M-I-L-E-S-T-O-N-E-S

It is amazing to me how incredibly fast this first year with Rosie has flown by!  She is now over a year old (14 months)!  It's true but only barely believable.  And because I swear time keeps going by faster and faster - I keep running out of it - and haven't had the time to jot down some of her milestones over the past few months.  So be prepared for a long post - all about our little princess and her progress!

 

Eating - 



-Rosie nursed for 8 months which I was very excited about. I had never been able to last so long with my first two kids.  But at that point, I felt like the poor thing wasn't getting much and thought it might be time to make the transition to formula only. As much as I miss that stage, it proved to be a bit easier to get the little one to eat because she was soooo easily distracted while nursing that I don't think she was eating all she needed. Now she can sit up while eating a bottle and not miss anything :)! 

 

-By ten months Rosie was doing so good with her sippy cup but was lazy and would still only rarely hold her own bottle.  Funny girl - I remember Cash doing the same thing.  But she was also doing great at picking things up off her tray with her pointer finger and thumb and feeding herself great.



Rosie's first sucker!

-We started Rosie on whole milk when she turned a year and the transition from formula to whole milk didn't phase her a bit.  She has started eating just most of what we eat and at a year she started mimicing me and blowing on her food when I'd put it on her tray.  It is so cute!  She still has a pretty strong gag reflex so things have to be quite tiny for her.  And I'm in the process of taking her bottle away (now that she's 14 months) - it just seems like the right time for her.  I'm sure she'll be a bit of a bear to live with for a week or so until she's got everthing figured out but soon it will be all good. :)

 

-Rosie started the wierdest thing last month (at 13months).  While sitting in her highchair waiting for me to put her food together or while I was cleaning her up after a meal, she would purposefully stick her fingers down her throat far enough to make herself throw up.  And she'd just smile almost like she thought it was funny and try it again.  Ahhh!  I couldn't figure it out - I wondered if she was just playing with her tongue or trying to touch her uvula (yeah, had to look up the name - it's that little thing that hangs down in the back of your throat between your tonsils:) - all I knew was it had to stop.  I di figure out that it helped not to let her linger in her highchair but that didn't even stop it, so when simply swiping her hands out of her mouth over and over didn't work, I finally slapped her little hands.  She just  looked at me with such a sad face, stuck out that bottom pouty lip and started crying.  I felt so horrible, this is the first that I've had to actually get down to business and discipline Rosie - I hate moving into that phase.  I'm not sure it makes me feel any better or not, but Rosie hasn't done it since and let's hope she never does!
 

 

This is the closest I've gotten to capturing Rosie's pouty bottom lip. Doesn't it melt your heart!?
 

Sleeping -

-Rosie still often likes to fight her sleep.  She will almost always cry when I first lay her down regardless of how tired she is (whether it's for her nap or bedtime) but it only lasts for about two minutes and then she's out like a light.  However, Rosie still usually wakes once in the night to eat.  She quickly drinks her bottle and goes right back to sleep which I'm grateful for.  I usually find it so cute (when I'm not too tired in the middle of the night:) that instead of crying to wake me for her bottle, she's usually jabbering in a way that seems like she's getting after me and telling me to hurry up.  Although she occasionally sleeps through the night (in December she went almost a month of doing so and I thought we'd hit that milestone - finally - but nope, she was just teasing us and is back to usually waking once), I can't wait until we hit that milestone officially!  Maybe without any sort of attachment to a bottle, now that she's being weaned, it will finally happen!



You're going to catch a fly Rosalie!

 

-Rosie still takes a morning and afternoon nap.  But by now she is almost at that point that she doesn't want that morning nap.  We've tried skipping it a time or two and this is what happens...

 



...she just can't make it through lunch in order to finally take her nap afterwards. So she'll often take a short morning nap and then a good couple-hour one in the afternoon.

Poor girl must have slept pretty hard on her hands - check out those imprints on her face! To get Rosie to sleep, she loves to a super-soft blanket (like the one above) right up against her face.

