12 months old!

On October 13, Blakely turned 12 months old!  Babycen.ter tried to tell me that she was now a toddler....nojustno!

Firsts this month:

B will finally clap!  I have been trying to get her to clap for months and she finally got it while we were in LA.  Now she does it all the time, especially if she is really proud of herself.  

First time riding on a bike.  

She had her first french fry...

Blake became a full time walker on 10-6.  She had taken some steps before but didn't really realize what she was doing.  Then one day she figured out what she was doing and she got so excited.  After that it was just a matter of days before she walked everywhere and rarely crawled.  It is totally adorable to see her walking.  It definitely makes me realize how grown up she is.  We have many more boo boo's now for sure.  She has bruises up and down both shins and usually has at least one on her face.  Usually she just bumps into things but a few times she has really crashed and it scared the heck out of me!

Blakely can "shake her booty"!  If I turn on any music she will start dancing.  She will even start doing it now if one of her toys sings a song.  All we have to do is tell her to shake it and she goes to town.  She actually has a bit of rhythm!

Feeding:
Blakely is almost completely weaned from nursing and on whole milk.  I do still nurse her in the morning.  She gets milk or water throughout the day but drinks a whole sippy cup of milk before her afternoon nap and before bed.  I am planning on cutting out the morning nursing this weekend (TEARS), so she will get a sippy of milk then too.  

In general, she is a good eater.  Her favorites right now are green beans, peas, sliced cheese, bread, grapes, cheerios, any of the pouches, and cottage cheese.  The biggest problem I am having with meals is that she wants to just throw everything on the floor because she thinks it is funny.  At first I just gave her something else to eat thinking she didn't want that.  Now I have been telling her that if she throws it on the floor then she is done eating.  A couple of days ago I gave her lunch and she immediately threw handfuls on the floor.  I told her no multiple times (which she totally understands) and she kept doing it.  So I took her out of the chair and told her lunch was over.  She cried for a minute and then walked around the kitchen whining for about 5 minutes.  Then I put her back in the chair and she ate every single thing on the tray.  So that tactic has worked for the past few days but I feel like it won't forever!  

Sleeping:  Sleep is great right now.  She was going to bed at 8 and sleeping until 630-7.  But now I am putting her down at 7.  She was getting really fussy around 7 each night and it was a struggle for that last hour.  So now she goes from 7 to anywhere from 6-7 the next morning.  I think now that she is walking she needs more rest.  She takes 2 naps a day.  One in the morning around 9 and the other in the afternoon around 130-2.  Most of the times both naps are about an hour.  Sometimes I will get 1.5 hours ;)

Clothing: mostly 12 month but some 18 month pants to fit over her cloth booty

Diapers: cloth during the day and disposable at night.  She wears a size 3 but about to move to a size 4.  

Weight: 20 pounds 6 ounces

Height: almost 30 inches

IT IS NOT NAP TIME, MOM!!

Eyes:  super blue with a dark blue rim on the outside.  

Hair:  light brown and sometimes looks a little red.  

Talking:  Yeah, we have a major talker on our hands.  I am not even kidding when I say she walks around the house all day long talking....constantly.  She talks to the wall, her toys, her hands, me, the dogs, really anything.  Most of the stuff I have no clue what she is saying, but she sure does!  Some of the words that I can decipher are
Ba-ball (this also means up if she is tugging on your leg)
Dada
Mama-only when crying and she doesn't call me that yet
Dan Di-Gran Di
Isth-that means shoe.  She always sprays some spit out on this one :)
Na Na-no no
Hi
Bye Bye
UH oh
Dusth dee-Dusty, our dog

A few other things I want to remember:

One of our dogs, Darwin, barks at every little thing that walks by.  I keep him outside in the yard most of the day.  Blakely will go over to the window when he is barking and knock in it and say NA NA!  So cute..

She loves to make a huge mess and can do it in no time flat.  

She understands SO much.  I really can't even believe how much of what we say she understands.  She knows the difference between our shoes.  I can say "where is Mommy's shoe?" and she will pick up mine.  Same with daddy's shoe and Blakely's shoe.  I can tell her to put her ball in her tunnel and she will do it.  She can also point to Mommy, Daddy, and Blakely's nose and ears.  If I tell her to rock she will crawl into her rocking chair and start rocking.  

She loves to pretend like she is talking on the phone.  She will pick up anything that resembles a phone, hold it to her ear and start talking.  She has my phone in this pic but you can't see it.  

I really feel like she has become such a little person this month.  She is still a baby in many ways but she is just so independent now.  I feel like we can almost have conversations because she understands me so much.  Learning every single second...

The other day when she woke up from her afternoon nap I could hear her on the monitor saying uh-oh over and over again.  Normally she wakes up crying.  I went into her room and the closer I got to the crib the more frantic the uh-oh began to sound.  I picked her up and she was nearly screaming UH-OH UH-OH!!!.  She pointed to the ground and she had thrown Jaffy her Giraffe out of the crib.  I picked him up and handed him to her and she tossed him back in the crib and was happy!  It was adorable...she just wanted to make sure Jaffy was IN the crib.  

Also, I can ask Blakely what the big brown dog says and she responds with UFF UFF..way cute.  

Dear Blakely,

I can't even believe it has been a whole year with you in our lives.  Part of me thinks it has gone by so fast but then another part doesn't remember life without you.  You are everything sweetie...just everything.  I absolutely love being your Mommy.  You make me smile and laugh everyday.  My heart just bursts with love for you every second of the day.  I am so proud of you, pea pod.  I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us!  

Love, Mommy