First Step

Yesterday evening, Constance took her 1st step. Keith was holding her hands and had the baby walking to me. He let go of her and she took one step! It was awesome and I am thriled that both of us got to see it!

Rocking horse and a trip to the library

We have a little plastic rocking horse that is perfect for Constance’s size. For a week or so I would put her on the horse and let her rock away, all smiles. Then she would indicate that she wanted off and I would pick her up and put her back on the floor. Yesterday however, I was in the kitchen making cookies while my daughter played in the living room. I turned towards the room to see what she was up to and lo and behold, she was on the horse herself! She looked so pleased and I wish I had my camera handy. I figured she would rock some but that I would have to get her off the horse. The next time I turned around, she had just gotten off the horse successfully. Wow! She is so big! Now she can get on and off the horse at will.

After a rough night a few days ago I made the quick decision to load the baby up and head to the library. I wanted to have some books to read and a few movies to watch over the course of the weekend. After getting done with what I was looking for, I headed for the children’s section. I had never been in there before and it was awesome! They have a “little kid (toddler and under)” section with soft climbing mounds, and puzzles, toy trucks, puppets and hard books. I went ahead and got Constance out of her stroller and she immediately headed for the soft foam mounds. I tired not to think about all the germs she was being exposed to as my 13 month old crawled and touched everything that could be crawled on or touched. There were a few other little kids as well-one of who would randomly come up and take Constance’s toy whether I was right by her or not. What did the Grandma with the little 2 year old do about it? Nothing. She just chuckled, over and over again. Constance, who is usually not one to be bullied, did not mind giving up a toy every now and then. It irritated me though. Come on people! Grandma or not, you teach your (grand)children how to share! Regardless, Constance had a blast and did not want to leave. The lady who runs the kids section talked to me and convinced me to come and try their next “mom and baby” time. Basically, moms with kids who are infant-18 month will show up-your child sits in your lap and we sing songs, play with finger puppets and read stories. I am not too fond of this but the lady was very, very nice and I told her I would try it once.

A-Z

Constance is 1 year 3 weeks and 6 days old and she

A. Is wearing 12-18 month clothing
B. She is in size 3 diapers. It seems as if she has been in that size for quite some time now
C. She loves trying on shoes
D. She is now paranoid of me putting bows in her hair and will randomly run her hands over her head to make sure I did not sneak one past her
E. She loves bath time and splashing
F. Constance loves mandarin oranges, raisins, dry prunes, Cheerios, cheddar bunnies, nutria-grain bars, turkey hot dogs, and anything else that mommy and daddy are eating.
G. She is a very cute moocher!
H. She drinks 1-1 ¾ sippy cups of whole milk every day
I. She still has only 8 teeth
J. She loves to brush her teeth with her new toothbrush. Here recently however, she just likes to suck off the berry or bubblegum flavor toothpaste.
K. Constance loves music and will sway he body back and forth when she hears a good beat.
L. She can point to her belly button and head and everyone else’s nose but not her own. If you ask her to touch her nose, she will always touch her ears. Don’t ask me why
M. She sleeps 11-12 hours a night without waking up
N. Constance has the greatest personality and laughs and smiles so easily.
O. She gives free kisses at will to people she is close to
P. She loves riding on her rocking horse
Q. Constance can spend ½ an hour opening the doors to her play kitchen, putting something inside and closing it again…over and over and over
R. She smells her baby dolls feet often and always makes sure that Lily has her blanket
S. She takes one nap a day that usually lasts 2 hours.
T. She loves her two cats and relentlessly chases them. She smells them as well
U. Her back is very ticklish
V. She cackles more then she laughs
W. She wears a size 5 shoe
X. Constance gets so excited when she sees her daddy’s truck pull up to the house. She will usually stand at the door and say, “Hi dada.”
Y. She will crawl from time to time by sitting on her knees and letting one of her feet drag the rest of her to the desired spot
Z. Constance understands the word no and gets very upset when she is told such.

Stinky Toes

For Christmas, my folks bought a walk behind stroller for Constance as well as a baby doll to put in it. This is the first “real” baby doll for our daughter and Keith and I affectionately dubbed the doll as “Lily.” As Constance has started playing more and more with Lily I have noticed two things. One, I am concerned for her future motherhood as I see her interact with her doll. I do not think that throwing Lily on the floor and dragging her by her head is the makings of a good mommy. The second thing I have noticed is that she will smell Lily’s toes. It is hilarious to watch! When Constance was a little younger we would do that to her-That is, smell her feet and proclaim loudly, “Ewwww, stinky feet!” I guess that is where she gets the idea of smelling Lily’s feet.

Constance must have a sensitive nose though, as her dolls feet are not the only thing she smells. She smells the cats. She smells our hands. She smells her food even if it is a Cheerio. She smells her blanket and the pillows and the carpet… Now I am not saying she smells everything ALL the time but probably 1/2 of the time. As long as she does not start smelling our friends when they come over I guess she will be fine.

Long Time No Post

I just realized I have not posted since Constance turned one. With my husband being a teacher and us having our first Christmas break, our schedules have been off for the past two weeks.

Let’s see if I can recap.

Constance did very well at her birthday party even though she started out shy at first. We had my in-laws come, my parents and one of my brothers with his wife and two kids.

After changing to one nap for the baby, she went to three feedings (nursing) a day. I had planned on weaning her from her second meal a few weeks after her birthday but by default, she weaned herself from that meal on her birthday. She woke up from her afternoon nap too early and heard all sorts of new voices in the living room. I brought her to my bedroom so I could nurse her and change her into her birthday dress. She refused to nurse and was very cranky. I literally called my husband who was in the living room and had him help me get her ready. Because we skipped the second feeding on her birthday I went with that and tried not to nurse her second meal on the second day. She is now down to two meals (nursing).

A few days after her birthday we packed up the car and headed to KY to have Christmas with my parents. Constance did great, even after my sister in law came with her four kids. She slept a little rough while we were there but overall was fine. The last night we were at mom and dads, the bay had an awful night. She kept waking up and was restless and cranky. At 3 a.m. we took her temperature and sure enough she had a high fever! She battled a fever all that next day. We went home, took her to the doctor and was told it was a viral infection and we would just have to ride it out, while keeping her drugged on baby Tylenol and Motrin.

As for the actual Christmas presents, our baby still could care less. She opened two and she was done! Maybe next Christmas she will be in to opening her gifts-or maybe we will have the world’s strangest child who does not like getting gifts?

I think that Constance has LOVED having Keith home these past two weeks. She is such a happy baby. I have LOVED having Keith home.

At her last well baby appointment she weighed 22 pounds and 1 ounce. She was also 30 inches tall. She can say “dog” now and in reality says a hundred other things but we can’t make out what she is saying yet. She talks all the time. She also might be able to point to her nose when you ask but we are not 100% on that.

Since writing this post, we are now down to one nursing session-her night time feeding. If this continues to go well, in a week or so I will try to wean her off her night time feeding which will be the hardest I think.