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Sun, Jun 22, 2008 7:06 PM
We threw a big party today for Jane's first and Audrey's third birthdays. We've now thrown...what...six? birthday parties at home and are somewhat expert at it by now. Not that it prevented me from planning too many wonderful details that added up to late nights and too much stress! But it all went great in the end and I was really happy with how it all turned out.

This party didn't exactly have a theme, but it did have a cupcake motif reflected in the invitations, pinata, craft project and (of course) dessert. We also had pink and yellow balloons and table cloths for decorations.

For activities, we had a foam cupcake craft and all the outdoor toys, including a couple of new swings we just installed in the avocado tree. We had an adorable cupcake pinata with ribbon pullstrings. The idea is that each child pulls one string and eventually the correct string is pulled and the prizes come tumbling down. Well, Audrey went first--and chose the right string. So she was the only one who got to do it! But nobody seemed to mind in the midst of the frantic candy-grab.

In the family room we had two videos playing: an 11-minute montage of Jane's first year and a short 2-minute montage of Audrey's year.

For lunch we served hotdogs (at Audrey's request--and then she didn't even eat one!), mac and cheese, pasta salad, fruit salad, chips, string cheese and drinks.

Jane spent the party sitting in the grass, hanging out with her Grandma Montgomery, eating in her highchair, and playing in the (air conditioned!) family room with all the kids and babies.

The best part of the party came at the end, when we displayed the 50-some cupcakes I had baked and decorated. I will admit to being proud of how the cupcakes turned out, both in taste and looks! Jane got a special wheat-free, egg white-free banana muffin with buttercream frosting. While everyone sang happy birthday, she looked around and smiled a little, looking unsure about what was going on. Audrey blew out her candles for her, and then when the muffin was placed in front of her Jane happily dug in. I think she managed to eat all the frosting and about one bite of the muffin.

After cupcakes and a little more playtime, most of our guests started leaving with their party favors: a plastic cupcake containing a little bag of crackers or cookies, tied up in a cellophane bag with a ribbon and a party blower. Janey gratefully had a little bit of milk and then went down for her nap.

Later, Maggie and Audrey helped her open up her presents. She got lots of wonderful stuff, including pajamas, dresses, bath toys, a dish set, a puppy toy, a dolly, books and a Pooh bear. We gave her a play parachute, which all three girls had a great time trying out.

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Wed, Jun 18, 2008 3:04 PM
Jane had her one-year check-up with Dr. Cohen today and was pronounced in good health and growing normally. She measured 19 pounds 12 ounces (25th percentile for weight), 30 1/4" tall (50-75th percentile for height) and 45 centimeters around her head (50th percentile).

Other than her gross motor skills, she is developing normally. Dr. Cohen was chuckling over the neurologist's report, which said, "This child will not be an Olympian, but is doubtlessly highly intelligent." Hey--not a bad thing to hear about your kid in my opinion.

I talked to the doctor about Jane's sensitivity to wheat, barley and corn, and she recommended we avoid them until age 2, at which point we can try and see if she's grown out of it. She okayed trying eggs and soy, and going ahead with whole milk too.

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Tue, Jun 17, 2008 9:51 AM
Happy first birthday to Jane! I’m happy for Jane but a little sad for myself. Sad that this year has flown by in a blur of busy days and too-brief nights, errands and playtime and holidays and everyday nonsense, with Jane’s milestones flashing by me so quickly I was often afraid I’d miss out on writing about them or capturing them with my camera.

I vividly remember the 48 hours I spent in the hospital after Jane was born—I could swear they took place a few weeks ago instead of a year ago. I wanted time to stop. I wanted to stay snuggled up with Jane in a cocoon of peace and quiet, with her little self in my arms and nobody bothering us. I wanted to study her, memorize her face, smell her breath, learn everything about who she was.

I am still that smitten with Jane, though the realities of our busy family mean I don’t get to hold her, stare at her, or smell her nearly as much as I’d like. I try to remember that the trade-off is a good one: Jane gets less one-on-one time with her mom than both of us would like, but she gets two big sisters who love her and delight in entertaining her. Just yesterday when Jane got up from her nap, Maggie and Audrey crowded around to give her hugs and kisses. They competed to see who could give Jane the biggest kiss, taking turns planting big noisy kisses on her cheeks. Jane squealed and laughed and grabbed fistfuls of her sisters’ hair. She is simply thrilled when her sisters pay attention to her.

Playing with Jane has never been more fun. She delights in simple games: I hide a ball and she finds it; we give a toy back and forth to each other; we experiment with toys to see what they can do. I’m positive that she knows the names of some objects. If I say to her “Where’s the ball?” she will usually go get a ball. I think she knows book, too.

Janey loves books. She loves to rifle through all the kids’ book we have lying around the family room and the girls’ bedroom. She loves to tear the pages (unfortunately). And she loves it when I hold her in my lap and read board books. I read to her two or three times a day now, usually right before sleeping. Her favorites are touch-and-feel books and anything that goes by quickly with a minimum of words. She prefers to turn the pages herself and won’t tolerate more than a few seconds per page.

