One Year Old - Britta's Crawling!

RICHLAND-- Britta finally started crawling right on her first birthday! It was such an exciting moment! I was actually recording her on my phone, trying to get her to make animal noises for the camera, and instead she started crawling. I thought for sure my eyes were playing tricks on me. She did it again later that day while Isaac was watching and we were all pretty excited.

The week after her birthday, her physical therapist and another lady from the Birth to 3 program came to do a six month evaluation. They wanted to see if we had reached our goal we had set six months ago, when Britta first started the program and then to set new goals for the next six months. It was amazing to me to see how minimal our goals were-- we just wanted her to sit up and to be able to have some hand movement. Man, did little Britta blow those goals out of the water! It makes me feel kind of sad that our goals were so small. But we honestly weren't even sure if she ever would sit up or roll over or be able to pick up things. Those things seemed so lofty and out of reach. But our sweet little Britta has come so far and made so much progress. My eyes teared up as we talked about how far she'd come. It really is a miracle. Truly.

The sweet girl loves her newfound freedom. She crawls everywhere, though she's still pretty slow at it. Her favorite place to go is to the bottom of the stairs, where she'll get up on her knees (another tremendous feat) and just try her little heart out to push herself up to the top step. Sometimes she'll get tired and rest her cute little head on the step while she gears up to try again. She's a long way away from being able to climb stairs. 

It is hard to believe she's already one! We can't wait to see how far she comes in the next year. I think she's going to wow us all. At least I have faith that she will. 

Twelve Month Old Stats:

• 30.2 inches tall (85%)

• 18.6 HC (98%)

• 21.25 lbs. (75%)

Sleeping: Goes to bed at 7 and wakes up around 8 or so. Has a nap around 12:30 or 1 and sleeps for at least 2 hours generally.  

Wearing: 12-18 month clothes.  

Interesting Tidbits: 

Lights up the most around Paige (and usually Marin). If Paige is in the same room as she is, she'll constantly be trying to get her attention. Today she was trying to get both Marin and Paige's attention while they were watching a Christmas movie. And whether they'd look her way or not she'd wave at them and chatter. If they'd look at her, she'd start laughing. 

We're trying to get her to talk more (like, maybe saying MOM would be nice), but she's just going at her own pace. 

She likes to point to things and say "dat" or "dis" for this or that. 

She starts dancing as soon as she hears music or some kind of beat. 

She loves reading books lately. Sometimes she'll sit on the ground and flip through pages of books all by herself. She especially loves the touch and feel books and picture books that have a lot of objects on the same page (like her colors book). 

Britta - 11 Months Old

RICHLAND, WASH. -- My baby Britta is almost a year old! She just experienced her first Thanksgiving-- where she devoured sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes with gravy, and was smothered with love from all her Reeve family in Portland. 

At the beginning of the month we took her to Seattle Children's for a one-year old appointment of sorts. It was a follow-up with a specialist (Dr. Al-Mateen, a muscular neurologist) we saw back in March. He was impressed by how much she can do given the weakness of her muscles and how loose her ligaments are. He brought in another specialist to take a look at her. More tests were ordered and more blood drawn-- there probably won't ever be a diagnosis, at least not one with any sort of treatment, but for now we are hopeful as we watch her get stronger and do more things every month. She's quite a miraculous little thing.  

She is such a good little girl. She's getting a little stronger and is trying to stand on her knees now. Still no crawling. That's about the only update, if that's even an update. She's starting to say more words and it's been fun to hear her try to interact with us-- even though the latest interaction is an ear-piercing squawk when she wants something or is trying to get our attention. It reminds me of what a pterodactyl must sound like. 

Her big blue eyes make me melt. 

Eleven Month Old Stats:

• not measured this month

Sleeping: Goes to bed at 7 and has been waking up a little earlier than normal, usually around 6:30 and I let her cry for a bit and she'll usually fall back to sleep until 7:30 or so. Has a nap around 12:30 or 1 and sleeps for at least 2 hours generally. Today her nap lasted 3.5 hours!   

Wearing: 12-18 month clothes.  

Interesting tidbits: 
-Says: Dada, juice, cheese, shoes, dog (da), and ball. That's about it. 
-Can tell us what an owl, sheep, dog and cow say. 
-Can point to her ears, head, nose and tummy when we ask where they are and loves to wave hello and goodbye. 
-She likes to find things that look like a hat and stick them on her head. 
-Britta is such a good kid. Every Tuesday we spend two hours at the ballet studio for Paige and Marin's dance classes. She has never gotten fussy (or at least not too bad), gotten mad or cried during the two hours we are there. Maybe because I hold her the entire time, but it could be such a miserable experience for a baby-- but she's so good about it! 
-The poor girl has had a gross runny nose since about September. Initially the doctor said it was allergies and nothing could be done. After a month, she got put on antibiotics and it went away for about a week and then came back. Poor girl.   
-Lights up when Paige and Marin pay attention to her. 
-Bath time is still her favorite time of day. 

