Persephone is ONE!

Ok so this post is nearly 1 month late.

Let me start by saying I truly cannot believe how quickly time passed.  It feels like just yesterday I was pregnant and would be having her soon, now she's almost 13mos old.  What the crap?!  Now I understand why everyone always says "cherish every moment".

On Sunday 9/22 we had Persephone's 1st Birthday Party.  I rented out the Oakwood Community Center from the YMCA and it was the perfect location.  You could sit indoors or out, they had tables/chairs/kitchen/bathroom and most importantly A/C.  My friends Tabitha, Madison and Darlene helped me set things up before the party. She walked into her own party with her Daddy.  I had a co-worker embroider a onesie with her name on it and another co-worker had a tutu made for her.  At first she wasn't sure why all these people were standing around, staring, poking and prodding her but eventually she warmed up.

We served hot dogs with some fixin's and chips w/ dip.  For dessert I enlisted the services of Amazing Grace's Sweet Tweets for some delicious red velvet/cream cheese Minnie themed cupcakes.

Valerie made this adorable cute smash cake to match!  Persephone LOVED her cake, like seriously devoured most of it.  She didn't just smash it, she consumed it.

 

After the cake I had about 45mins to clean up and clear out, so I elected to take the gifts home and open them later.  She got such an abundance of clothes (which we needed for fall/winter) as well as some pretty cute toys.  I was so happy with the turn out we received from friends and family - THANK YOU EVERYONE.

On to the fun stuff...

She started WALKING without assistance at about 10 1/2 - 11mos.

 

She FINALLY got her very 1st tooth the week of Sept 23-27.

She has been completely weaned from formula since about Sept 16th.  We're giving her about 16oz a day of organic whole milk (either Publix Greenwise or Horizon brand). 

She can now drink from a straw by herself.

11 months old!

On Wednesday August 21st Persephone turned 11 months old!

-Meals-

Still eating 7-7.25oz about 4 times a day.  Each morning we alternate yogurt and oatmeal for breakfast.  We still offer her the foods that we eat, but she started playing with it more and making a mess instead of eating.  So we're also giving her the small Gerber meals (mac n cheese, spaghetti, chicken and pasta...etc and she loves them).  One thing I noticed is almost all of the Gerber "toddler food" is pasta.  Do you think they do that to keep the babies full?  I mean don't get me wrong, I love me some pasta, but still curious.

-Motor skills-

Our little girl is WALKING!  We've been working with her every morning and evening letting her walk back and forth between us.  She's gotten brave enough to step away from the couch and go to the chair or go for a toy.  I'm so proud of her and excited, but our parents have been warning us when she does begin to full on walk, we'll be wishing she was still a crawler.  Speaking of crawling...between 10-11mos she officially started crawling up on her knees.  She also LOVES to dance!

-Vocalization-

Dadadada

Mama

Nini (which is what we call her pacifier)

Olie olie

Okay

Oh

Whoa

Dickle...yea its just a sound shes making and we just pretend its tickle

Hello

Kitty Kitty

--She slaps herself in the mouth and says "oh oh oh" like an Indian.

-Play time-

She has no issues with independent play.  Sometimes in the evenings she'll find a toy, book or misc object and play with it by herself.  Hardy made the mistake of downloading a Fisher Price app on his phone though so now anytime she see's us with our phone she immediately reaches for it. One night I was on FaceTime with my mom and Persephone was in her own little world and no matter how many times we said her name or "Hey" she ignored us.

-Sleep-
Amazing little sleeper.  Usually goes down for the night between 8:30-9:30pm and sleeps until 6:20-7:00am.

-Teeth-
STILL NO TEETH!!!

 Persephone with Persephone!!

Swanging

With Lady (which was Hardy's when he was little)

10 months old!

Lets see...where to begin

-Meals-
Still eating 7-7.25oz about 4 times a day.  In between we offer water and snacks.  This weekend I plan on implementing a true feeding schedule with breakfast.  I haven't offered her any breakfast during the week just because most of the time when she wakes up she's hungry for a bottle and we're rushing to get ready for work.  So I figure if I can do it stress free over the weekend it will make it easier during the week.  I bought some already diced fruits from Gerber that she can pinch and pick up (apple and mango) and she likes them pretty well.  We have also offered her apple juice recently but dilute it with water. 

-Motor skills-
She's gone "monkey".  Climbing on us and all of the furniture.  She's quicker than before....in the past we could catch her before she made it to the kitchen - now not so much.  I guess it's time for those pain in the ass cabinet locks.  She's been standing on her own for short breaks and she'll do a few mini squats before finally giving in and sitting down again.  She will lead to walk if you hold her fingers.  We're trying to teach her to blow kisses - she's got the noise down, but hasn't put two and two together putting her hand to her mouth.  That girl can GO in her walker.  I wish our whole lower floor was hard flooring so she could just go to town....or I wish it would go on carpet too. 

