This morning we went to the Target Portrait Studio to get Alethea’s one year photos taken.  I know I’m over a month past her birthday, but I’ve been putting off scheduling an appointment because Alethea has had one bruise after another on her forehead and I was hoping for bruise-free photos.  Finally I just decided that I’d better schedule the sitting and make the best of it before we were taking 20 month photos instead and what do you know, the past few days have been bruise-free and things were looking promising for this morning’s photo shoot.  So far, so good…

Now just have to get her dressed and out the door…

I’m not sure how she knows, but Alethea always seems to sense when I most need her to cooperate and get going quickly and that is always when she is the most difficult.  She did not want to get dressed.  She wanted to read books.  We compromised with me putting her clothes on while she stood next to her shelf and pulled all the books off.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.

The diaper cover went on okay, but as I pull the dress over her head, she looses her balance and ‘whack’ her forehead smacks the bookcase.  As I groan, she bursts into tears and I contemplate whether to call off the whole thing.  But she’ll never be a one-year-old again, so we finish getting ready and run out the door.

After a frustrating photo shoot that included Alethea crying whenever we tried to get her to sit on the floor, her throwing the letter “o” (part of the word “one”) across the room multiple times, and generally just being difficult, we got a handful of good pictures and I think I actually heard the photographer sigh with relief when we left.

Not really.  The photographer was very professional, but after Alethea screaming for the last half of her infant pictures and now this at her one-year set, we may end up on some sort of Target Portrait Studio black list.

Any chance she’ll be more cooperative at two years?  One can only hope.

Yesterday was Alethea’s thirteen month birthday.  Happy birthday, Baby Girl!

Since I never actually got an update written at twelve months, I’ve got two months to go over here.  First off, at Alethea’s 12 month appointment she got her stats checked.  Since I’ve lost the piece of paper on which the doctor wrote everything down I don’t have all the info, but I do remember that her height was 29.5 inches and her weight was 22 lbs and some oz which put her in the 50th percentile for height and 75th for weight.

In the last two months Alethea has certainly made a lot of progress on her walking skills.  When she decides to really get going she looks like she’s close to running.  She also can get to her feet using just the floor to stand up, which I first discovered when she did so in the bathtub and nearly wiped out.  (We’re still working on the whole “must stay seated while in the tub” rule.)

Alethea continues to amaze us with her expanding vocabulary.  It seems like every day or two she whips out a new word.  Her current vocab list includes: mama, daddy, grandma (ma-ma-ma), hi, go, car, truck, shoes, sock, flower, hippo, clock, cup, ball, book, nuk, and of course, “all done”.

Along with her expanding vocabulary is coming an ability to obey commands.  She sometimes will do what you ask if you say things like, “Alethea, go get your shoes” or “Let’s go upstairs so we can change your diaper”.  Her highest rate of follow through though is when you say, “Alethea, come here, I’ve got ice cream for you.”  She’s really good at that one.

On the down side of her growing social/verbal skills, she seems to be hitting the terrible twos a little early.  Lately when she doesn’t get her way she will flop down tragically on the floor and cry as though we’re breaking her poor little heart.  If we ignore her and move away (which is our current strategy) she will pick herself off the floor, come find us and repeat the performance.  It’s actually kind of funny in the moment (although I do my best not to laugh when she’s in the middle of her melt-down) but seriously, she is such a little drama queen!

Her favorite foods are currently: blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and pasta.  She generally doesn’t eat meat, although if she’s in the right mood, deli ham or chicken nuggets may be acceptable.

The other day I saw her sit down on the floor and play with a toy.  I know that doesn’t sound remarkable, but as I watched her, I asked myself, “What’s wrong with this picture?”  Suddenly I realized that I literally haven’t seen her sit and play with a toy since she learned how to stand up.  She generally carries toys with her as she makes her rounds in the house.  Sometimes she’ll play with a toy on the coffee table or couch, but until recently, she didn’t like slowing down long enough to actually sit and manipulate an object.  It just seems like she’s always on the move.  Lately though, she’s shown a little more interest in doing “sit still” activities like stacking blocks and putting smaller objects inside larger ones.

In all other areas, Alethea continues to be her same assertive and independent self.  Her daily activities include playing with toys, dancing to music, taking all the food out of the cupboards and then trying to eat the cardboard boxes, climbing the stairs and looking out the dining room window so that she can squeal loudly whenever a dog walks by.  During the course of these tasks, she also manages to maintain a constant dialog with herself and I am always curious to know what she’s babbling about.

This update it getting quite long, so I’ll just close by saying that Alethea is at a really fun stage right now and Peter and I just having such a fantastic time watching her grow up.

Here is the video of Alethea’s hilarious reaction to her candle being blown out on her first birthday cake.  Sorry it took me so long to get it posted, but better late than never, right?

This doesn’t make you smile:

So everyone remembers the story of the Velveteen Rabbit, right?  How the little boy loved the stuffed rabbit so long that it became real?   Well, I think a similar process is happening in our house right now.

Alethea’s favorite stuffed animal (one of two that she sleeps with) is a little stuffed dog.  The thing she seems to find most comforting about it is the way its snout feels when she chews on it.  Thus, it is not the cleanliest creature around.  Just like a real dog…

The other day I was holding her and she was holding her puppy and I asked her, “What’s that smell?  It’s kind of like a wet dog smell.”   And then I realized that the smell was a wet puppy, if you will.  Just like a real dog…

This morning I told Alethea, “Today we are washing your dirty laundry and your stuffed animals are going in too.”  So you see, the puppy is getting a bath.  Just like a real dog…

You are my Sunshine

My only Sunshine

You make me happy

When skies are gray

You’ll never know

Dear little girl

How much I love you

So please don’t take

My Sunshine

Away

XOXO,
Mommy