We recently got a piano, and Britta likes to delicately play. Her fingers have a hard time pushing down the keys, but she is good at playing with the palm of her hand. 

She curls her feet up when she stands, which means her feet may have to be braced eventually.

I love sleeping babies.

Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Reeve's house in Portland. 

Being held by her cousin Connor (I think... he has a twin brother and I'm terrible at telling them apart)

Isaac making her laugh. 

BRITTA: 10 Months Old

RICHLAND, WASH. -- Sweet little Britta has made lots of strides this past month. The biggest thing is that she can stand up! Before you get too excited, she can't stand up on her own and she can't yet pull herself up. But if we stand her up against something, she can stand. And this is huge! She also likes to clap. All the time. It's like she just discovered her hands move at will and she's enjoying it. It's the daintiest little flappy clap. 

We were in California on vacation a few weeks ago and spent the day at Disneyland on her 10 month birthday. She was not feeling 100% (horribly runny nose, watery red eyes) and it was not exactly a fun day for her, but she was a trooper and hardly cried until she was so exhausted she finally passed out for a short nap in the stroller. She loved the beach though, but was a bit frustrated when I wouldn't let her eat the sand. 

Ten Month Old Stats:

• not measured this month

Sleeping: Goes to bed at 7 and usually wakes up around 8 a.m. or sometimes later. Rarely earlier. Has a nap around 12:30 or 1 and sleeps for 2 hours or so.  

Wearing: 12-18 month clothes.  

Interesting tidbits: 
-She now has four teeth. She has that one that popped up last month, and then the top two came down. This week the second bottom tooth arrived! 

-Her little personality is blossoming -- for some reason I feel like it took a while for this to start happening. We view her as such a baby baby, but when Marin was this age she was walking and talking. I'm not saying that to compare my kids, but I think because physically she does less, we sometimes forget that mentally she's so much more capable than what we've been challenging her with. So we've been trying to be better with that. 

-She laughs and giggles more freely (and it also can take a lot of work to get a legit smile sometimes), but she loves interacting with her sisters and watches them with wide eyes  and laughs whenever they come close to play with her. She gets shy when strangers approach us and will bury her head into my shoulder-- it's kinda cute. 

-She likes to wave hello and good bye and sometimes when I glance over at her she's waving at me. Last week we started saying, "Who's so big?" and then throw our arms up high in the air and say, "Britta's so big!" And she'll throw her arms up in the air too (or at least try... they don't always go higher than above her shoulders). It was an effort to try to get her to raise her arms straight up-- which she struggles with because her arm strength is pretty low. But she tries, and it is really darling. 

-She sees the physical therapist, Darlene, about every other week. Every time she comes she comments that she can see improvement in Britta. She's either gotten visibly stronger or has strengthened a new skill (like trunk rotating and balancing her core). It's encouraging to hear this-- especially after picking Britta up a few weeks ago, she indicated Britta was the lowest toned baby she currently works with-- an observation she made when she realized it was still like picking up a newborn when you try to pick up Britta under her arms. 

This is a really terrible photo of Paige. ha ha ha

In line at the Snow White ride at Disneyland

Poor thing didn't feel too hot that day and it was 90 degrees there!

Swinging is a newly discovered joy. 

Britta: NINE MONTHS OLD

RICHLAND, WASH. -- Lots of updates for little Britta lately. Yesterday her first tooth FINALLY popped through on the bottom! Finally. I was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with her teeth! She also waived at me for the first time this past week. And she also started giving high fives! We are on a roll with this little ball of chub! 

I came into the kitchen one day last week, where Britta was sitting in her high chair, and I waved at her and she gave me a huge smile and waved back-- with those weak, floppy hands of hers. Her cute little hands just flopped back and forth in a clear effort to wave at me. I'd been trying to work on this with her for a while, always making her hand wave at other people to say hello or goodbye. So when she did it on her own, I cheered for her so loudly, I probably scared her. Every time she can do something new with those little hands of hers, I am amazed. And so, so happy.