Growth - 

-9 mo. stats: 27 3/4 in. long and 16 lbs. 1 oz.
 

-at 12 months Rosie was 29in. tall and 17 lbs. 11 oz. and soon we'll already be taking Rosie in for her 15 month check up - ahhh!  She's growing too fast!

Mobility -

-Rosie started crawling on Sept. 3rd at barely over 8 months.  She would follow me from room to room - everywhere I went.  I called her my little pup.  She got to be quite quick, quite fast and loved her new skills!  By a month later, she was starting to pull herself up to things - like the couch, the beds, etc. She had just not started quite cruising along them yet. 



Rosie often crawled directly over to this fake plant to get at the moss in the basket and try to eat it.  Oh no!

-On Nov. 9th Rosie started standing up in the middle of the floor although she couldn't walk yet.  She could even squat down and pick up a toy and stand back up with out falling - all before walking.  This seemed a bit backwards to me as well as it seems that usually (and with Cash and Vanna) kids walk before they stand up in the middle of the floor.   But again, by a month later,  on Dec. 9th she took her first steps - one week later she was crossing a room and another week after that, we could barely keep up with her as she had the skill down and was walking all over the place like a professional. :)

 

Love this picture!  Blowing bubbles.





 

Rosie's usually toting things around while she walks (sometimes things that are as big as she is).  She loves carrying around her favorite baby doll from Grandma and Grandpa Bazil.

-Over the past month, Rosie has developed a passion for climbing as well. Yikes! She loves climbing onto little chairs and sitting on them like the big girl she thinks she is. She also loves to climb up on our mantle and once she gets up there she just claps 'horray' for herself. Luckily it's not too high and she has figured out how to get down from it on her own but she still makes me nervous up there sometimes. Not long ago I found her standing on the top of Cash's little desk, with her hands out-stretched, yelling for me in her own little adorable babble to come get her. She'd climbed up onto one of his chairs and then onto the table! What am I going to do with her!?

-Teeth -

-The day Rosie turned 9 months (Sept. 27th) we discovered her first tooth finally broke through her gums.

 

-Rosie first got her front two teeth on the bottom and then she got one of her front top teeth.  What I thought was a bit backwards though was that her next tooth was the top tooth to the side of her front top left tooth.  Then her other front tooth came in and the one next to that.  She now has 6 teeth!

Showing off those teethers!

Talking -

 

Rosie's first word was uh-oh, which she said at just over 10 months although now she won't say it no matter how hard we try to get her to.  Funny girl.  She says mama and dada as well as several other sounds that we understand the meaning of although their not actual words (she says something  that starts with a "ka" sound when referring to the kitty, etc.).  She's really getting down the "mmm" sound that gradually rises in pitch as she points to things she wants as well.

 

Other -

-Rosie loves to be outside. When the kids go outside, they'll always leave the back door open which allows Rosie to watch them out of just the glass/screen door. She will sit there and be so content for forever it seems. She'll pound on the door and talk or yell as if she's right out there playing with the big kids.

-Always wants to be where the big kids are.



"Okay Mom, I'm ready to get out!"

-Rosie started waving (by simply opening and shutting her dainty little hands) when she was 8 months.

-Gives daddy the cutest bedtime kisses (usually open mouth slobbery ones).  Rosalie's also facsinated with Daddy's nose.  When he's holding her, she'll often take hold of his nose hard (she's even scratched him pretty bad on it before) - she does the same thing with my eyelashes.  When we're face to face and I'm holding her close, she'll reach out for my eyelashes and try to take some as souvenirs.  Ouch!

-As soon as Rosie hears her dad enter the house after work, she bee lines it to him as fast as she can go adn then just stands at his feet looking up, waiting for him to pick her up. She loves her daddy!