Jane’s crawling skills have given her so much more freedom to do what she likes. She crawls around in search of objects to pick up and explore, and tiny objects to put in her mouth. When I sit on the floor, she giggles and squeals as she crawls toward me and into my lap. If I’m sitting on the couch and she decides she wants me, she crawls toward me making anxious “I need you” noises until she’s within a couple feet of me, at which point she decides that’s close enough and lifts her arms in utter confidence that her mama will pick her up—and she always gets her wish.

Mealtime is a happy time in Jane’s world. She eats three meals a day in her highchair, plus occasional snacks as needed. She is my little carnivore—she loves meat! I give her chopped up beef, chicken, turkey—whatever I have handy—and she loves it. I have taken to cooking up meat and freezing it just for her so I can easily serve up a couple tablespoonfuls at dinnertime. Her other favorite food is, believe it or not, broccoli. She can’t get enough of it, and if there is broccoli on her tray along with other foods, she always eats it first until it’s gone. She also likes carrots and bananas quite a bit. I’m not giving her any baby food anymore, except for oatmeal mixed with formula for breakfast, and yogurt on occasion. Everything else she feeds herself. I’m still not giving her wheat, barley or corn; further experiments all made her sick. Poor Jane! So she only gets oats and rice. Lots and lots of oatmeal, Cheerios, Rice Chex and cooked rice. My mom invented a recipe for cookies using only approved ingredients, and they turned out pretty tasty. Jane is a big fan.

I’m still breastfeeding Jane twice a day: early morning and late afternoon. She also drinks a few bottles of formula each day, sometimes from a bottle while I cuddle her, and sometimes from a sippy or straw cup. She also drinks quite a bit of water. The other day I gave her a straw cup full of water—about 10 ounces—thinking she’d have just a little. A few minutes later I picked up the cup and it was empty!

Jane’s favorite things (besides meat and beverages) are bathtime, rolling and throwing balls, swinging, playing with paper, crawling around and getting into mischief, pulling the power cord out of my laptop, playing peekaboo, making silly noises with Mommy, sitting outside in the grass, and cuddling. It really is a wonderful thing that my third (presumably final) baby is a snuggly, cuddly, huggy kind of baby. One of our little rituals is to hug each other close and make soft ha-ha-ha noises at each other. I love snugging her up in my arms, curling her into a baby ball, kissing her cheek and neck and head. My sweet, getting-bigger-every-day one-year-old baby, my girl, my Jane.

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Mon, Jun 2, 2008 7:13 PM
Jane saw the neurologist today to get an evaluation on her delayed motor skills. The doctor said she is hypotonic, in other words, has low muscle tone. It's not a big concern overall, but there will be some things to bear in mind in the future. She may have some trouble when she starts walking that can be addressed with physical therapy and exercises, and possibly wearing braces on her legs (though we're hoping that's a remote possibility). In the future, she is not likely to be a really athletic person. Of course, we'll encourage her to be active and find things she enjoys. The physical therapist had specifically mentioned swimming, ballet and martial arts as especially good activities for kids with low tone.

The high point of the exam was when the neurologist said in effect, there's no doubting she's very intelligent. We already knew it, but it's always nice to have a professional agree.

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Sun, Jun 1, 2008 3:37 PM
I'm still not used to seeing Jane crawl. She looks so much more advanced now! It's weird to think Audrey was walking at this age.

She's getting better and better at her crawling, and is starting to pick up a little speed, though usually she just does a few little crawling movements to get to some wonderful forbidden object and then stops. I'm sure it won't be long, though, before she figures out she can get from room to room and really get into trouble!

She is having an illicit love affair with all the tiny chokey objects she finds on her crawling adventures. When caught red handed, she either tries to hide the object in her mouth or throws it far away. Both methods are kind of funny, though I wish she'd do more of the latter than the former! This morning I was helping Audrey brush her teeth while Jane played in the girls' room. Jane was babbling and squealing--then suddenly silent. I poked my head around the corner and she looked at me, then instantly popped whatever she had in her hands into her mouth. I rubbed her cheeks a moment and it popped out--a penny. I about had a heart attack. Then, this afternoon she again got too quiet, and she looked like she was gnawing on something in her hand. I bent over to look, and she frantically hurled a tiny pink hairbrush across the room. That one went right in the trash. I absolutely hate these tiny toys from the girls' My Little Ponies and Polly Pockets and whatnot. I'm going to have to ban all that stuff!

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Tue, May 27, 2008 6:31 AM
Big news: Jane can crawl! She's been getting better and better at moving and reaching and scooting lately, and has made many little crawling movements with one or two knees scooting forward. Today we're making it official, because Robert saw her purposefully crawl five steps (slowly) to reach some forbidden toy she really wanted. Go Janey go!

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Fri, May 23, 2008 6:00 AM
Jane has been having a great time on her first vacation. We're in Lake Tahoe for a week with my parents and brother's family, staying in a giant hotel suite with plenty of room to spread out. Janey has been sleeping in a crib in our bedroom, which means every noise she makes wakes me up. That has been tough! Plus, she has been teething this week so she had a very fussy 24-hour period (including a night of almost no sleep!) before the tooth finally broke through the gum and she started feeling better.

