Lena's 1 Year Update

It's time for the big one year update. No picture until she's less sick. Haha. This is going to be ridiculously long. Hold your hats . . .

Routine
She's gotten in a lovely habit of waking up at 6:00 am. We snuggle on the couch while I give her a bottle of [cow's] milk, and she usually goes down for her morning nap around 8. She eats lunch around 11:30 and takes her afternoon nap between 12:30 and 1:00. I honestly think she'd take another nap around 4, but I think it's ridiculous for a one year old to take 3 naps a day, so I keep her awake. I'm starting to consider giving her that 3rd nap though and putting her to bed later if it'd help her sleep longer in the morning! Bedtime is at 7.

Eating
We are totally done breastfeeding. I dropped the afternoon feeding when she turned 11 months, and the morning feeding a couple weeks ago, so she was only nursing before bed. I nursed her for the last time on Saturday. She woke up sick on Sunday, but I actually think it helped with the weaning process. She was so tired and miserable that night that she didn't even try to nurse. I laid her on my chest to rock her and she put her head on my shoulder and fell asleep in minutes. And she's continued to do well since then. It's been easy on me as well. No leaking, barely any pain. Piece of cake. ;-)

As for real food, Lena is a bottomless pit. Seriously. She eats so much. It's amazing she's still such a little midget. One night last week she ate seven Tyson chicken nuggets. She inhales grapes faster than I can cut them up, she even eats cold, canned peas with gumption! Haha. There are very few things she won't eat. Her absolute favorites are macaroni and cheese and grapes.

She has an infuriating habit of sweeping all the food off her tray onto the floor. I really don't think she does it because she's full. She does it because it's fun. I've learned to only put a little bit on the tray at a time so it's not as thrilling to watch everything fall on the floor at once. It makes me crazy.

Sleeping
She is finally becoming a good sleeper! Other than a few days when she was sick, she's been consistently sleeping through the night. She sleeps about 11 hours on the dot. Last night I put her to bed at 6:45 instead of 7 and today she woke up at 5:45 instead of 6. Gonna have to remember that. *yawn*

Walking and Words
I really thought she'd be walking by her first birthday. I guess she's just taking her time. Haha. She absolutely can walk, she just has to gain some confidence. I've seen her take 5 steps, but she didn't realize I wasn't holding her hand. Haha. She cruises all over the place and often takes a step or two unassisted to get from one piece of furniture to the other. She can get herself to a standing position without using anything to pull herself up on. And she squats down and gets back up with ease. It's only a matter of time . . .

She has five words: uh-oh, hi, mama, wow, and whoa. She also says "meow" when she sees (or hears) Lola - if you count that as a word. :-) I love her sweet little voice. This is her saying "hi."

This one is "wow" and shows how well she stands:

Milestones and Personality

• Lena finally got her first tooth on January 11th. She was 11 months and 19 days old. Lucy was 11 months, 1 day old when she got her first tooth. We're late maturers around here. :-) Lena's is on the bottom right and I don't see any more coming in. 
• She knows where her tongue is and sticks it out like a lizard anytime you ask her about it. 
• She does peek-a-boo and patty-cake. Patty cake is pretty recent, so I haven't gotten it on video yet, but it's super adorable.
• She waves bye-bye rather spastically. She kind of just sticks her arm out and jiggles it up and down. Haha.
• She doesn't laugh. She never really has. I blame it on Justin. He's one of the least expressive people in the world. Apparently she inherited that gene. She smiles really big and shrieks when she gets really excited. But even if you tickle her, she just kind of grunts. No laughing.
• She adores my mom. I'm not even worried about leaving Lena for the first time when Justin and I go away next weekend because I know she'll be totally happy with my mom. One of the perks of living with Grandma. :-)
• She says "hi" any time she hears the door open and cranes her neck to see who's coming in.
• She also holds phones up to her ear and says "hi."
• She knows how to use a touchscreen. Seriously. She loves Luke's iPad and swipes her finger up and down to get the images to change. Unbelievable. 
• She has what we affectionately call her dork face:

We love our little Lena-bean so much and are so thankful for the past year with her!