Zia: her twelfth month

I'm not sure how long I'll keep up with the monthly updates for Z, but she's still changing so rapidly that it seems non-cloying for a bit longer...

We made it in for her yearly check-up.  She's happy and healthy :) Check-ups seem ridiculous to me, taking a healthy baby into a cesspool of germs, so this will probably be her last.  P always came in (excepting the booming big baby at birth bit) small, around the 10% mark on the charts.  Z is at 75% for height, but only 10% for weight.  Tall and skinny seems to be her trend so far, but she still has enough buddha belly to make us all want to squeeze her ;)  We should make decisions on vaccines now, before not making a decision is our decision ;)  It's an insanely complex issue and one I loathe researching.

An awful lot of our time lately has been spent on Bday prep.  E is scoffing at the complexities of our homemade goodie bag bit, but P has a vision and we're embracing it ;)  And if I'm perfectly honest, I think I'm trying to atone for last year's lameness...  So Z has been left to tag-a-long a lot.  She does pretty well with this... for a bit ;)  But she is big enough now that she wants to be a part of everything.  If P and I are at the craft table, she wants to be there, too.  Unfortunately, she eats crayons and dances on the craft table, so she's not conducive to P's projects (is this a blogging theme of late?;)

Fortunately, I've been dedicatedly working on her naps.  After a few weeks of laying her down Every Day when she zonked, she stopped waking every 15 minutes, upset she's in a bed and not my arms.  It has been a looooooong process, but she sometimes stays in bed for an hour and a half!  Often (usually, sigh) she needs a little mid-nap coax/snuggle back to sleep, but then she sleeps for another hour.  This time with Phoenix is glorious and So important (to both of us;)  So, thanks, Zia :)

I had started looking forward to the 12-14 month range, so that the playground commentary would cease.  She's spent the last 6 months being fawned over (or shocked over) for being so agile and so little.  P dealt with it great, but he mentioned (numerous times) how much attention Z gets ;)  I figured once the other kids started toddling around too, she'd fit in with the crowd.  I think it may take a few more months, she's running and jumping off of things and talking too much to fit in quite yet.  But she'll be normal soon ;)

The talking bit is fun.  She is suuuuuch a chatterbox.  We don't know what she is saying half the time, but she sure does ;)  The other night at dinner she was playing with my zoo card and kept saying "Oooo, look at the cat!  Oooo, look at the cat!"  (there are lions on it.)  The problem is, some words are pretty clear (she woke up and asked where "brother" was the other morning, perfectly annunciated) and other words are still baby gibberish (you gotta really pay attention to understand "raspberry" - though she nails the right number of syllables;) WE know this is normal, SHE is annoyed by our inabilities to translate.  I can only imagine how infuriating it is to be run by two nincompoops that can't do what you are ("clearly" and loudly) telling them ;)

What else....  She's working on doorknobs.  This scares me.

She's kinda obsessed with books.  She "reads" all. the. time.  Usually by herself, but she'll also grab an article of clothing (or blanket) and a book and come climb in a lap.  It's kinda sweet :)

Oh!  And she's eating EGGS!!!!!!!!!  Yup.  This brings me great joy.  Her, not so much.  She's not that into them (some days she eats a couple of bites, some days no - but that's just being a toddler, eh?)  But, they don't seem to be giving her Any Issues.  This is Awesome.  Adding eggs and nightshades (tomatoes and peppers so far) has made eating as a family So Much easier.  I was all smug about our expanding palates when I went to the store the other day.  I thought I'd buy a few packaged foods for our upcoming flight.  Ha.  Seems everything has sunflower oil or corn in it.  She's still screwed for kiddie snacks!  But, eating at home, everything homemade, feels easy and doable these days.  Or, at least, familiar.  Unfortunately, I think adding wheat, dairy and eggs have lessened our consumption of veggies, making P happy but us all less healthy...  I try not to stress, but I'm responsible for the making of human bodies right now and that just feels heavy ;)  For the gut healing record, she is only reacting to corn, seeds, nuts and cucurbitaceae.

What the fuck is a cucurbitaceae you ask???  Yah.  You learn these things when your baby gets hives and diarrhea when she eats cucumbers, pickles, cantaloupe and watermelon...  Then you smack your head and think - hey are they all in the same food family?  And you google and find out, why, yes, yes they are.  So, no squash/melon kinda stuff either.  I hope she outgrows this one, as I do have a bit of a love affair with the butternut squash...

Her current love affair is games.  Hide and seek and chase top the list.  She really enjoys hiding things in my shirt.  This can be awkward.  She also loves climbing.  (Really?  Haven't we done this before with the first one?  Is this a genetic trait?)  Seriously, she is into and on top of Everything.  Tables, chairs, stools.  Boxes stacked on top of benches sitting in front of 100 year old glass windows... (I ran.) And, unfortunately, sometimes things tip over.  This is a painful lesson (face, stool, floor, this morning.)

Hide and seek with Aunt Alicia

I think its because of her love to move that she loathes diapers so very much.  They are so much more restrictive than nudity ;)  She's more than happy to step into her undies though, which is saving us lots of messes.  She still refuses the potty.  Honestly, it appears she will do nothing until she can do it for herself, so we'll see how that all plays out ;)

Maybe its because she's moving around so much, maybe it's the tiny toddler tummy, maybe she's inherited my ridiculous metabolism (I'm trusting it isn't because she has a tape worm;), but the child is Always Hungry.  She's still nursing a ton and wakes to nurse a gazzilion times a night.  And she's eating.  Granted, small, little baby portions, but she is eating all three meals... that she extends into an all day affair.  Like, we finish lunch and go into the backyard.  She plays for a tiny bit and then starts looking for raspberries.  (The bushes are done.)  Then she mosies about gnawing on gnarly apples from the ground.  Finally, she'll start chucking pea gravel into her mouth as an enormous hint.  I'm Hungry Again.  (The whole time I'm in denial, she can't be hungry Already!)  Then, I'll hand her a plum and she screams with glee and acts like she hasn't seen sustenance in daaaaaays.  Of course, four bites later, it's dirty in the weeds and forgotten as she hunts for fallen figs....

Are we still teething?

There is so much more, I'm sure, but I'm trying to make dragon chocolates with P and typing at the same time is proving too taxing for my brain ;)  (Sorry for the delay, daddy!  You'll know waaaay too much, soon ;)

She reeeeally likes to floss before bed.