Nine Month Old Stats:

• 21.13 lbs. (93rd percentile)
• 29" tall (92nd percentile)
• 18.27" HC (97th percentile)

Sleeping: Starting to phase down to just one nap. Giving her a morning nap was starting to get tricky trying to go anywhere or get anything done, otherwise I'm sure she'd still love to go to sleep much sooner. She sleeps from about Noon to two or so and goes to bed at seven. 

Wearing: 9-12 month clothes. Sometimes 18 months. 

Interesting tidbits: Of note, her head circumference is now below the 99% mark! This is the first time this has happened in her life. ha!

Her physical therapist sees improvement every week, which makes me so happy, and thinks she'll be "commando crawling" really soon by the way she's been positioning herself when she tries to reach for things. Though she's still about as flexible (aka floppy) as they come, she is gaining more muscle control. 

Britta loooooves her sisters so much and lights up when they come near her to play or give her hugs or kisses. She babbles to them all the time and giggles whenever they're around. Sometimes, when I am feeding her in her rocking chair, she'll arch back to look at the door, I'm pretty sure she's hoping to catch a glimpse of them or hope that they'll come into her room. 

Wearing a smocked dress that Grandma Candrian made

Wearing their princess pajamas. 

Matchy matchy. 

Meeting a few of her cousins in Portland. Michael insisted on holding her.

Labor Day weekend boat ride. 

BRITTA: Eight Months Old

RICHLAND, WASH. -- Our little girl is getting stronger every day. We adore her. We spent the beginning of the month in Texas for a family reunion and she loved playing in the water and being smothered with hugs and kisses by everyone. 

I think this might have been her first swing ride. She was just "eh" about it.
and not quite sturdy enough for me to push her with any force. 

EIGHT Month Old Stats:

• none this month

Sleeping: Starting to phase down to just one nice, long nap. I put her down for the nap around Noon and she goes to bed at seven.  

Wearing: 9-12 month clothes. Sometimes 18 months. 

Interesting tidbits: She's getting stronger and can push herself back up now when she falls over sitting up. 

She constantly amazes me with how good natured she is. We sat for two hours the other day at Paige and Marin's ballet lessons. She didn't even cry once. 

The ladies at the gym (in the kids zone (aka babysitting area)) are constantly doting over her and noticing how much stronger she's getting too. I love going to pick her up after a work out, and they tell me how much they love her. It's nice to know she's in good hands for an hour or so. 

She loves her sisters so much and lights up and laughs when she sees them. They can make her laugh like no one else. 

She loves splashing in the water. 

Still no teeth. It's a mystery. 

PAIGE: Three Years Old

RICHLAND, WASH. -- This past year has been filled, and I mean FILLED, with Paige's personality blossoming. I also recently re-read her two-year-old update and how I basically thought her sweet, innocent, pre-two-year-old-self could do no wrong. Well, the second this sweet, innocent girl turned two, the terrible two's snuck right on in... Two-year-old Paige was a mischievous, wild, energetic (sometimes crazy), lovable, naughty, messy, CRAZY (I mentioned that, right?) little thing. But oh is she cute. I never want to forget our little Paigey's sweet little voice and her genuine laughter and love for life. 

She's been Marin's inseparable side-kick and playmate this past year and she couldn't wait to turn three. She's taken on the role of a big sister with ease and can make Britta laugh like no one else. Actually, she makes us all laugh like no one else. The girl likes to be "silly" and make people laugh. She'll say the most odd-ball things to get a laugh, goofily dance around, and use silly voices to turn heads. She's the queen of playing make-believe and she and Marin could play dolls and any made-up game or imaginary scene ALL DAY LONG. If she's absent a doll, she'll find anything around her and bring it to life. She'll often use her food to talk to each other, or personify my make-up brushes while I'm getting ready. Her play objects have no limit. She loves playing with dolls the best and pretending  to be princesses. If Marin isn't around, she'll bring me a doll and say, "Mommy, make it talk." (I hate playing pretend, by the way, so it takes everything I have to make a doll talk for a few minutes). 

Paige and Marin could also spend hours performing for each other. We'll often find them standing on the fireplace ledge, which is their stage, saying things like, "Now announcing my favorite sister... MARIN...." and then Marin will proceed to the stage where she'll perform something and then announce Paige up on stage. It's quite darling and very entertaining. 

She loves to sing and dance and anything related to music. When Isaac plays his saxophone, she'll often run to his feet to sit and listen to him play. She loves dancing with Isaac and having him dip and spin her around. When Marin won't go run errands with Isaac (she's a big mommy's girl), Paige will jump at any chance to go somewhere with him.   

