More than once last Saturday morning, I felt a surge of excitement. It was like I was preparing for my own birthday party.
Its the same excitement I felt many times while pregnant, even while I was in labor. I am so privileged to have Allie as my daughter. I remember this every day, even while Allie is becoming more of a handful.
She was so surprised to see her birthday cake lit up when I brought it to her. She was amazed as everyone in the room sang "Happy Birthday." She loved playing with the ribbons, bows, boxes and tags. I wish we could have gotten more pictures. We did shoot video that I have yet to look at.
There's a whole year's worth of video on that camera. Several times this year I've meant to put it all on a DVD. As Allie's birthday came closer, I figured I may as well wait until her birthday to document the entire first year on DVD. I do watch the video on occasion. I love watching footage from Allie's very first night and the following day. There's her first bath, all the photo shoots, getting ready to go home. I keep trying to work on her baby book, but thats something that gets pushed to the back burner too. I don't want to forget. Unfortunately I already have forgotten some things. Its my goal to give Allie a complete baby book, however. And I think I will be able to with the help of this blog.
The prevailing memory from Allie's first few months is that she slept. A LOT. We had trouble with breast feeding because she wouldn't wake up enough to eat and stimulate my production. I wish we'd breast fed longer. But I'm proud of myself for making it to 6 months considering I started thinking about weaning before she was a month old! And again when she was 3 months old.
Even though she slept a lot it was really hard putting her to bed for the night those first few months. She wouldn't sleep in her crib without about a two hour prep time first that often included multiple feedings and diaper changes. I couldn't get her to sleep in her crib for nap times either. She did, however, sleep through the night very early.
As Allie grew, she went from hating tummy time to rolling over, to scooting backwards, then scooting forward, crawling, standing and finally walking. She went from all breast milk to rice cereal, to fruit and vegetable purees, dairy products and meats.
Its astounding to look back at everything Allie did in her first year of life. She went from 8 lbs 13 oz to 23 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches to 29 and a quarter. We have boxes and boxes of clothes she's outgrown.
So what's next for you Allie Kat? Where will you go from here? We can't wait to see.
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