Happy 1st Birthday to Jane! » June 2008 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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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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