12 Months

It is getting harder and harder to photograph Eva. These were the only ones that weren’t blurry because she is always on the go.

On December 8th, Eva turned one year old. ONE WHOLE YEAR. All last week, I was extremely emotional. It didn’t help that our good friends had a baby girl just two days before her birthday. It brought back all those early memories and excitement at the hospital. I’ve reflected back through this year. Each month brought something new and I can thoroughly say that I enjoyed each month of Eva’s life. The first couple months were difficult because of the crying and the lack of sleep, but there’s something so sweet and special about an innocent newborn baby. And these last couple months have been filled with laughter as Eva’s personality has begun to shine.

This past month has been so much fun. Eva started walking and, once she got the hang of it, hasn’t stopped. She is so curious and always wants to be busy. She entertains herself easily with her toys and books, which is nice because sometimes I have a lot of work and can’t play with her all day.

Eva finally likes baths again. We realized we have to let her stand beside the tub for a while and then she wants to get in and splash. It’s nice not having to bathe a screaming baby anymore.

Recently Eva has started to interact with other babies. To put it bluntly, Eva doesn’t know how to play with other kids yet. She does not like sharing and she sometimes turns into a drama queen. Hopefully we can teach her good social skills these next couple months so she is ready for nursery.

We joked several weeks back that Eva was singing, “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.” The two top ones came in, plus a third, and now she is cutting her fourth top tooth. Needless to say, it’s been kind of rough. Cutting teeth comes with nights of screaming and an emotional baby. But what can you do? At least on those days she is extra cuddly!

Last week, Eva got her 12 month shots. I always dread getting her shots. She is always so happy playing in the waiting room and has no idea what is about to happen. Fortunately, she calmed down with some graham crackers and the shots didn’t affect her much this time. But the next day we went to her 12 month checkup. At the end, my doctor told us she needed to get blood work. It is routine at our office for one year olds to get it done to test for iron levels and to make sure they haven’t been exposed to anything bad such as lead. Holy cow. That was such a horrible day. She screamed the entire time. It was so sad to see her in so much pain! But all is well and hopefully we won’t have to do that again! For the record, Eva is 21.5 pounds and 27 inches long.

Likes

Pat-a-cake, waving, playing peek-a-boo, saying “Hi”, reading her puppy book, baths, eating pasta, running, swinging, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, brushing her hair, wearing necklaces and aprons, unfolding the folded laundry, getting into everything and anything, getting tickled and tickling back (that’s the cutest thing ever, BTW), pretending to talk on the phone, giving hugs to her stuffed animals, chasing and getting chased.

Dislikes

Diaper changes, putting on clothes, sitting still at church, anything she ate yesterday, the vacuum cleaner,  second nap of the day, cow milk.