Wow, time flies by. After the holidays we went into crazy mode for the month of January. I won't get into all the details but things are quieting down now. On February 23rd we celebrated Vivian's first birthday! Well, we didn't actually celebrate until the weekend but I just wanted to post a few photos of our girl.
Here is Vivi on the day of her birthday, striking a pose. Really she is thinking "why the heck am I on the table?". She is with her pall Charlie the Cheetah, her favorite stuffed animal. At this point she is in 18 month clothes but we are finding them snug already. She weighs 23.5 pounds and is 31 inches tall. That is almost 14.5 pounds and 10 inches of growth in 1 year! Amazing.
Vivi has 10 teeth, two of which are a little toward the back and have been tougher to cut. She is a very active walker who practically runs around the house. Here she is pulling out items from her hiding spot. I like to leave things in this little cubbie next to the tv for her to discover.
Vivi has been climbing stairs for a while now so we have to be ever vigilent to put up the gate. She has learned to climb off the bed and couch but has had a hard time continuing that training onto the stairs. She will do it for a couple steps but then gets bored with it and wants to turn around and step off like a grown-up! Yikes. We will keep working on it. Her shirt is wet here after being cleaned up from dinner. You have seen how messy she can get feeding herself! Speaking of which she is a master eater. We are working on self feeding with a spoon. She is completely off of bottles and drinking from sippy cups though we are also working on using regular cups. At daycare Vivi has been moved up to the one year old room where they no longer use cribs or highchairs. They sit at little table all together as a group and eat their meals. We decided to continue this at home and have Vivi sit at the table with us which means her highchair is more like a booster seat. No tray. We put her food on a plate and she has done well with it so far. We are trying to teach her that if she doesn't want to eat anything she can move it to a pile to the side instead of throwing it on the floor. She still prefers the out of sight, out of mind approach. I however, am tired of cleaning food off the ground.
Here is Vivi at one of her virtual birthday parties. We had a little Skype party with each set of grandparents so they could watch her open her presents and have some cake. Lots of fun. When my parents were on the computer Greg held the laptop and she followed him around "chasing them" for 15 minutes straight. It was very cute.
We are still waiting for hair to grow. The mohawk region of her head has gotten a lot thicker and MIGHT have a little curl to it but we are still waiting for any real length. Here is Vivi "brushing" her hair. She copies my hand motion but doesn't actually touch the brush to her head. Such a funny girl.
Here is Vivi practicing wearing her swim cap. We signed up for swim classes at the YMCA and they require everyone in the pool to wear a cap. We were a little nervous because Viv hates to have hats or headbands or anything else on her head. However, when we put the swim cap on (it is pretty big as you can see) she just acted like it wasn't there. Good thing. That was a battle I wanted to avoid. I bought her a cute pink skirted swimsuit and a swim diaper and we were all set.
I wish I had a better shot of us at the pool but photos weren't allowed. Greg caught this shot on the down low which is why it isn't very clear. Vivi likes being in the water and seems to enjoy our classes. We mostly just bounce around and sing songs at this point. It is more about being comfortable in the water than anything else. She is the biggest baby in the 6-12 month class and is pretty good a kicking her legs. I think we may sign up for music together once swimming is over. It has been fun spending Saturday morning hanging out with Vivi and other kids/parents. Not something I get to do a lot since Greg is the one who handles all the daycare interaction.
So after one year Vivian is doing great. She is a high spirited and happy baby/toddler. We were just commenting on how much easier parenting is at this point since she is more self sufficient and it is certainly more fun everyday as her personality grows. She just learned to shake her head yes and no and it is hilarious to watch since her whole body shakes along with it. Happy Birthday Bubba!!
Vivi's favorite sculpture at the Nasher. Seriously she kept running back to it and pointing and staring.
I love Texas!
John and Aimee on our walk home from dinner.
Rosey cheeked. A little sweaty from our time at the arboretum.
Playing in the frog fountain.
Peter Rabbit's house. Do you like my sun hat?
At John and Aimee's loft. I love this chair, it is just my size. Where did that kitty go?
In the tee pee with Daddy.
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