was being ripped out.  The minute I pick her up, she utters a "haha" (seriously) and all is good.   If I'm out of the room, she's easy-peasy again.   Needless to say, I've perfected the art of the commando roll in and out of the family room to keep out of her line of sight.   When Mommy's in the room, only Mommy will do.   Recently, however, she's been reaching out for Jim when I've been holding her.   She's always loved her Daddy but has never preferred him, so this a good turn of events for me.   There is a god!  I know, I'm a terrible mom for saying that, but seriously, we joke about Mommy being Sprinkle's bitch, LOL.

Second in line to Mommy is her sissy.   She loves following her around, and Reese is still good about playing with her.  I watched them play recently together for a good 15 minutes with Reese's little Bakugans.  I was holding my breath because I was sure that a) Sprinkle would try to eat one, b) Sprinkle would break one and then eat the parts, and c) Reese would flip out that Sprinkle was eating/breaking her toys.   I couldn't stand it any longer and broke up the party before the spell was broken by fighting.   Reese, oddly, loves to play with baby toys, and she'll play with Sprinkle with her Fisher Price toys and they'll push each other around on Madeleine's scooter.  Yep, you read that right - they take turns pushing each other around.  Reese with get on the riding toy, and Madeleine will stand behind her and push her.  So funny! 

There are a million things I've left out or already forgotten (sadness!).  Let's hope I'm better about documenting year two.