That's right, MONTHS. I refuse to come to terms with reality. In fact, I plan on referring to her as 192 months old on the day she turns 16. She is my baby and always will be and no one can make me stop. I will never admit that she is one-year-old. SO THERE.
The little monster had an interesting month. One minute she was as happy as a peach and the other she was a little, well, monster. She has decided that she is not only capable of, but really effective at, asserting herself. This is all fine and dandy as long as we cater to her every whim.
I WANT OUT OF MY CARSEAT RIGHT NOW. And no, I will not forget and be lulled to sleep by tranquilizing sound of the highway rolling under our tires. I will only get more and more mad until you remove me from these confines. Or you get in the backseat with me and feed me junk food. I'm partial to Goldfish crackers, so snap to it. Like YESTERDAY.
I DON'T CARE IF YOU TELL ME NO EVERY TIME I TRY TO CLIMB THIS GATE, I'M GOING TO DO IT ANYWAYS. I'll do it over and over and over and over until you eventually get so sick and tired of hauling me to the living room only to have me bee-line right back to the gate that you'll just let me do it. After no fewer than a thousand times of trying to deter me, even you will give up and not care if I fall down the stairs and crack my skull. That's all I want, WHY WON'T YOU JUST GIVE ME WHAT I WANT? I WANT A CRACKED SKULL RIGHT NOW!
She spent at least half of the month standing at her water table. And don't try to take her inside for dinner or try to warm her up and stop her from shivering because she will have NONE of it.
Renee talked in a lot of capital letters this month. In fact, pretty much everything she said was in all caps. TWEE! DA! DAT! KITTY! NO! Mama still sounds a bit like Bwa Bwa and come to think of it, I don't think she says that in all caps. Let's face it, I'm not all that exciting. I find the whole learning thing so amazing. She remembers things I've only ever told her once and points at every one of them with this proud little look on her face. She is a very inquisitive baby and starts pointing at everything the minute anyone picks her up, desparately wanting to say "Please tell me what DAT is called."
She is on the M-O-V-E and hits the ground crawling the minute you set her down to see what sort of trouble she can get into. She has mastered the art of climbing the stairs and is pulling herself up to stand next to EVERYTHING. She can navigate between the two ottomans in our living room and her balance is getting better every day.
She's started showing interest in reading books again so that is a lot of fun and is the ONLY time she is willing to sit still for anything. Well, that and having a bottle. For a baby that cried every time she even saw a bottle for the first 11 months of her life, she sure has grown fond of it. Like, sort of obsessively fond of it. I'm sure that is going to be a fun habit to break. I'm just glad that she still lets me cuddle her for at least 3 minutes per day. She especially likes the picture books where we point at something and tell her what it is called. She can identify over half of the things in her Baby's 100 First Words book. We knew she was a super genius from way back but she still astonds me every day with how fast she picks up words. Quit rolling your eyes and admit it, you think your kid is smart too.
Diaper changes are a TOTAL nightmare and it is getting to the point where I would almost rather just smell the rancid stentch coming from her pants than try to change it. She hates to have her clothes changed so she ends up in just a t-shirt most of the time. Is it time to start potty training yet? She picks her nose and picks my nose whenever I'm holding her and I am so thankful that I have daycare to blame for that. She claps at herself ALL of the time. The other day Ski had her in her carseat while he was taking the garbage out in the morning and he came back to get in the car to find her clapping at herself in the rear-view mirrow. All you have to say is the word Clap, even blended into a sentence, and she starts at it. She can wave bye-bye and violently shakes her head NO for no apparently reason at random times. If I say, 'Are you ready to go night-night?'...she immediately starts waving bye-bye followed by clapping. Every. single. time.
She giggles super loud at her daddy if he dances around like a crazy man. She pushes the button on her ABC magnets on the fridge and immediately starts dancing by rocking her little awkward body back in forth totally out of rhythm to the music. If I sing her the ABCs she will not rest until she has made her way into the kitchen to push the button to play the song back to me.
She'll eat anything covered in cheese or alfredo sauce or hummus but is pretty picky about everything else she eats. I've given her no few than a hundred different varieties of pizza and pasta and quesadillas this month and you know what? I'm FRESH OUT of ideas.
She burrows her head into anything soft: blankets, stuffed animals, her Lambie, Mommy's shoulder, whatever is around when she's tired and every SINGLE time her Dad says "Oh, so soft and so comfie" and she smiles this sweet little sleepy grin.
If I so much as mention the word bath she flies up there as fast as she can and flaps her arms up and down until we get enough water in the tub for her to start throwing everything off the edge in. She chugs water out of the cups that she is supposed to play with. Bathtime is the best time of the day.
I can't believe it's over, this first year. I can't believe how fast it went and I can't believe how much I have changed for the better because of her. I can't believe how many tears I've shed looking back through the literally tens of thousands of pictures I've taken of her trying to make her a book to remember her first year. Prepare yourself for a few posts of me obessing about this milestone including pictures from her first birthday party this weekend where she was pretty darn excited about smashing that cake. This is your warning...stay away if you don't want to hear me blubber on and on about my baby growing up.
Finally, my favorite picture this month. Oh, those eyes.
happy birthday renee!!
i love the one of her in the polka-dot dress, sooo cute! can't wait to see pics from the party.
Posted by: kim | June 30, 2008 at 05:48 AM
happy birthday renee! what a cutie! hope she has a great time smashing the cake. :)
Posted by: jenny | June 30, 2008 at 09:22 AM
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the beautiful little one! All of the pictures are just priceless, can't wait to see more. Miss all of you & hope to see you soon.
Posted by: Davina | June 30, 2008 at 12:33 PM