Soon after she turned two, we put her in a "big girl bed." And something happened. My sweet little girl, who has ALWAYS (even as a newborn) been a good sleeper, decided she did not like sleeping through the night. On top of that, she also stopped napping (or at least it was impossible to keep her in her "big girl bed" for nap time, so we just threw them out the window). Besides a handful of nights this entire year, Paige has NOT slept through the night, often waking up two, three, or sometimes four times. You can imagine what this will do to a person, night after night. I'm pretty sure it has aged me. I've often looked at myself in the mirror this past year and thought how "haggard" I look. Oh, it's the worst. Every time she wakes up, she comes down to our room and will tell us she's thirsty, wants me to hold her, or some other random thing. She generally goes right back to sleep once we take her back to her room, but it's made this past year a little rough on me. I'm usually exhausted, snappy, and very low on patience. Add a new baby into the mix (who actually sleeps very well, thank goodness), and I feel like I most certainly wouldn't win any mother of the year awards. I'm hoping this third year of life for my little Paigey can somehow produce excellent sleeping. At least she tells me it will. She's very aware that I'm not a fan of her nighttime wakings, and always tells me she "will sleep through a night." ("tonight" is "a night" to her. "Mommy, I want you to sleep by me a night.") Ah... one day. One day, I'll miss it. Right? 

  

Paige wanted a strawberry cake with rainbows, so that's what she got. Kind of. 

This cake was a group effort. Isaac even helped me frost it. Compared to last year's watermelon cake, I'm very proud of how this one turned out. It was A LOT of work. 

THREE YEAR STATS: 

• XX lbs. (67%)  

• XX (67%) 

EATING: She's such a good eater. She'll pick an apple, peach or orange over a cookie any day. It's quite remarkable. 
SLEEPING: You likely read my rant on this in the above paragraphs.   
WEARING: 3T. 
INTERESTING TIDBITS: She has an attachment to a little gray fuzzy blanket she got when she was born. One side is gray and white polka dots, the other side gray and white plaid. It's been washed a million times and is no longer even that soft, but she can't sleep without it (she has... but it's not our favorite thing when she wakes up in the middle of the night without it). 

-Last night she came down to our room approximately five times. The second time, we hadn't even gone to bed yet ourselves and Isaac came into our room to find Paige curled up on the rug on our bedroom floor. She somehow snuck by us in the family room and came into our room and fell asleep. 

-Paige sometimes gets the names of colors mixed up. She has a hard time with green and orange for some reason. Tonight I asked her if she wanted a sandwich or a quesadilla for dinner (I usually ask them if they want white or orange cheese, but didn't this time), and she responded, "I want a quesadilla! With green cheese!" ha ha

BRITTA: Seven Months Old

RICHLAND, WASH. -- Britta started saying "Ma and Dada" over the last few weeks, so that's pretty big. 

The first time I knew she really meant me was when she was sitting in her high chair while I made dinner one night and she was so mad I had put her down. She was screaming and finally belted out, "MAAA!" And I knew what she meant.

The last week or two she's been chanting "da da da da" over and over again. Isaac wasn't so sure she was actually trying to say dad, but after a phone conversation with him on speaker phone today, she babbled "da da da" when she heard his voice. So there we have it. We have a talker on our hands. Kind of. At least she's attempting more sounds. 

She's getting pretty good at sitting up now too. But leave her in a sitting position too long and she'll hunch on over or tip one way or the other. But goodness, the girl tries!

She also had her first boat ride last week, if that counts as a milestone. Probably not. 

Here's this chubby little thing in all her cute glory...

SEVEN Month Old Stats:

• 20.31 lbs. (94th percentile)

Sleeping: She's finally decided she's a normal baby and will wake up once (sometimes twice) in the middle of the night. Still naps twice a day for about two hours each. 

Wearing: 9 month and 12 month clothes. 

Interesting tidbits: 

• She's still getting weekly visits from the physical therapist, Darlene. She's gotten pretty used to her play sessions with her and used to be relatively fine with me observing from a few feet away. But the girl is developing a lovely case of separation anxiety and doesn't like me to veer more than a few inches away or she'll cry. And her cry sounds like she's dying. 
• Separation anxiety is also manifesting itself at the gym in the baby play area while I workout. On Tuesday she cried the entire hour I was gone. 
• She loooooves her sisters. Marin can make her laugh and smile so huge. Paige likes to love on her a little too much.
• We got her one of those bouncy chair things, to try and help her work on strengthening her legs. She pushes off the ground with her feet and plays with all these cute toys on the bouncer. I think it's helping (at least a little). She's finally starting to put weight on her legs when we pick her up and set her feet not the ground.