-Vocalization-
Dadadada
Muuumaa (but only when she's eating or angry...hmm)
Babababa
Olie olie
Okay
Oh
Whoa
Dickle...yea its just a sound shes making and we just pretend its tickle
--She's rediscovered her tongue and constantly has it hanging out and grabs at it. 
--She now will also place her fist in front of her mouth and "oh oh oh" like an Indian.

-Play time-
Now that she's picked up some speed she darts for the kitchen whenever she can and plays with her toys in there or magically finds a cat toy she would rather have.  Recently it's been a fight to occupy her if she can see one of us in the kitchen, she wants to be in there too.  So we moved her walker in there even though she has limited space. I would also like to consider bath time is play time...because she's always loved it.  She would probably sit in there all night talking, splashing and making noise.

-Sleep-
Great so far.  My brother actually downloaded a lullaby app for when be puts her down for naps during the day (My Baby Music Box) so Hardy and I downloaded the same one and it definitely does soothe her.  Also,  for almost a month now we've been adding a scoop of oatmeal to her last bottle of the night and it seems to help her sleep longer. On average she wakes up between 5:30-6:30am...sometimes earlier sometimes later.

-Teeth-
Unless something pops out in the next 2mos, we might have a toothless 1yr old.  Just as she's done since 3mos old, we have the drool....irritability and occasional clingyness - STILL NO TEETH!!!

I booked the place for her party the other day.  I'm excited to get that all planned out...keeping it simple, but I want it to be cute too (obviously for me, not her).

Give me food...so I can pretend to eat some of it and throw the rest on the floor for the cat to eat

Playing on the bottom is so much more fun

Just chilling in the car

Oh Daddy you're so funny

I Instagrammed this one...mom photo bomb

One of my faves

Mini beach trip

On Friday 7/12 we met up with our good friends Danny & Shannon (who we met through the haunted house) and followed them down to Beaufort, SC where they live.  Persephone was a very good baby during the ride, only one real fussy moment.

Like are we seriously here now?

We got there at about 6:15 or so, checked into our hotel room and then had a nice dinner at Applebee's.

Queen of the king bed

I wasn't sure how P would be in a hotel room,  but she was fine.  I've learned to bring along our little box fan whenever we travel because most A/C units these days are central air and you don't get that nice loud white noise you used to with older hotels.  We brought the pack-n-play even though I would have loved to snuggle her into that king size bed and she slept through the night all three nights.

The following morning we met up with Shannon and her stepdaughter Desiree and headed to Hunting Island State Park.  By default I think SC is prettier than GA because of the palm trees, which definitely means their state parks are awesome.  The entire pathway to the beach/lighthouse had nothing but beautiful plants/trees along the edges.

((Cue Jurassic Park theme))

We had our fingers crossed she would like the ocean since she has fun in the pool...and she LOVED IT.

In fact she would throw a little tantrum when the tide went out because she couldn't splash.

We would dip her in the water and then raise her high in the air when a wave came.

She would kick her legs and laugh every time a new wave approached.

Hmm...nobody was paying attention when she grabbed the box of fries

Napping on Daddy

I didn't feel like editing this before posting..so pretend my shadow isn't there.  

My first idea was to write our names and do our footprints in the sand, 

but it didn't work right so I just wrote her name and decided to sit her there for a second haha.

Sunday morning we got up and drove to Hilton Head Island where Hardy's parents/sister were staying and stayed inside most of the day due to rain.  We were so sunburnt from the day before that we had no desire to visit the beach.  Monday we ate lunch with his parents and then headed home.

I will remember sunscreen for the rest of my life....

Lil Porker

Persephone had her 9mo check up on Friday 6/28.  We stayed with Longstreet Pediatrics, just because it's convenient.  She's now out of Wee Care (newborn - 6mo only).  I have to say, I actually LIKED that office.  It was quieter and cleaner since no children over 6mos were allowed.

I decided to make her appointment for the Oakwood office, because it's in between work and home.  To start, I know I'm hot blooded, but I swear the well waiting room had no A/C.  I was a sweaty mess by the time we got into a room.  It's harder to keep her stationary now so we hopped from seat to seat, she bounced on my knee and she threw toys on the floor and laughed as I picked them up time and time again.  She was cranky, hungry and sleepy so it was one of the most stressful visits for me.  No shots were needed because she's all caught up <>.  I don't think I could have taken the pre-doctor waiting + shots.  It was so chaotic I couldn't get a shot of her on the exam table..which I wanted to do.  The doctor even did the exam in my lap ha ha ha.  But she will get some new shots at her 12mo check up.

She weighed in at a whopping 20lbs 3oz
She measured 28.5" long

Doctor said she was growing as expected and in all areas she's75th percentile - - when did they start doing percentile??  I've also heard some other moms say their doctor was able to "guess" how tall their child would be...I haven't heard that yet.  I'm hoping she gets some height and doesn't end up an oompa loompa like me.

Here she is swimming with her cousins, Avery and Hayden.

Trying vanilla ice cream at Jaemore - I've been strict about her food intake, 

but if she's going to splurge I wanna be the first to do it.

Blurry photo, but I love the way she's looking at me.

Good morning!  Well...maybe

I've got her on a routine of playing for a few minutes in her room each day when she wakes up