Almost 13 Month Evaluation (lots of bragging here)

Filed Under Milestones, Parents as Teachers, Talking, Twelve Months | 6 Comments

Today Bailey had her (almost) 13 month evaluation by our Parents as Teachers lady. They use the Denver Developmental Screening. For her, they used the 12 to 14 month range test. She rocked it!

She got the highest scores possible in all categories except fine motor (doesn’t place an object back on the ground when she’s finished; she just drops it, and doesn’t roll a ball). The PAT Lady (we’ll call her Alice) was very impressed by other things she’s doing that weren’t on the test, too. She said her communication and problem solving skills were great. Which I didn’t even realize. I guess I should be documenting this.

Bailey can “label” a lot of objects and can point out the following things:  Sconce, light, painting, balloon, kitchen, book, ball, doggie, baby, lion, there are probably a lot more that I’m not thinking of right now but those are the ones we did today.

She knows and points to quite a few body parts: Eyes, nose (for the first time today!), mouth, tongue (sticks it out and wiggles it), hair, toes, sometimes tummy.

She can take off her own socks and put her arms through the sleeves on her shirt.

She says: Mama, Dada, buh (balloon), goggie, woof, rrrrrr (roaring when she sees a picture of a lion), up

Signs for more, please, and all done. Waves hello/bye bye and claps. Points to objects, raises arms to be picked up, good use of pincer grasp to pick up little fuzzes and stuff, can imitate things like dumping out a jar, object permanence, bangs two objects together.

Follows simple commands without seeing gestures, like if we say, “Bailey, bring me your shoes” she will do it… if she’s in the mood that is…

Also she still loves to read and can turn the pages of books and point out objects in books. I mentioned that she has two favorite books right now that she always takes off the shelf and brings to use first, and Alice said that it was early to be showing preferences for stuff like that…. i don’t know if I entirely believe that because I think a lot of babies have preferences and likes/dislikes.

Overall, she said she was “very impressed and we are seeing lots of good things from Bailey.” There were not any concerns! Woo hoo!

WW- There’s nothing like riding a hippo backwards…

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Until now, Bailey has refused to get on any of her push along/ride on toys. (Or anything similar at the park, or Gymboree, or church nursery…) Finally this morning she decided to get on her Peek a Blocks Hippo. And just sit there. The funny thing is she has done this several times now and it’s always backwards. Maybe he’s easier to get on that way…. also he is in “pushing” mode and the seat isn’t even down.

Cinco de Mayo party

Filed Under Parties, Twelve Months | 7 Comments

I know today is actually Cinco de Mayo, but we partied on Saturday night. A friend of mine had a Tres de Mayo party at her house. We brought kids and food and had some drinks. I was kind of wishing I had left Bailey at my parents’ house, to be honest, because it would have been a lot more relaxing. I spent most of the time chasing Bailey and trying to entertain her. I got to see my friend Liz, who I haven’t seen in a few months I think. And my friend Silvana and her husband were there, without their kids. They have a new baby who I haven’t even met. We haven’t seen them in a while.

We weren’t sure how the weather would be, but we tried to make Bailey look festive and Mexican, lol. What do you think?

Here she is with her Aunt Jen-

She spent a lot of time that evening reading books in their living room. Well, alternating with her spastic running-around-and-eating everything-in-sight spells.

I really think next time, even if kids are welcome we might not bring Bailey when we go out. I want to just be an adult and not chase a toddler. I want to be able to sit and talk and have drinks and not worry about leaving when she starts fussing. I hate that I want to leave her at Grandma’s… but I just want to be Tara for a night and not Mommy. I hate even saying that

Our day with Alison

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Here are some pictures from Friday, when I watched Alison. I really don’t look forward to the days I watch her, to say the least. I watch her between one and three Fridays a month. It is really hard because, well, she is used to being the center of everyone’s attention (grandma watches her on other days) and so she kind of has issues with Bailey. Also they have a really big old house with a basement and three other floors, so lots of stairs/nothing babyproofed or gated/too many dangerous things. It is a long day when I’m there. On Friday I didn’t care WHAT we did, I just had to get out of the house. We were going to go to Monkey Joe’s, but when we got there it wasn’t open yet so I just took them to the mall instead.

We played in the play area

We went on some rides

We went to lunch at Chevy’s and they OPENED LATE. I know that sounds minor, but when you have two very hungry kids, one of whom needs to use the potty and the other who has a very wet, borderline leaky diaper, it’s a big deal. It was 15 freaking minutes after they were supposed to open. We stood and watched this stupid demo about acne treatments and then I let Bailey and Alison play in the camera shop thing next door.

Here is Bailey enjoying her lunch. She loves Mexican food, especially rice. And the spicier, the better. I was surprised she didn’t try to eat the tortilla dough that they give the kids to play with. Alison eats at Chevy’s all the time and she totally knows better… but she said to me, “Hey, is Bailey going to eat her bread?” I was like “What???” She said, “I already ate my bread. Can I have Bailey’s?” Nice.