Jane is such a happy, easygoing baby that it's been easy having her on vacation. She got restless during the long car ride, but otherwise she has been going with the flow quite easily. She also seems to like having all the family around; there's always something interesting to look at, and people to listen to, and laps to sit on.

We have taken a couple of short hikes with the girls, and Janey seems to like looking around at the trees and other sights. On one hike we put her in the new backpack carrier we inherited from a friend. It worked out great and should help us do longer hikes back home. On another hike I put her in the bjorn on my chest. Whew, that is getting difficult to do! Janey is so heavy that the straps dig into my shoulder, and she's so long that her feet bang uncomfortably into my legs when I walk.

Yesterday Jane got to see snow for the first time. It was falling pretty thickly when we went out, and she looked all around with big eyes and reached out her hands to feel it.

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Sat, May 17, 2008 5:53 AM
Happy 11- month birthday to Jane! Over the past couple weeks, Janey has made noticeable progress in her movements. She can now get up onto all fours in a nice crawling position, and sometimes she even scoots one knee forward a couple inches. She often gets into this position to reach something. If she grabs it, she will happily settle back into her comfortable seated position. If the object is too far, she will usually flop down onto her stomach. Now for the newest development--in the last 48 hours she has started pushing back from her stomach into a seated position. We are quite impressed.

Of course, once Janey starts crawling my life will get a whole lot more complicated. I've had it so easy with this easygoing non-mobile baby! When she can move, I'll have to put up the baby gate and be much more vigilant about her surroundings. Also, the girls will have to get a lot better about leaving small toys and papers around.

Jane isn't a huge talker, but she is excellent at saying "Mama" (I believe it's purposeful--when she looks up at me and says it, it makes us both very happy). She also says ya, da, ga...and makes lots of assorted happy sounds. She loves it when I read board books to her, especially touch-and-feel books with interesting textures, and books with animals. When I make the animal noises, she grins at me and oohs and aahs and squeals along.

Janey likes to eat, and is fun to feed. For breakfast she has oatmeal mixed with formula, followed by banana or another fruit. For lunch and dinner she has some jar food, but more and more often I'm giving her "people food" and she much prefers it. Her new favorite is finely diced chicken or beef mixed with rice. When I put a scoop of it on her tray she eats it as fast as she can. The other evening she was hungrily waiting in her highchair while I was mixing up a bowlful of rice and chopped sirloin steak (only the best for our Janey!). It was too hot, so I was blowing on it and handed her a few Cheerios to tide her over. She didn't like that at all--she picked up the Cheerios and flung them overboard, and demanded her steak!

So, I guess I would say that her favorite foods right now are meat of all kinds, Cheerios (unless she's waiting for steak...), Rice Chex, sweet potatoes, apple sauce, bananas, water from a sippy cup, and milk from mommy.

I've experimented with giving her some wheat again. She loves wheat crackers and I've given her a couple of them every day for the last week or so. She's had some more eczema flare up, but otherwise seems to be tolerating it okay. I'll ask her pediatrician for advice on the matter at her next appointment.

11 months...can you believe our Janey is almost a year old already? I savor her sweet babyness, her cuddly personality, her little sounds and smiles, her curiosity and sense of humor. I look forward to more milestones and all the excitement of toddlerhood, even as I feel myself already missing the babyish qualities that are fading away. But mostly, I just enjoy getting to be Jane's mommy and spending almost all our time together, day and night, every day, my Janey and me.

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Sat, May 10, 2008 5:30 PM
Jane is making noticeable progress on her motor skills, but it's easy to see how far behind she is compared to other babies her age. At her playgroup, the other babies crawl, stand and walk all over the place, but Jane still just sits still and observes.

At home she's more adventurous--she can rotate around and do huge stretches to reach things. She has started to almost get into a crawling position on hands and knees, which is a big improvement. From there she either plops back down on her behind or falls down onto her tummy. She sometimes can tolerate being on her tummy a few minutes before flopping over to her back, and then usually yelling for help.

She is such an easygoing, sweet, content baby. Sometimes I'm afraid I ignore her too much since she lets me get away with it. When I remember to play with her or read to her, she is absolutely delighted with the attention. She also loves to have Maggie cuddle her (as long as she's gentle), and lately Audrey is doing more to entertain her too. Audrey will "read" books to Jane or sing to her, and Jane eats it up.

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Mon, Apr 28, 2008 8:02 PM
Jane was examined by a physical therapist, and she thought that Jane may have "low tone" and would benefit from ongoing physical therapy. We're waiting now to see if it's approved by the regional center (it probably will be) and then we'll take it from there. The PT also gave us some ideas for ways to play with Jane to help her strengthen her core and challenge her a bit more.

Jane's had a cold for the past week and today I took her to the pediatrician just to be sure it hadn't turned into something worse. She has quite a nasty sounding cough. But luckily the doctor said it's just a virus and she should be getting better very soon.

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