Grace's First Birthday

Grace is such a lucky baby to have two sets of wonderful grandparents who both made her first birthday so special for her.

First, we celebrated in Ann Arbor, with Grandma and Grandpa LaMoreaux, Great Grandpa LaMoreaux, and cousin Jamie LaMoreaux (who happened to be in town from Florida).

Grandma made a special healthy banana muffin with strained yogurt topping for her frosting. Grace loved it!  

After she had licked the "frosting" for awhile, I tried to take it so I could cut it into smaller pieces, and she grabbed the whole thing from me!

She got some sweet gifts, including a very special book Grandma LaMoreaux made.  It is a baby board book that has our immediate family members and their pictures, so Grace can start to remember family members and their pictures.

So far, she likes to look at everyone's page, but only points at Brian's picture and says "Da".  I'm looking forward to seeing her learn all of our family's names and being able to point them out in her family book.

Then the day before her actual birthday, we celebrated Grace again with a party that Grandma Lindsay put together in Ludington.  Grandma Lindsay also made a special healthy cake with yogurt frosting, and Grace loved it!  

Grace got her very own kitchen set from the Bailey family, and a pink baby doll stroller and some adorable outfits from Grandma and Grandpa Lindsay!

Brian and I talk every day about how lucky we are to have such supportive grandparents in Grace's life.  Grace's first birthday was just perfect, and we owe it to them. 

12 Months Old Baby - "MamaMama"

Our baby is officially one!
Here is the latest update with Grace:

Teeth:
Still 6 teeth! 4 on top, with spaces in between, and 2 on bottom.  She seems to be teething all the time though, so I'm sure more are soon to come.


Sleep:
Minus a few setbacks (sickness, teething, and travel), sleep has been great!  We are down to one wake up a night on most nights. Some nights more, some nights less.  After almost a year of living in a fog on broken sleep, I almost feel like a functioning adult again.  She still takes 2 naps a day, but seems to be somewhat transitioning into 1 solid mid-day nap.

Food:
Grace eats everything!  She loves almost all food, but especially fruits (like her mama).  She still nurses 3-4 times per day.  She still gets water out of a sippy cup.  I've been trying whole milk in the sippy cup, but so far she hasn't shown much interest.

Sizes:
Grace is still wearing size 12-18 months and her diapers are still size 4.

Talking:
Grace has a few words:
- Da
- Mama
- doh (dog)
- buh (bunny)
- nahnah (no-no)

She clearly and consistently identifies Brian as "Da", but also still uses that sound for other items and other people too.  She now clearly says "Buh" for her stuffed bunny.  She very clearly calls for me "Mama! Mama!" when I am out of sight or even in the same room but not holding her.  She can say "doh" for dog, and she makes a "leeedle" sound for "kitty".  It is very cool to see her very slowly get a grasp on the English language, she is always watching, always listening, and always learning.

Comprehending:
It has become really obvious that Grace is understanding some/a lot of what we say.  When we say "Where is bunny?" she will crawl over to her bunny and hug it.  Or if I say, "Come here to Mama and I'll read you this book", she will crawl over to me (depending on if she wants to or not). She is motioning and gesturing for things and really comprehending.  It's cool because she can really communicate to let us know if she wants more or is done with something.

Walking:
Well, she's been standing up supported for 4 months! And is just now feeling more confident to let go with both hands to stand unsupported once in a while.  She definitely has the body strength and stability to stand up without holding on to anything, but at this point we're just waiting for her to feel ready to do it.  She will walk anywhere by pushing her push-cart, but has never taken more than one step without it.  She seems so close, it seems like she is ready to walk this month!  But she has also seemed ready for many months in a row now.

Attachment/Anxiety: 
Grace is going through a bit of an attachment/stranger anxiety phase.  She is currently preferring me to all others, and will cry for me if I'm gone (even in the next room).  It is very sweet, but also a bit exhausting.
In addition, she loves staring at strangers/people when we are out and about, but as soon as that person gives Grace attention, she buries her face into my shoulder and peeks out.
I'm fairly confident that this is just a phase, because she never was very shy before.



