I know I am late writing Caroline's 12 month blog post. One month and 6 days past exactly from her first birthday. Ugh. The month of July was a busy one!
Well, since I am a month past, I will blog about this past month and what Caroline's currently up to in her 13th month.
Caroline Joy
12 Months
Weight: 21 lbs 88 oz / 79th %tile
Height: 30 inches / 90th %tile
Head Circumference: 18.25 inches / 86 %tile
At TWELVE MONTHS you are wearing 6-12, 6-9, and 12 month clothing. You need a smaller size of pants/shorts because of you short legs (just like Daddy as a baby!). You were wearing size 3 diaper but this past month we have switched you to size 4.
At TWELVE MONTHS you are down to just taking a morning bottle and a nighttime bottle. We have the rest of your drinks throughout the day in sippy cups. You love drinking out of straws - especially your big sister and brother's straw cups. If you see anyone drinking from anything, you think you need to have a drink, too. Same goes for food. You think you can eat just about anything!
You haven't made the transition from formula to cow's milk very smoothly or easy. Right before your birthday, I started introducing milk and you were not interested from the start! We tried mixing the two to ease into the switch, but you refused to drink if more of the mixed ratio was milk. I tried warming it up a bit thinking it was the cooler temperature. Nope. So, because you still drink some formula, I now am still giving you two bottles a day. You seem to like vanilla almond milk as an alternative, but I am not giving up on your love for milk. (I am so over buying formula and bottles, Caroline! ;))
You love to eat! Love it! A lot of the times I feel like you are a garbage disposal and I don't ever know if you're truly full or not. Sometimes you might take your bib off and throw it on the floor to signal your done, but not a lot of the time. You still love to feed everything to yourself - rarely letting me spoon feed her. You've been trying to master eating with utensils because you see all of us doing it.
Some of your favorite foods to eat are: strawberries, blueberries, grapes, banana, peaches, mangoes, green beans, cheese, yogurt, crackers, any sweets!, baked beans, sweet potatoes, and pancakes and waffles with syrup.
Some of the foods you haven't been interested in are: noodles or pasta dishes, any meat, mashed potatoes, and most vegetables. You are game for trying anything that's on your plate but spit it back out right away if you don't like it.
This photo shoot was a constant struggle between Caroline and Mommy over keeping her 12 month sticker on her shirt. You thought it was fun to keep taking off, handing it to me, and then trying to reapply it back on your shirt somewhere. ;)
At TWELVE MONTHS you have been a great sleeper at night. You sleep through the night and will occasionally cry out, like clock-work, right around mid-night. You go to bed around 7:30 p.m. and then wake up 12 hours later at 7/7:30 a.m. You love to snuggle with Daddy and Mommy in bed in the mornings.
You still sleep with your security size muslin blanket, paci, sound machine, and nighttime CD. You seem to sleep the best when the room is dark. You do a great job of falling asleep on your own. You might fuss for a minute after we put you to bed, but then you quiet down for the night.
Your napping schedule is a bit all over the place depending on what time you wake up and what we have scheduled for the day. You are very flexible if your napping gets skipped or pushed back. You are still taking two naps a day. Your morning nap is around 10/10:30 and you sleep for about an hour. You then take an afternoon nap around 3/4ish and can vary from 1.5 to 2 hours.
At TWELVE MONTHS you became a little walker! You were not walking by yourself at your first birthday, but a few weeks after you started taking off! You actually started standing up, not holding onto anything, a lot before taking any steps. And you did this crawl walking on your knees only. Never have seen a baby do that before. You are doing more and more walking every day and a lot less crawling. Daddy and I were just saying today how it still seems weird to see you up and walking all around the house. You look so proud of yourself as you have the biggest smile the lights up your face as you trot along! Beginning walkers are just the cutest! You and your wide-stance and bowed legs! :)
At TWELVE MONTHS you have five teeth. Right around your birthday your top, right, front tooth came in making your teeth count to 4. Just this past week, the tooth next to your left, front tooth has started to come in. You haven't seem too bothered by it so far.
At TWELVE MONTHS you are a chatter box!! You can say mama, dada, and bah (bye) as you wave. You are constantly jabbering to yourself (especially as you are walking around the house going to from room to room) or trying to tell us something. You like to say, "Mama" and then have me reply back to you, "Caroline" Then you repeat this over and over. And your voice level can get pretty loud! ;) You love to imitate sounds we make or buzzing and popping with our lips/mouths. I think it's looking like we might have a house filled with girls who like to talk - the poor boys in our family! ;)
You have the best big brother who loves you so much (and Kate too!!). Matthew was such a helper trying to get you to smile or chase after your 12 month sticker as it was blowing away in the grass after you'd take it off. Both Matthew and Kate are so patient with you. They give you so many hugs and kisses throughout the day and help with whatever you need and never get angry with you. You're very lucky, Caroline! And the twins are lucky to have such a loving, fun, silly little sister!
At TWELVE MONTHS some of your favorites are:
* taking a bath and swimming - once you hear the bath water running you immediately come to the bathroom and start trying to crawl into the tub.
* playing with bowls and utensils
* playing with phones and remote controls
* climbing up onto Kate and Matthew's beds
* climbing stairs
* playing in the bathroom cub boards - getting out the kids' toothbrushes, air freshener, and mommy's make-up. And you've been known to play in the toilet water some, too! ;)
* crawling into the dishwasher and unloading all of the silverware and kids' plates
* looking out the window/front door and watch Daddy mowing or people outside
* stroller rides and falling asleep in the car
* climbing in and out of chairs that are just your size
* playing with Matthew's trains and Kate's princess clip dresses
* being right in on the action - must be in close proximity of everyone and doing what we are doing. You like to get what you want to play with and then bring it and sit in my lap and play.
Nicknames: Caroliners, Liners, Liner-bears, Liney, Freight-liner, Diesel, sister bear, sissy
Happy 12 Months to the cutest, fun-loving, silly, snugly Liner Bears!
