12 months… one whole year. Wow how I can’t believe it. I seriously can’t believe it. To say to myself that yesterday was her first birthday doesn’t seem possible. I sit here in complete denial, not knowing how it can be that an entire year has passed since she graced us with her presence in this world. This 12 month update will be the last monthly update that I do for her and to say that I am sad is an understatement. Watching the growth she has made over the past 12 months has been an incredible experience.

This past month has brought a lot of changes and was not a dull month to say the least. Just after she turned 11 months Emsley finally decided that she was ready to fully crawl and has been off exploring the house ever since. I was always secretly and selfishly kind of happy that she wasn’t crawling yet as it caused less stress and anxiety for myself. She played happily on the floor and I didn’t have to worry about her getting into things or hurting herself. I could enjoy my cup of coffee, make some food or clean up without having to contain her. However, now that I have had the privilege to watch her take in the world around her in a new way it brings me such delight that I wish she could have done this even earlier. The joy she experiences chasing after balls or touching something new for the first time is incredible to watch. I find she’s even happier (if that was even possible) now that she has gained this new independence.

Another exciting milestone this past month was Ems cutting her top two teeth within a day of each other, giving her a total of four now. I had heard from other moms that cutting these two teeth were worst than the bottom ones, and this was entirely true for us. For the first time we witnessed our usually happy baby very fussy and upset randomly throughout the day. She also did not like when people touched her mouth or teeth, as they were obviously quite sore.

Right before the top two teeth appeared, she ended up getting her first fever and stomach flu. At four months old she had a head cold but this was the first real flu that we have experienced. Seeing her vomit was very hard on this momma. Her little personality was stolen from her and it broke my heart to witness her so out of sorts. On the plus side though she cuddled with me and fell asleep in my arms for the first time in a very long time. (She normally naps in her crib and will usually put up a fight if she is anywhere in the house but her crib during naptime).

She has many tricks up her sleeve now and is still waving hi and bye, clapping, high fiving, showing us how tall she is, pointing out the kitty, playing hide and seek, drumming when asked what daddy does, and showing us her pointer finger when asked how old she is. She says mama, mom, dada, and hi. She loves pointing out everything she is interested in and loves it even more when she accomplishes a new task. Seeing her beam with pride after learning something new is amazing to watch. When she looks at her daddy and I to see our reaction to her new tricks my heart melts. These moments make me even more excited for the future as she continues to learn and grow.

She isn’t quite walking yet and still prefers to hold our two hands so she can motor around quickly. Her balance when holding one hand has greatly improved over the last few days and she’s becoming braver letting go of objects and people. She is climbing the stairs now and is cruising on furniture very comfortably. I had originally guessed she would walk in September but it’s looking like it might come sooner than I had expected. On her first birthday she took a few steps on her own walking between her dad and I and I have never seen her more proud of herself.

Right before the debut of her two top teeth we had one night where Miss Lace woke up in the middle of the night and was very upset. We ended up staying awake with her for two hours to console her. Other than that night, her sleep has been normal. She’s been going to bed a bit earlier around 8 pm and wakes up between 7 am -8 am. She napped a bit more when she cut her top two teeth and since then has been napping around 11 am -1 pm instead of her usual 12 pm -2 pm.

She is no longer eating pureed foods for supper and is solely on adult food for two out of her three meals. She still enjoys rice cereal with fruit so she typically has that for breakfast. Her favorite supper meal is beef stroganoff and she will even eat carrots when they are covered in a gravy sauce, (Carrots are the only food she doesn’t like). Her food preferences are bread, meat, cheese and fruits. She loves strawberries and can pack down quite a bit of them for dessert! She has now figured out where we keep the Gerber puffs and will lead us to the cupboard and point them out. This past week she tried cow’s milk for the first time. The first two times she had it she didn’t seem to love it but by day 3 she showed great interest and chugged a glass with dinner. By day 4 I cut out our morning breastfeeding session and replaced it with a bottle of cow’s milk and she adjusted just fine to it. I am still breastfeeding before bed and plan to continue that for a bit longer. Shocking, I know. 🙂

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read our monthly updates. I have loved documenting her monthly growth and plan to print these off for her baby book. I hope that one day she enjoys reading them as much as I did writing them!