Anyway, Grace at age one is just a beautiful and sweet little thing.  Every day, Brian and I just look at her in awe of how lucky we are to be her parents.

One Year with Baby Grace

We have now had a one-year old baby for 2 weeks.  Being a parent is everything I ever dreamed it would be.  It is also much harder, much more stressful, but much more amazing than I ever imagined.

Grace has given me the greatest gift in the world in this baby. Grace has made me a mom. I love her smiles, her giggles, her curiosity, her spunk, and her sweet sweet little face. I love holding her more than anything (even though she's a solid 20-plus pounds now).

My first month of motherhood was so hard. I thought I was ready, but I wasn't. She rarely slept more than two hours at a time. Breastfeeding was excruciatingly painful, and I cried and had to take deep breaths each time she fed.  (And she fed all day and all night).
By months 2 and 3, things started really looking up. She slept slightly longer (3 hours at a time, sometimes) and breastfeeding finally stopped hurting.

Month 4 was awful. I went back to work, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done.
It is still gut-wrenching for me to think about my first day back at work. I woke up, put on makeup for the first time in weeks, packed myself a lunch, and packed bottles for my baby (even though I knew she provably wouldn't take them). Brian and I drove to Nemeh's house (basically a perfect stranger at that time), I handed my tiny bundle off to her in the pitch black early morning, I went to my car, and I wept. The guilt and separation feeling was absolutely overwhelming and awful. The first day I picked her up, a little toddler said "that baby cry all day", which was just another punch to my gut.  She had refused a bottle the entire first day. Somehow though, she and I survived it. She learned to take bottles. I learned how to pump during my lunches, and do lesson plans late at night after she has gone to bed.

She got sick almost immediately after starting daycare. Her pink cheeks and stuffed nose added to my already-long list of reasons I hated leaving her SO young to be at daycare full of germs.
But we got through it.

When Grace was 6 months old, summer came, school let out and I had the most glorious summer with my angel baby. She and I took a vacation with my family to the coast of North Carolina. She got some extra time with her grandparents and cousins when we went to Ludington in August. And she spent some time playing in my classroom while my parents and I set it up for the school year in August.

Grace started solids over the summer, and so taking her to restaurants became so much fun. Brian and I loved taking her to brunch.  And we started a routine of Saturday night Mass and out to dinner after with my parents.
By the fall, heading back to work was not as bad, but of course, still stressful, and hard for me.

Despite being back at work, fall was just wonderful with our baby. She crawled around in the leaves.  I took her on walks after work. 
Grace made some "friends" at daycare, and she smiles when she sees them at arrival. That takes away a lot of guilt for me.

At the end of October/early November we had another rough patch: Grace got her first ear infection.
She had been acting really off, just not as happy, and fussing for seemingly no reason. Finally, it got so bad, she was up many times one night, clearly miserable, so I took her in to the dr. (Taking her into the doctor isn't easy. I had to take a sick day at work, which meant driving back in to school after I put her to bed, then from 8-10pm writing up sub plans and get materials ready for the sub.  I never take sick days for myself, but for her, I'll do whatever I have to).
She was diagnosed with a double ear infection and put on antibiotics. She seemed to get better almost immediately the next day, which was wonderful! Then, she took a huge dive that evening and seemed worse than before. The hardest part for me was seeing her in such a lethargic state. She is a feisty, active baby, and seeing her just lay on the floor, staring blankly and avoiding eye contact was just heartbreaking and really scary for me as a first time parent.
Thankfully, after an entire week on antibiotics, two sick days for me, many sleepless nights for both Grace and me, she was finally back to her active and happy self.
We finished off her first year with a fun Thanksgiving weekend in Ludington, complete with a special first birthday party for Grace.
I can't believe it has been a whole year since she was born.  I miss that tiny little bundle.  But I'm also completely in love with my big 1-year old bundle of energy.
And another season begins, and time marches on.  Looking forward to see what Grace's second year with us will bring.