12 Months Old

Date: February 8, 2012

Weight: 18 lbs 10 oz

Height: 30 1/4 inches

Teeth: She has 2 teeth!!!  Can I get a "what-what"? She has her 2 front bottom teeth. She is starting to look so old with teeth. It's crazy. I think the top front teeth are not far behind. Her gums are looking a bit white.

Clothes: Charlotte wears anything from 6 months to 12 months for her clothes. Truthfully, the 6 month onesies are seeming like they are going to be too short soon and she somewhat swims in her 12 month clothes. But she has quite a wardrobe when you come all of those sizes :) 9 months is the best size for her right now. Her shoe size is a size 2... that's a 3-6 months size. It's so funny how small her feet are.

Naps: Little princess crazy girl isn't the best sleeper... as you already know. However, she is getting better :) She still takes a morning and afternoon nap and I just don't see her giving that up anytime soon. I wait until she's either being extremely crabby or until she crawls up in my lap and nuzzles me to let me know she ready for her morning and afternoon nap. We rock and she falls asleep. She sleeps anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours... regardless, she wakes up a knew baby :)

Sleeping: Well, as soon as she turned a year old, I decided she has to be able to go to sleep on her own at night. So, now she gets her night time bottle (which we will be stopping once we have her on whole milk completely), she gets rocked for 5 minutes after her nighttime bottle then she gets placed in her crib on her belly and mommy leave the room. It was SO HARD for me to do this. Oh geez... so stressful. But I am so glad I started this.

Health: She is still healthy as a horse. Her checkup at the doctor was great. He said she is right where she needs to be and is even advanced in ways. She knows (and has known) some of her body parts. She placed his stethoscope on her heart by herself. She points at things and tells us about them. All of those are things that 18 month olds do. Naturally we were beaming as we left the office...we are so lame. It appears as though Charlotte is allergic to dogs for now. She had an eczema outbreak after her cousin "Berkley" (Grandma and Grandpa Jackson's dog-dog that she loves) came to visit for a few days. She had a few other allergy symptoms so the doctor's office thinks she is allergic. She's not had issues before so the good part of this is that she only has issues with prolonged exposure...not a few hours at a time. Naturally with my crazy allergies and asthma and anaphylactic reactions that I have, I am so nervous for all of these allergies that the doctor says she will probably have (eczema is a sign of future allergy issues so I have been on high alert anyway.) But she really is healthy as a horse :) She is in the 80th% for her heigh and the 15th% for her weight... tall and skinny. And lastly, she had her first bloody mouth...totally freaked me out. She fell face first on the screened in porch and hit her bottom teeth on her top gums. Blood, blood, and more blood.  It was so sad. It TOTALLY made my heart hurt.

Food: Charlotte is still in love with food. She eats pretty much all day long. She starts out eating her own breakfast, part of my breakfast, and then still acting hungry. She will snack all day long if the food is in front of her. She usually has a morning bottle sometime after her snack. She is now supposed to be transitioning away from her soy formula and get on whole milk. So we are starting small and moving slow to transition her. I'm just a bit nervous about all of the dairy stuff with her belly being so sensitive. She has a normal lunch... and part of mine as well. She takes a bottle in the afternoon and has a snack of some sort. For dinner, it is usually hit or miss. Sometimes she has eaten so much all day long that she isn't in the mood for much to eat. She gets a bottle before bedtime as well. The doctor said we have until she is 13 months old to get her weaned. I am so dreading the weaning of the bottle. Sometimes I think it is the best part of her day.

On the move: Charlotte is crawling everywhere... and walking as long there is something to hold onto. We are waiting on the day that she lets go of the toy, couch, table, etc. and just keep walking. As soon as she lets go of something, she plops her bottom down on the ground and that's it :) When she does take the occasionaly step on her own, we applaud and praise her. It hasn't made her want to walk yet though. She can take the steps like a champ... she crawls up and down like it's nobody's business. She loves all animals, loves going on walks and wishes that the screened in porch was her bedroom. She loves to dance, read her books, ride in her tricycle, play with anything she can get her hands on in the kitchen cabinets, and she is finally watching tv. She loves Mickey Mouse's Clubouse and anything on Disney Junior. It's so sad how excited I am that she is watching tv... sometimes I can actually switch over a load of laundry without her noticing right away.

 Friends and Events: Charlotte had a busy month :) I feel like she always has a busy month. This month she was blessed with over night stays from her Gigi and her Grandma and Grandpa Jackson. She loved all of the attention to say the least :) She got to play with her buddy/future husband Gavin 2 days in a row while I was working. She loves him so much. She also got to go to a baby shower for Thushara and Niki and there she saw plenty of friends she had not seen in awhile. And the BIGGEST part of her month was that she had her first birthday party :) :) :) She was so excited to be the belle of the ball, the rock of the star, the center of attention, etc. It was a big month...

I can't believe it's been a year. I can't believe that she no longer looks like a baby. She is such an amazing child. She makes life exciting and keeps us laughing. We are so pumped to see what the future holds for all of us.