B also loves sour things like lemons and pickes. I tried to capture the sour face She ate three lemon wedges (and half the peel on one of them!)

Just a quick post to say, yeah, I’m still alive!

Filed Under Daddy, Twelve Months | 2 Comments

We have had a really busy weekend so far! I watched Alison yesterday and then last night went to dinner with Faith. Today I went to the Baby Mania sale with my mom, then Jonathon and I got stuff ready for OUR garage sale, then we went to a Cinco (Tres) de Mayo party at Jen’s house.

I have lots of fun pictures to post from the past few days but will leave you with just these of my two sweeties

Yesterday afternoon we played outside while waiting for Daddy to get home from work. The weather was beautiful and it makes me so excited for some nice spring days!

In this second one she looks a lot like I do in some of my baby pictures. Sometimes she really seems to resemble me, other times Jonathon. But in this one, I really see me as a baby.

This is Love

Filed Under Being a Mom, Twelve Months | 8 Comments

She is the part of me that I never knew was missing until I met her. She filled up that empty spot in my heart. I love her.

News flash

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Bailey just ate an ant.

She poked it with her finger and popped it right in her mouth. Yum.

One Year Checkup

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Before I forget…

20 lbs, 2 oz (30%)

almost 29 inches (50%)

head 85% but I don’t remember the actual measurement

walking, starting to climb, waving, clapping, eating fine, she has five words, meeting milestones, everything looks good

We chose to wait on the chicken pox vax until 15 months, more about that later but I started thinking about it after reading this blog entry written by a mom I know.

Today she got MMR and Hep A

Declined lead test because she did not have any of the things on the checklist

She will not get her iron test until 15 months because she is still getting some formula now and dr wants to wait until she doesn’t get any formula at all to do that so it doesn’t affect the levels. Right now she gets about 6 oz a day because I was worried about her eating habits

Bailey’s Birthday Party

Filed Under Bailey's Birthday, Family, Food, Friends, Gifts, Grandparents, Twelve Months | 3 Comments

I guess it is time that I post pictures from Bailey’s party. I really feel okay about it. We had a good turnout with lots of friends there. The food was decent (just stuff I put together like a fruit bowl, veggie tray, watergate salad, chips and dip, etc). Her cake turned out cute even though she wouldn’t eat it. There weren’t any disasters, just a clingy, teething baby.

Bailey with my mom and our neighbor Jeannette

Friends Amy and Kaitlynn

Opening presents

See the little flower thing she has in her hand? She’s obsessed with it and takes it everywhere with her. That and the wand for the bubbles that Kelli gave her.

Bailey loves balloons. She has started trying to say “balloon.” She points to them and says “Buv!”

Sharing her toys with AJ, my friend Jen’s little boy

With my college roommate, Sarah

Birthday cake

We stripped her down to her diaper just in case she decided to eat her cake…

But she didn’t! She wanted nothing to do with it and cried until I got her out of her high chair.

Here she’s signing that she wants out

She’s glad all that nonsense is over so she can sit by herself and play her xylophone!

Happy birthday, sweetheart. We’ll try the cake again someday. If you’re anything like your mama, you will love cake with buttercream icing!

Check out my toofers

Filed Under Teething, Twelve Months | 1 Comment

Bailey has gotten like a million teeth in the past week. Last weekend was teething hell. Early this week, it ended and she has a whole mouthful of teeth to show for it. All the way across the top, bottom molars, and another bottom side one on its way!

While I was downstairs doing laundry…

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Bailey went in the bathroom and closed the door, and sat there in the dark until I came back upstairs. When I came up I heard this whining and thought it was coming from the bathroom. Sure enough, she was sitting there right in front of the door, just waiting to be let out.

Why is she so obsessed with closing doors right now? She always closes our closet and all the cabinets. Maybe because so many times when she starts to get into something we say “CLOSE IT!” She is such a curious little thing.

Botanical Gardens

Filed Under Outings, St. Louis, Twelve Months | 8 Comments

Today we took Bailey to the Missouri Botanical Garden. In case you didn’t know, Wednesday mornings are free for St. Louis City and County residents. My mom drove and we forgot to transfer the stroller to her car, but Bailey did a great job walking almost the whole time this morning. That kid never runs out of energy! They had a lot of new, kind of creepy sculptures that she played on and in with some other kids. She also sorted through the woodchips about a thousand times. We ran into some friends from our Kangaroo Kids nursing group. We hadn’t seen them in a month or two and it’s amazing how much they have grown just since then!

We ate lunch at the Sassafras restaurant in the main building. We also got to see a neat teak furniture exhibit, the Children’s Garden, the Climatron (which was a little warm today!) and lots of tulips.

Here was one of those sculptures- I think this one was a lion.

Peeking through the giant teeth of another sculpture… Now you know what I mean about them being weird, right?

Playing in the fountains- she loved it! We need to get a kiddie pool (big enough for me to get in too so I don’t melt in the sun) now that it’s warm out!