 

-She loves animals.  She goes crazy kicking her legs, waving her arms around (flapping her wings as we like to call it) and sometimes lets out small squeals or shouts when she sees our puppies or our cat, Hank.  And whenever Hank sneaks into the house for a minute, she immediately takes to following him around.  I'm so surprised at how gentle she is now with him as well, she pets him so nicely - I think she thinks he's soft. :)

-Speaking of cats - we went to a friend's house for a Halloween party who has indoor animals.  Therefore, I was careful to watch Rosie around them.  Just after our friends got done telling us about one of their cats (that Rosie had taken a particular interest in) and how it never uses it's claws when it bats at people for any reason, they were proven wrong.  Rosie simply walked up to the cat who was sitting on a chair and just at the same time that I grabbed her away from him, he swiped at her and scratched her on the cheek.  I was a little upset - she had done nothing to provoke the darn cat and she's likely going to have a scar now on her perfect little cheek.  I guess you can't prevent anything from happening to your baby and I suppose I should have not allowed her anywhere near the cat but still, it was upsetting to me.

 

-Rosalie also loves necklaces.  I can't even count how many times she's broken my necklaces.  You'd think I'd stop wearing them but nope, we just fix them and keep right at it. :)  She often puts other odd things around her neck and parades them around like they're necklaces - for example:  the Wii nunchuck remote. :)

 



Can you give the girl some cat-calls!?



 

- See that phone in her hand above?  While she enjoys her toy phones as well, she is most satisfied when she gets her hand on our real phones.  I'm afraid if I ever have a child that calls 911 accidentally, it will be this little one!  Got to keep my eye on her!

 

-For a long time (and still) Rosie has loved my dishwasher.  She can hear me open it from the other side of the house and comes running.  Now she's even trying to climb on it to reach the top rack and pull things out.  We're going to have to put a stop to that one!





Can you see her long stragly hair in the back?



 

-Rosie got her first haircut in January at just over 12 month.  People think it's funny that I can braid her hair at so young.  But her little mullet in the back was getting "long enough to braid and put beads on" (as my hilarious hairdresser, friend told me) so we decided it was time for a little trim.  My friend gave her a bit of an A-line cut.  It turned out cute - not too different and without changing her look too much but a good trim.



See her little braid on top? :)

-One of Rosie's favorite things to do is to dance. Vanna shares the same passion and about everyday she'll blast some tunes that her and Rosie take to dancing to on the kitchen floor. For so young, she really does have some moves and anytime she hears music, she busts them out. The girls are both so entertaining to watch!

-Rosie still has a soft spot (even at 14 months) which I never would have thought twice about until our last visit to see Ty's side of the family.  As I was talking with my sister-in-laws the topic came up and I was surprised to learn that their babies soft spots disappeared long before they hit a year.  I know Cash and Vanna had theirs for at least a year but I don't remember past that so I thought I'd write it down that Rosie still has hers.  I've always assumed this was normal or her doctor would say something but the whole topic has me intriqued now.

 

-Rosie's other favorite way of passing time is reading.  Her favorite book right now (at 14 months):  Dr. Suess' Hand Hand Fingers Thumb.  She loves that "dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum" rhythm. 



 

She also enjoys games of pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo, emptying out any basket, closet, or drawer she can find and playing "catch me if you can". 

Loves to play peek-a-boo!

 

 

 

I gave Rosie a pen to play with not knowing she could get the hard lid off and this was the result.

 



 

 

Loves to try to stand on her head like her big brother and sister can!

 Miss Rosalie is truly sooo much fun - she is at such a fun stage where she's independent, super playful, etc.  We are just enjoying her sooo much. I don't know if I just better realize that I've got to enjoy this while it lasts (after witnessing just how fast Cash and Vaana have grown up), or if it's the larger space between kids or what, but I've truly cherished each of her little accomplishments, her laughs, just her in general. She has sooo much personality (I mean just look at the above pictures!) and always brings smiles to all our faces.  She has a way about her that makes everyone around her adore her - her family (I still continue to be amazed with how well her siblings treat her.  They are so patient with her - they truly enjoy her antics and love playing with her.  i just love observing them all together.)  - complete strangers - you name it.  We love our Rosie Posie!