Typically, I focus on the screwball antics of a 3 and a half year old and the wake of destruction he leaves behind. But this post is going to focus on the mini girl version of me. Now that she's 1, she's making leaps and bounds in her motor skills, mobility, and (most importantly) convenience for me.
I have always had trouble with feeding times and keeping her focused with the boy running around. And when Mommy is present, she's got the head on a swivel trying to keep track of her instead of focusing on the fatty caloric goodness on a baby spoon I'm trying to shovel in. Now that her fine motor skills have improved to the point she can grasp peas and other small food items, I just put a smorgasbord of things on her tray to let her decide what she eats and what goes to the dogs. Lily does pretty well with the arrangement and the dogs make out like bandits.
I'm also pretty thrilled that she's starting to grasp the concept of clothing. Rather than fighting to get her into all the cute pink outfits, she's starting to help by pushing her arms straight out. She still wants to get down as soon as possible and get away from Daddy, but it's a lot easier. I'm also thrilled that getting her arms out of the NASA astronaut level safety harness has suddenly gotten a lot better. Normally, she just screams and flails while I struggle to squeeze crazy baby arms out of those tight quarters. It's next to impossible. Suddenly, she gets it and folds those lil' chubby arms up to pull them out herself. It's much easier and those 20 seconds allow me to get to Owen faster. Hint: if you have two children, always get the immobile one out of the car first, then go for the mobile one so it's not running across the parking lot/traffic. Same getting back into the car, corral the more exuberant one first. He is usually upset about something, so getting him subdued faster is always more gooder.
It is kind of nice having her crawling around and entertaining herself more. Sure, I have to be on top of things to ensure that the downstairs gates/bathroom door/front door/back porch door/basement door/upstairs gates/dog water/dog food in bowls are all secured. Not to mention having to make sure the potty in Owen's room is ALWAYS empty just in case she gets over there. She spends tons of time crawling around and throwing toys, figuring things out, and practicing standing up. Instead of having to move her from exer-saucer to bouncer to random spot on the floor, she's much happier for longer periods of time. Another downside is that I do have to spend some time playing referee. Often putting Owen in timeout because he just ripped one of Lily's toys out of her hand. Maybe that's not a downside. Maybe he'll be the best little sharer and listener in the whole pre-school in the fall. Probably not.
One of the best parts of turning 1 is her personality really exploding. I spent some time this afternoon flinging a giggling kid around (gently) and tickling baby ribs. So danged cute with the smile and her little teeth sticking out, dimples, and the grunting chuckle. Just awesome. I had to work for the littlest grin forever and now she's happy as can be. Wait, I just realized she has figured out how to manipulate me. She's been doing it all along! Her brother always ends up in timeout, I dance like her pet monkey for minor approval, and she gets whatever she wants. How did I just get an email confirmation that I bought a pony?
CK
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