Then she started getting her shirt wet too so we decided just to go completely white trash and let her play in a diaper… but she loved it…

Bailey’s gifts

Filed Under Bailey's Birthday, Gifts, Twelve Months | 2 Comments

She got some really fun stuff for her birthday. My parents gave us money to pick out a playhouse for her, to put in the backyard. They also gave us a cute picture frame and my dad got her a little girls Ping golf hat. I think this is the playhouse we are going to get. I was looking on Craigslist but couldn’t really find anything we wanted.

My grandparents contributed more money to her college savings account, and gave her this little guy from Kohls who she just loves every time we go in there.

Jonathon’s parents sent her two books. One of them is this Elmo music book that she is obsessed with right now.

My friend Faith got her this cute swimsuit from Target, and a matching coverup and towel. Hopefully we will get to the pool a lot more this summer.

She really likes this zoo that she got from her Aunt Jen.

Here is a Children’s Place dress she got from my other friend Jen, that I managed to find a picture of. Because I am way too lazy to actually get my camera out right now.

Some of her other favorite toys are a set of wooden alphabet blocks and a circus that you can take the animals in and out of. She likes to put the wooden blocks inside the circus tent. She got so many nice things. Lots of cute clothes and fun toys. We are going to wait and introduce the other toys maybe one every few days so she can enjoy the “newness” for a while.

Celebrating Bailey’s Birthday

Filed Under Bailey's Birthday, Outings, Twelve Months | 3 Comments

On Wednesday, we took Bailey to Penneys to get her pictures done. They turned out so cute. She wore this dress:

Jonathon took a half day off work and met me while she was getting her pictures taken. Ms Rita was having a horrible time with her (we always use the same photographer-there is one woman there who is horrible and Rita gets the cutest shots) anyway Bailey kept leaving the room. She just wanted to walk around the mall. So it took almost 40 minutes to get her pictures done! But we got some really cute ones, and it was so worth it. Anyway by the time we were done, we just had time for a quick lunch so we went to Chick Fil-A. Bailey got to share little bites of my chicken sandwich and fries. She loved it!

She also got a balloon from the guy at the counter. (Note that she had already gotten TWO balloons the day before: One at the grocery store and one at Oberweis!) She loves them but they drive me crazy and I usually cut a hole in them and deflate them after she goes to bed. She gets her feet so tangled in the strings and I am always afraid she’s going to pop one and scare herself.

After we finished eating, we left the mall and went to Gymboree for the open play time. She had so much fun. There were only two other kids there. The weather was really nice, but we had already decided we were going to take her there for her birthday. In fact I am announcing now that we are having her party there next year. So no stealing my idea. Here are some pictures of her playing. She mostly like playing with the balls (we got her the small ones with the holes in them and also a bumpy little one, and we got bubbles). So almost all the pictures are of her with a ball She walked around a lot too and even climbed a little bit.

These bubbles seriously last forever. The little girl Alison who I used to watch had them, and they would last literally overnight. If I came back in a room the next day there would still be some left on the floor.

Oh yeah and she got a balloon at Gymboree too. That’s four in two days.

Twelve Months, One Year…

Filed Under Bailey's Birthday, Twelve Months | 13 Comments

Either way you say it, you’re not a teeny baby anymore. You are a one-year-old. As of 9:38 tonight, you have been outside of Mommy for a full year. I think of you more as a toddler now and not so much as a baby… maybe that’s because you’ve been walking for over a month now. Maybe it’s because you are so smart and chatty and you have enough personality for ten kids. You amaze me and fascinate me and frustrate me all at once.

Keeping up with you is a full-time job. You race through the house in a mad dash to throw anything in the toilet or to empty my purse before I can catch you. You love opening and closing cabinets. Sometimes I find your toys in our rubbermaid bowls. You continue to love to read. You have two bottom teeth and four on the top (that last one is just breaking through). You clap and wave and can reach down to pick things up without falling over. You like to pat our arms and shoulders while we hold you. You are more affectionate now and lay your head on my shoulder when I hold you. I love that you like to snuggle now. You still love animals. Just the other day, we went to the Children’s Zoo and you said “Woof” to all the goats.

You are still picky about solid food and right now you prefer to have us feed you baby food. I wish you’d kick that habit, because it’s not cheap! You still nurse in the morning and at bedtime but you take bottles most of the time during the day now. I am just so happy we made it to “our” goal of one year breastfeeding! We had such a rough start.

Another thing I just remembered. You love when I open your closet so that you can see all your clothes. You get so excited. You also like us to carry you around and let you look at all the pictures in our house, and the wooden bell and the frog. You know quite a few objects by name, including sconce, which makes me laugh. You point to the items when we ask you where they are.

I can’t wait to see what this second year of your life has in store for us. Lots of adventures, trips to the park and the zoo and Grant’s Farm as the weather gets warmer… music classes and walks and playdates with friends… probably you learning colors and lots more words and maybe starting to try to use the potty. I don’t know if I’m ready for all of this! Go easy on me, little muffin. We’ll learn together.

I love you.

Mommy

Bailey at 9:38 pm on April 16, 2007

And at 9:38 pm on April 16, 2008