12 months…. my baby is officially ONE!

I can’t believe it.  I think I am in denial.  My baby is one year old.  I started to get emotional around her birthday.  How could so much time pass already?!?  I only just got back into my pre-pregnancy pants.  I miss my little squish who had the tinniest little cry and loved to snuggle.

Weight: 19 lbs 15 oz (25th percentile)

Height: 29.8 in. (75th percentile)

My long and lean baby

We had a lot of fun doing a smash cake photo shoot.  She wore the romper that she wore home from the hospital :)  Who needs a bath when you can just hose them down with the sprinklers. 

Challenges:

We have officially entered the tantrum phase.  Sigh.

Em still is a huge Momma’s girl.  She cries when daddy picks her up.  It is even harder because she LOVES Lan’s friends.  Dave is her best friend.  She absolutely loves him.  I think part of the problem is that she has started associating daddy with being taken away from mommy since he leaves with her in the morning and takes her to his parents.  My new plan is that he will start getting her in the morning and from naps and bring her to me.  That way he isn’t the one always taking her away from mommy. 

I am so tired of pumping at work and am trying to wean Em from breast milk while I am away.  I would like to still nurse her in the morning, after work, and before bed…. but I am so over pumping.  Getting her to take milk has been a big challenge.  She doesn’t like the bottle and only my father in law can get her to take my pumped milk… and that is with a lot of difficulty.  We have been trying to get her to drink cow’s milk at home and it is a no go.  She will take a few sips and then get mad that it isn’t water.  She LOVES water.  We have tried bottle, cup, sippy, and straw.  I am hoping that eating dairy products and nursing will fulfill her dietary needs… because getting her to drink milk is like we are torturing her.

Em’s new tricks, triumphs, and favorites:

Em has started blowing kisses and waving.  It is pretty much the cutest thing ever.  She will also copy you and try to snap and try to make indian noises with her mouth and hand. 

Her two top teeth cut finally

She has become an expert walker.  She now prefers to walk over crawl.  In fact she got caught under the coffee table because she was determined to walk out but was too tall.  So she was crouching and trying to walk.

Things that I love:

She is starting to notice all kinds of things.  She pointed out the stars at night.

She will point at things that she wants.

She loves to read and will bring us books that she wants us to read to her.  I have read Pat the Bunny so many times that I was able to recite it to my class by memory. 

We spent her birthday as a family.  Lan and I took the day off.  For breakfast I made her funfetti pancakes.  A real treat since I rarely give her junk food.  We first went to the Library and then the Park.  She loved the fish tank at the library.  We had an amazing time.   I also enjoyed going through her old photos and reading her birth story again.

 

We had such a good time at her birthday party.  It was the perfect weather.  All the kids loved playing in the play house on the grass.  Tons of friends and family showed up to bless our baby girl.  I did an owl theme, which is how her nursery is decorated.  I had so many ideas on things I wanted to do… and only got a few of them done.  I was the only one who knew the things that I didn’t get to… and in the end it doesn’t matter.  We had an amazing time.

I am so proud of what a smart, silly, sweet baby I have.  I love her more than I thought possible.  This year has gone so fast.  I love watching her grow and develop her personality.  Each new stage brings so much fun and excitement, but I grieve the stage that we have left.  I can’t wait to see what the next year will hold.

11 months

so I never weighed or measured her this month…. mommy fail.  Im also over a month late with her blog post.  Better late than never.

Challenges:

Em was teething a lot and for about four days would eat very little.  She only wanted to nurse and wouldn’t take a bottle.  She was visibly loosing weight.  Poor baby.  I took off work one day so that I could nurse her more often.  Being a working momma is hard… and when your baby needs you ad you can’t be there for her… it absolutely sucks.

Em’s new tricks, triumphs, and favorites:

This month was filled with a log of big firsts.  Em loves to slide and can go down by herself. 

She will point at eyes in a book and say the word eyes. 

She will tickle Elmo’s tummy to get him to laugh. 

She will kiss animals and pictures in books…. and occasionally your nose when you ask. 

She LOVES Jamba Juice.

Her favorite books are Pat the Bunny and Eat (filled with pictures of babies eating)

She also took her first steps.  the first one she took for dad while I was in the other room cleaning.  He says it didn’t count because she took the step and fell.  We then sat down as a family and she took another step.  I was so afraid that I would miss this first and I am so glad that she did it at home and not at Ohm and Noi’s house (grandma and grandpas). 

Things that I love:

I love watching her take her first steps. 

I love that she points to pictures in books.

I love how much she needs me and loves me. 

I love how silly she is.

I love that she is forming favorites.  She loves to read and has favorite books.  She has favorite toys too.  She loves to play with fake food and she is at the age where we can really pretend play.  I will pretend to drink from a cup and then so will she.

bunny rolls

so pinterest is my friend.  I pin and pin and pin… and actually make very few of the things that I pin.  Part of that is because I have zero free time during the school year.  I have blissfully enjoying the start of spring break…. and with Easter tomorrow, I decided to try out one of my pins and make bunny shaped rolls.  I used my pin on pinterest as inspiration  and made my own version with modifications.

First of all I used refrigerator biscuits because, although I am on spring break, I have a one year old. 

I broke off a small bit of a biscuit and set it aside to make the tail later.  I took the biscuit and started tucking it into itself so that I could make it a round shape instead of a flat biscuit, then rolled it in my hands to keep it together.  That would end up being the bottom of my biscuit.

I then took scissors and made two snips in the circle to make the ears.

Then I used a toothpick to make holes and put peppercorns in for the eyes and nose.  Next time I will poke them in further because some of my peppercorns fell out during baking.

I used a pair of scissors to make a slice in each ear to make it look more… ear like.

I gave a little pinch to the head . attached a ball of dough for the tail (be sure to attach these well so that they don’t fall off when baking), then brushed each bunny with melted butter.  I made sure to brush behind the ears so that they wouldn’t stick back to the body while baking.

Then I baked the rolls according to the directions.

Happy Easter!

perfect hard “boiled” eggs

So many people struggle with getting the perfect hard boiled egg.  Sometimes they are underdone and a chewy center and sometimes they are over done and rubbery with a chalky yolk.  Then there is always that mysterious green ring around the yolk to combat.

Well this is by far the easiest way to get perfect hard boiled eggs…. bake them. 

-Preheat oven to 325 or if you have a cooler oven then 350.  I have a convection so 325 was perfect for me

- Place one egg in each compartment of a muffin tin, then put them in the oven and bake for 30 min.  (don’t add water… you will literally bake them)

-While the eggs are baking prepare the ice bath.  You fill the bowl with ice then add cool water.  As soon as the eggs come out of the oven, use tongs to put them in the ice bath.  This will stop the cooking and make the eggs easy to peel.  Keep them in the ice bath until they are cool.

You will have the perfect hard “boiled” eggs.  Fully cooked yet tender and no green/blue ring around the yolk.