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Can somebody please explain to me how it is physically possible that exactly 52 weeks ago I gave birth to this wonderful child? And how is it that one year ago I took my last picture of my pregnant belly and had my last prenatal doctors appointment?

Of course, at the time I didn’t know these were the lasts of being pregnant. And I think that’s what makes the one year mark such a milestone. I’ve reflected a lot on what I was doing one year ago on these days leading up to Katie’s first birthday.

Now, I’m not one of those people who “can’t imagine my life without ” or anything. I absolutely can remember my pre-Katie days, filled with uninterrupted sleep and lazy weekends. Not having to wash bottles and prep daycare bags every night. But I am so glad that Katie is here with us and so happy to be a little family of three.

I know that tomorrow I will have lots of thoughts about March 13, 2012 and what I was doing that morning and early afternoon. I know at 4pm I’ll think about how the doctor had just broken my water and I was waiting for Matt to get back to the hospital.

Anyway, this post doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. We’ll celebrate tomorrow by taking Katie to breakfast before daycare and work. I’m going to take in some cupcakes for her and her daycare buddies to enjoy and then we’ll celebrate on Saturday with Katie’s grandparents and aunt, uncle, and cousin.

12 month post on Katie to come, because I know I never want to forget what Katie was like at this age.

Deep breath.

Okay so Katie is pretty awesome lately. She sleeps pretty well, sometimes waking once or twice but usually she goes back to sleep pretty quickly. This past month saw another ear infection and the start of the final descent of her top two front teeth. She weighs about 20lbs, we’re switching to size 4 diapers during the day, 5s at night.

She’s in a strange place bottle wise, though. Sometimes she won’t eat her bedtime bottle, sometimes she will skip her afternoon bottle, sometimes she’ll need a half bottle at daycare to make it through the afternoon.

Katie is a serious cruiser now. She makes laps around the family room and has gotten pretty efficient. Still no walking or first steps. She can stand pretty efficiently but she would rather get down and crawl. Heaven forbid she has to stop for a moment to balance! That said, if she is in a situation where she’s observing a lot (like at the playground) then she totally can just stand there… not realizing that you’ve broken her grip.

I think Katie might be trying to talk but you know, at this point it’s kind of hard to tell if she’s babbling or trying to say real words. But, the words she’s trying to say consist of : Dada(this one is for real though. She’s got dada down), and ki ca (kitty cat). Sometimes she says “ba” at times that could mean ball or bottle, so who knows.

Katie’s comprehension is definitely growing, though. If she starts to crawl away, we can say “Katie, where’s Scout? Katie hug Scout?” And she’ll come back into the room and crawl to Scout and “hug” him. Same with her Mr Bear – it’s the cutest! And it kind of blows my mind that she can comprehend. Not that Im saying that she’s a genius, but it’s pretty crazy to watch this evolution.

I really can’t believe that in just a few weeks Katie will be a year old. We’re not planning on a big party, just immediate family. Honestly, I don’t have the energy for a big party! And I’d rather save that money!

Let the countdown begin…
3 weeks until the big day!

We had some big changes to close out Katie’s last week of month 10. She moved up a room at daycare and is doing great! She’s napping much better; an hour and a half on average this week. This is amazing considering that she was taking two 30-minute naps in her old room. Definitely and improvement. At night, she’s sleeping 12-13hrs. She has a tendency to doze in the mornings which is super nice on the weekends. And during the week it means time to shower before going to her. Which is crucial because girlfriend is all over the place crawling now.

Her favorite thing to do is to stand and she’s gotten really adept at pulling up. She’s experimenting more and more with standing unassisted and has gone as long as 5 seconds without holding on.

Katie is on table foods now and doing pretty well with it. At daycare she gets 2 meals and 1-2 snacks each day. She’s doing about 4 8-oz bottles per day. This weekend instead of a 4th bottle we’ve been doing some formula in a cup instead. We will probably work on switching her midday bottle to a cup to help prepare her for ditching the bottle after 12mo.

She still only has her bottom two teeth. Who knows when those top guys will come in.

I can’t wait to see what changes Month 11 has in store for us!

• Wash the bottles
• Prep her daycare bag
• Don’t forgot to send in a can of backup formula!
• Clean up from dinner – Cheerios and chicken all over the floor
• Put away Katie’s toys

As the list got longer and Katie became more restless with the bottle (add “sterilize level 3 bottle nipples” to that list) and started hitting me with her kitty wubbanub, I grew frustrated.

But then she finished her bottle and with the pacifier in her mouth she snuggled up in my arms and was fast asleep. I try to remind myself to put down the iPhone- blogs, twitter, Facebook, and Instagram can, and should, all wait.

Because the truth is that Katie will be 10 months old on Sunday and she is already seeming more and more like a toddler and less like a baby. Just that night she stood for about 5 seconds in her own. And sooner than I know (and probably realize), she won’t tolerate me rocking her before bed.

The Friday before Christmas was Katie’s last day at daycare. I picked her up at lunch time, brought her home for a nap, then we were off to my sister’s house for dinner & presents with them and my mom. Katie ate dinner with us, loving the prime rib, asparagus, and especially the wild rice. Girl was taking handfuls of rice off of my plate! Katie got her first round of awesome gifts – the Chicco Baby Jogger (a walk-behind toy), a ball-popper, and bead maze. She loves all of them! Savannah really likes the ball popper, too.

Saturday was a low key day where I made 10lbs of mashed potatoes for our next Christmas gathering on Sunday, Christmas Eve Eve. Sunday was another great Christmas gathering with my dad’s side of the family. Katie did great, despite taking only a 30min nap in the car on the way there and missing her afternoon nap.

Unfortunately, Sunday was the last day that Katie was healthy. She woke up on Monday sick with a stomach virus that hung around until Saturday. Add in some teething and a nasty diaper rash and things were less than fun. We still had a really nice Christmas and Katie has just about mastered the walker. We have to help her steer it but she’s not falling down as much.

Katie also decided that she would start standing up using anything that was at least an inch off of the ground. And that she would start standing without holding on to anything for about a second before falling.

Regardless, Katie’s first Christmas was pretty great but next year should be even better!