Orelia at 12 Months

I'm almost a month late on Orelia's 12 month update - I guess when they hit a year everything really goes out the window.  I've been taking oodles of pictures, but I just held off on the official one year shots since Orelia kept getting large bruises on her face (standing is hard, guys).

Orelia weighed in at 21 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 29.5 inches (both are roughly 50th percentile).  The doctor was really pleased with her growth and development.

The 12 month checkup was somewhat of a nightmare since someone does not like to be touched unless she says it is okay.  Apparently she did not say it was okay to be measured, weighed, prodded, or poked.  She is very particular about her personal space at the doctor's office, though she isn't sensitive about that when it comes to Harper or her crazy friends.

Orelia is verbalizing things a lot more, and everything sounds a lot more like speech.  Her four words are "mama," "dada," "Ba-per" (Harper), and "da" (dog).

Around the one year mark she became obsessed with books and is very demanding about when she wants to be read to and what she wants read to her.  She likes her Sandra Boynton books a lot, as well as some of the interactive books (such as Pat the Bunny).  It's been great to have another activity to do around the house that she really enjoys.

She drinks cows milk from her straw cup throughout the day, and enjoys meals every three hours or so, consisting of oatmeal, yogurt (with pureed fruit), quiche, fruit, crackers, and adult dinners when she is in the mood (such as pizza, lasagna, salmon, tuna, chicken, french fries and Chinese food).  She has now had a few different desserts, and definitely took to ice cream the fastest.  Can't say I blame her.

She pulls herself up to standing whenever she gets the chance, and cruises around when convenient.  Her crawling can be quite quick - especially when she sees something worth "running" for, namely Harper's water dish.

She takes two naps a day now - about 2.5 hours total nap time per day.  She's an early bird, waking up most days before 6:00 AM.  John says she is the mix of both of us - wakes up early like him, and is annoyed about it like her mama.  She goes to bed around 7:00 PM every night and is definitely spent by the end of the day.

She remains the most mellow of her friends.  Even though she has gotten more, er, vocal, with certain complaints, she is still the most relaxed and the least likely to be set off.  She is happy to play tug of war over a toy and remains persistent about it even when the toy has been snatched away.  She doesn't cry about it, but she certainly will do her best to get it back.  Most tears come as a result of a head bonk these days.

Orelia has been expressing her frustrations through whining when she can't get what she wants.  She's quick to recover from the episode when she's distracted, however, for which I am thankful.

She loves her Daddy and her Harper to the nth degree and is so excited when they come home every night.  She wiggles around and yells "Da!  Da!  Da!"

I can't believe a year has passed so quickly.  She has morphed into an active child from a tiny baby and we can't wait to see where the second year takes us.