LASA at 12 Months!

This one...

turned ONE today!

And she {looks} it, looks older, right away to me, too!  I have been getting glimpses of her toddler self coming the past four weeks anyway.

Watching how big she now is draped across our laps.

Doing her hair and seeing the transformation to little girl!

Sneaking peeks of her reaching her tallest to sneak peeks of her own.  (She now pulls things off surfaces I once thought were safely out of her reach - yikes!)

She spread her little leggy wings and tried out her walker with ease this month.  This thrilled us all to the core!

And within a week of that, she started pushing to standing all by herself.

So you know within a week of that ... that big girl took her first solo steps!!  I was a camera ninja and caught them just barely.

Just yesterday, she tried a longer distance.  Squealing commenced.  And now she toddles off and on all day!  Totally a bonefide 1 year old. So proud of her!

This month she fusses for me when she spots me across the room.  But she flashes the happiest grins at Josh. She thinks he's the coolest.

She wants to be doing whatever the big kids are doing every day. 

And she wants to be eating whatever the rest of us are eating as well.  She has tried SO MANY new table foods this month.  We have nary a baby food in the house anymore.  And she finished the last of her formula today, too!

 

She got her first pair of shoes this month to go with all the standing and stepping. 

She took her first real road trip out of state this month, too.  Don't let this cute pic fool you, she was not a great traveler.  

 

Josh got her an early birthday present - a jumpy house.   And it matches her personality to a T.  She can flop and flounce and roll and twist and wallow to her heart's delight.  Gives my lap a break.  HA!

She got to see her momma again in July after a couple months without visits. It went well!

She has graduated to much couch time from her usual carpet play.  She's the cutest - hanging like the rest of the family.

She is teething molars at the moment and they are gonna kill us all, I think.  Nights are the roughest, and then morning comes and she flashes these grins all day like the hour-long crying jags never happened.

Look at the looks she can give!  She steals hearts every day still. 

Her room these days looks like this ... we are waiting to paint and personalize it until we know for sure that our custody will become permanent.  :S  That will be determined in August.  Counting down.  Two more weeks!!

And this is how she sleeps, doubled over her lap.  Noah always slept like this, too, I remember.

In other 12th month updates,

• she is up a pound to weigh 21 lbs, 12 oz (76%ile) now and 30 inches tall (73%ile). Her head measured in the 96th %ile!  That explains why Anna's headbands fit her so well. Ha!
• she is wearing 12-18 mos clothes and a few things already in 18 mos.  In shoes, she is a size 4.5.
• she keeps us in stitches with her little goblin growlish giggle she does.
• she's super snuggly - always grabbing hold for hugs and cuddles and resting on us.
• she's gotten some callous little kneecaps from all the crawling.
• she's picked up the sign for "more" and uses it every day.  
• she's proven to be quite the stuffed animal lover.
• graham crackers, popsicles, ravioli, and grapes are her best eats lately. 
• she shares my cheese toast with me every morning now.  It's our thang.
• she sort of vocalizes/hums when I sing to her.  I think she thinks she's singing, too.
• she is fascinated with the Dustbuster.  Chases it. Comes speed crawling and calling when she hears me us it. 
• she's discovered cabinet doors in the kitchen.
• she knows how to give kisses as well as wave hello and goodbye. Also shakes her head no.
• she loves the open and shut things in her life - doors, toys, books, flaps, containers, cabinets.
• she's demonstrated some defiant grunts and jerks lately, too. Really waking up to what she wants and what she doesn't want.  :}
• she claps and claps for herself with new skills ... and looks up waiting for our applause too.
• she has this sweetie pie wiggle she does to music.
• she hum/groans herself to sleep.  Also does the same subvocalizing while she chews.  It's pretty loud and totally funny.
• she is in LOVE with her toothbrush. Gets the most furious over that thing when we take it away.
• she also loves the dollhouse and pointing out eyes on toys and dolls and me.
• she's a quick learner - climbed the entire stairs this month when no one was looking.  Yikes! Also mastered drinking through a straw on her first try!
• pillows and blankets make her so happy.  Very helpful for all her clamoring and wallowing.
• she tried her first ever juice this month and loved it.  
• she has an awesomely protruding round milk belly after a bottle.
• and unfortunately, is the first of my babies to deal with separation anxiety.  Much screaming and crying has ensued at church lately.  SO HARD!
• Her daily routine goes like this: wakes at 5 or 6 for a quick bottle with Josh and then goes back to sleep til 9ish, makes stinky diaper in the morning, plays til a 1 or 2 oclock nap, naps about 2 hours give or take, plays and whathaveyou til Josh gets home, spends most of the evening with him and the kids, does bath every 2-3 days, does bedtime and bottle with Josh before going down for night at 8:00, sleeps with sound machine on, gloworm on, pillowpet stars on, sleepsack on, lights out, door closed.
• I have a song I sing to her while feeding, when she starts to get distracted or difficult to feed:  sung to the tune of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, "My Lasa appears to be hungry, My Lasa is so fun to feed, My Lasa is such a good eater, Oh bring back my Lasa to me!"

On this, her first birthday, we enjoyed the day quietly at home with a morning pancake ... which she did not like at all. She spit the pieces back out.  No worries, girl!  Real cake is coming this weekend when we celebrate your birthday with friends! And I bet your momma brings you sweet treats when we see her on Sunday, too.

When Josh got home, Lasa opened presents.  Kind of.  Anna had to help a lot.  Lasa just liked the bags and bows, as expected. HA!  

 

Then we went out to eat at, as it happens, the same place we took Anna on her first birthday and the same place we went last week on Josh's birthday.  Ha!  Shane's Rib Shack.

Happy 12 months, my sweet!  Your every milestone and growth has been a delight to us all.  You rocked your first year!  You are so precious to us and so loved by all!