12 month checkup

How long do we continue to use "months" instead of "years"?!? Not much excitement at this doctor appointment. The doctor was very proud of her that she is walking all over now and can climb up the stairs. Our only real new development is that we think Peyton has allergies. Her eyes get very watery when we're outside, especially after Greg cuts the grass. Seems weird that I can give my "baby" Claritin and Zyrtec.

Here's the latest stats:

Height: 30 3/8" (75-90%)
Weight: 25 lbs 0.5 oz (90-95% - but I attribute the .5 oz to the fact that I left her socks on!) ;-)
Head: 44.4 cm (25-50%)

Party Time!

Peyton's first birthday party was a lot of fun! We played musical bases, pin the baseball on the field, a home run game and had a baseball pinata. We ate hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos (Greg managed to find cheese like they have at the ballpark) and cupcakes decorated like baseballs - well, I at least attempted to make them look like baseballs. Peyton was not too interested in her cupcake, surprisingly. She liked her cake the day before at pictures. Except for the quick rainshower it was a perfect day. Thanks to everyone for coming and for the great presents!

Happy First Birthday, Peyton!

My little baby's not so little any more. Hard to believe it's been a year since we were blessed with her arrival. Things have definitely not been the same since. It's been a surprisingly emotional day reflecting on the events of the past year. From the night we brought her home and were freaking out because she wasn't wetting any diapers and was crying (who knew that she would "nurse" even if nothing was coming out!) to the seemingly endless nights of her screaming and us walking around the house rocking her. We affectionately called her "high maintenance". She then quickly turned into such a happy little girl who loves her sleep - Thank goodness because mommy & daddy love their sleep, too! Her cheeks and big blue eyes get her lots of attention. It's funny to look back at old pictures when we thought she was so big and now she looks so small.

As far as where she is now...She's getting good at repeating Da Da, which Greg loves. She says "hi" when you say hi to her and waves hi and bye. She's getting pretty good at walking. It's still scary but I'm getting better at letting her go. She'd probably be an old pro if she didn't have Greg and I hovering over her so much. After the first day of no ba bas, the next morning she wouldn't take the sippy cup. We had to put her in her high chair with cheerios for her to drink it. She eats whatever we put in front of her.

She wore her "birthday girl" shirt to school today that Aunt Steph F bought her. I took a half day and picked her up around 1:30 and we went to the park. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Sunny and 78 degrees. She loves the swing and the slide. She goes up the steps herself and then we slide down together. After dinner Greg and I took her up to Cold Stone Creamery where she had ice cream for the very first time. French vanilla and boy, did she LOVE it!

Tomorrow we're off to Portrait Innovations for pictures and then final preparations for her party on Saturday. Yes, we're having a baseball party even though she's a girl and no, it wasn't Greg's idea. Girls can like the Cardinals, too!

Bye Bye, Ba Bas!

Well, I hope I'm not jinxing it, but we've officially been "off the bottle" for over 24 hours! This is a feat I thought would take forever to overcome.

This morning was the first morning she drank from her sippy instead of her bottle, and we weaned her off the nightime bottle over the past few nights - last night was the first night she didn't get her ba ba and no crying! (We had been giving her her cup for a few nights and she ended up pushing it away & fussing, so we would give in and give her about 2 oz from a bottle.) She did wake up at 2am screaming last night - very unusual - but somehow I don't think it was related. :-)

As much as we liked the Dr. Brown's bottles, we are NOT going to miss cleaning all of the parts! Yay!

Rites of passage

Now that Peyton is moving all over the place, we're using the old standby of allowing free reign of the tupperware cabinet to keep her occupied while we try to work in the kitchen. She just loves to take all of it out and then climb in. She then gets mad when she can't stand up all the way and hits her head.

Happy Easter!

Easter was a fun but long day. I think Peyton slept less than an hour all day (Leesh, she should have been with your kids!). So, that plus lots of new people equal moody, clingy baby. Her cheeks and pigtails got lots of attention, though! We had brunch at Mom's (Feiler) where she laughed at Mom & Nan singing "I love you a bushel and a peck". Then, off to Aunt Marsha's for dinner and her famous cookies. Thanks to Aunt Steph for the cute bunny ears.

Our "drunken sailor"

Peyton is getting much more courageous in the walking department. Saturday morning we saw her take at least ten steps on her own multiple times. She's starting to walk from the coffee table to the couch or to her toys without even hesitating. Especially closer to bedtime, she gets very wobbly. I guess you can tell how much she trusts us, because she'll kind of run a few steps from me to Greg and just fall forward in our laps. It's too funny. When we try to get her to walk, though, she becomes more apprehensive. So, no showing off for family for the time being! Now, we just need to warn the daycare to watch out and keep our baby girl on the mats (and off that tile). Yes, she's making me a nervous wreck.