Happy birthday to my dear baby Sarah! I am so blessed to be your mother. I can't believe an entire year has already passed, and yet I also can't believe it's only been a year. I feel like she's still a little baby, but at the same time I can barely remember those first few days and weeks. I guess that's what sleep deprivation does to you. :) It must be all part of God's plan to make us forget how hard and tiring infant care can be so that we continue to have babies. All we remember is how cute and cuddly they are! (This is not a subtle way of saying we're having more babies. Negative on that front.)
I forgot about the 11 month update (sorry, Sarah) but the past couple of months have been quite exciting. I can't remember when she finally cut her first tooth, but she is now well on her way to four teeth. They've all been coming out in the past few weeks. Poor Sarah. She's been a bit more cranky lately I think (or maybe she is just a little firecracker who gets mad and likes to yell) but overall has been okay. Just don't get between her and her food and sleep and she's pretty much happy. A few nights ago she had a huge meltdown from overtiredness (she's in a transitional nap stage) and I had to practically wrestle with her and hold her to get her to calm down and go to sleep. With her tiny teeth she has probably eaten her weight in Cheerios and has started eating rice, pizza, and pasta, among other things. In general, she seems to be more into table food these days. Fortunately her teeth are arriving just in time.
Sarah has not developed her motor skills quite as quickly as Noah did, but in the past few weeks has made a lot of progress. She is now able to go from crawling to sitting position easily, and is becoming better and better at pulling herself up to standing position and then sitting back down again. Walking is still a far way off, but it has been exciting to see the sudden burst in development. She's managed to take a few steps while we hold her hands as well, but is still pretty wobbly.
I think we can officially declare "dada" as Sarah's first word. She'd been saying "da" and sometimes "dada" pretty consistently when she saw Peter, but I wasn't really sure of the connection at first. Now it's pretty clear. She says "mama" sometimes when she sees me, but she also says "mama" a lot for no other reason, so that one is still to be confirmed. I think she can also say "bye bye" and wave. In general though, she seems to be starting to imitate sounds. Recently I was saying "uh oh" to her, and though she didn't respond with "uh oh", she imitated the same two tones I used to say "uh oh" and she did this quite a few times. She's done this one a few other occasions too; she and I have had a few back and forth exchanges just imitating sounds back and forth. Haha. It isn't really talking, but it's fun for me to hear her engaging and responding. Although she isn't talking, I'm pretty confident she understands a good deal.
Sarah is finally sleeping through the night! I can't even remember when she started because I just stopped making it a goal, but she now consistently sleeps all night long. She'll wake up sometimes, but most of the times will find the pacifier and go back to sleep. While I'm excited that she's finally managed to get good solid sleep, it doesn't really make much of a difference to me since Noah wakes up every night now....to pee. At least it's just a quick wake up to use the potty and there isn't any soothing necessary for him to go back to sleep. You win, some you lose some, right?
Noah loves books and literally soaks them up like a sponge, so I've been trying to cultivate that interest in Sarah as well. It's hard because I just don't have as much time to devote to reading with her, but I'm trying...haha. So far she mostly likes touching and flipping through them, but it's encouraging to see her responding to the Pat the Bunny book. On cue she will pat the bunny, touch daddy's scratchy face, look in the mirror, play peek a boo, and wave bye bye, which also tells me that she really does understand what I'm saying to her! Fun times.
We celebrated Sarah's first birthday last weekend with family and it was a great time. I felt like I'd kept it pretty low key, and my mother-in-law did took care of all the food, but it still seemed so overwhelming! But it turned out well I think and we had fun. Sarah chose rice, which I'm told means she'll never go hungry. Good to know since she has only gained 3 ounces since her 9 month visit and is in the 17th percentile for weight right now! She's also in the 32nd percentile for height. Such a little nugget. She's got a big noggin though - 70th percentile! So she's a little nugget with a big head on top. Hahaha..
It's been a fun past two months watching Sarah grow and develop. Now that she's one, I think the more interactive things like walking and talking are really going to pick up so I'm excited. Sarah will also be starting a music class in the fall when Noah goes back to school. Sarah seems to really respond to music, so it should be fun for her. I'm also excited to have an activity to do with just Sarah and give her my full attention.
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