She's still growing!

At the beginning of the month Attia had her one year check up. Everything went great and she checked out well. As we already knew, she is still growing and developing right on track. Unfortunately she had to get four shots at this appointment, and she also had to have blood work done for lead testing and other standard tests, so that part was no fun. But she got a free book from the doctor for the whole ordeal and all tests came back negative, so that's always good news!

Her current growth stats are:

Height:  29.25"            53%

Weight: 19lbs 0oz       16%

Head Circ: 17.5"         30%

She is slowing down a little, but her general height/weight ratio seems to be keeping the same trend. Keep on growing little bean sprout!

More Milestones!

Boy, the milestones just keep coming! I didn't want to end up with a monster post like I did last time, so I thought I would hurry and cover some of the things that Attia has been doing since her first birthday. It seems like up until this point it was her motor skills that were developing like crazy, and of course they still are, but what I have been impressed by now is the huge leap in her cognitive skills. She is such a smart little girl!

• The day that Attia turned one (March 1) she decided to start standing - hands free! She was standing at her toy shelf muching on snacks and she really wanted to use both hands to eat, so she did! Of course it was the lure of food that interested her enough to let her forget about hanging on. :-)
  
  
  
• On March 3rd (after her b-day party) we were hanging out with Gram and Grump and we were all saying 'woof,' trying to get her to say it. Instead of repeating it she crawled into the other room, went straight for her bookshelf, pulled out her animal book, flipped to the page with the dog on it and pointed to the dog! Not what we were going for, but I was amazed!
  That same day my boss gave her a toy duck and a 'Find the duck' book, and when prompted to find the duck she points to it! Whoa!
  
• Later that day, when it was time for bed, we did our usual bedtime routine and when daddy said, "Good night, Love you!" she replied, "wuv oo!"
  Awww! Talk about heart melting!
  
• She likes to color with crayons and markers, and around the beginning of the month she started being able to take the cap off of a skinny marker and then put it back on. Of course she doesn't cap the marker when she's done coloring, taking the cap off and on is a fun game in itself.
  
• On March 8th her third tooth popped through. Her first top tooth, it was tooth number 8.
  
• She loves shoes! She likes to wear shoes, she likes to try to put them on, she likes to try to wear mommy's and daddy's shoes, she likes to wear them on her hands... she just likes shoes!
  
  
  
  
• She already likes to talk on the phone. I was surprised that she picked it up so quickly, but anytime she can get a hold of one of our phones she puts it up to her ear and says, 'Hi!' (Well, really it's more like "Ha!")
  
• This month she has been more and more interested in feeding herself. She eats a lot of finger foods, and when we feed her with a spoon she is usually trying to do it herself by the end of the bowl. Sometimes she is content to use her spoon with my help or using her spoon while I feed her with another one. Other times SHE wants to do it HERSELF! Things can get messy...
  
• She has also been trying to drink from a regular glass. At first she was dumping it all over herself, but she is getting much better. Now she usually spills a little at first and then she figures out where the liquid is and starts gulping it down!
  
• This week she started throwing little 'mini tantrums'. If we tell her not to do something or if we take something away from her she throws herself on the floor crying. It's actually pretty funny, but not something we want to continue. After talking to her daycare provider it seems that she may have learned this from her little friend at daycare. Oh the things she is going to be learning at school...
  
• One nice change this month was that her sleep schedule started to get much better!  I think the recent time change really helped because we are putting her down at the same 'time,' the clock just reads an hour later - which is nice for us in the morning! At night she typically goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up around 5:30 or 6:00 to eat. Then a lot of times she will go back to sleep, in her crib, for another hour or two! Very nice :-) Sometimes she will wake up and want to eat around 2:00am, but only occasionally, so that is just fine with me.
  
  Naps have been better too. She has been taking a nice long one in the morning, usually around 10:00 and lasting about an hour and an half - but sometimes longer! Then she will take a half hour to an hour nap in the afternoon. Much better than three thirty minute naps!
  
• And the big news... Last night (March 26) Attia took her FIRST STEPS!!! We were in the kitchen and daddy had a glass of milk that she really wanted to drink. So daddy held the glass just out of reach in front of her and she actually moved her little feet and took four tiny steps towards us! Awww!
  
  We tried to get her to walk for the video camera when we were outside a little later. Of course she didn't really want to comply, but we did manage to capture one or two steps. Check out the video!  [Note: Her cute outfit got dirty at daycare :-)]
  
  
  
  She has been using us to help her walk for quite a while - holding onto our hands as she toddles around. But not for much longer! Now that she has had these little steps she is sure to find her footing soon. And then she'll off!
  

• That's all we have for now, but I'm sure there will be more soon!
  
  

Kiss Me I'm (part) Irish!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! 

Attia and I met some friends downtown for the
St. Patrick's Day Parade 

Attia enjoyed watching people as much
as she enjoyed watching the parade!

Hanging with Murphy and his mom and dad, Shannon and Nick

Murphy and Attia taking in the parade

Buddies

 

And the parade goes on...

Bikes and Bubbles

While Opa and Gigi were in town Austin had a bike race out at Clinton Lake. The day of the race turned out to be absolutely beautiful, so we all went out to the lake to watch the criterium and soak up some sun.

 

 

 

Attia had a lot of fun playing and watching the race. She even knew just how to cheer! Every time the racers would go by she stopped whatever she was doing to clap for them. It was so cute!

 

After a while we pulled out the bubbles and Attia thought they were just wonderful! Check out the bubble bear! This was a birthday present from Attia's friend Olive and it is pretty neat. You just squeeze the bear bottle and the wand pops up so you don't have to get your fingers soapy. Genius! 

 

A fun day in the sun for everyone!

Birthday Fun

 

We had a lot of fun celebrating Attia's first birthday! About a week before her birthday we did a birthday photo shoot with my friend Carrie. Attia had her first ever cupcake for the shoot, and it was so cute seeing her dive in. She loved the icing! The picture above is a little sneak peak - I'll post more when I get them!

March 1st turned out to be a gorgeous day (70 degrees!), so we were able to spend time outside playing with Rosa, and in the afternoon we went for a nice family walk. Attia loves to be outside, so she had a great time! That evening we did 'cake' and presents. Since we did a cupcake for the photo shoot, and we would be doing more at her party, we decided to give her a pumpkin muffin on her birthday. She devoured the whole thing! When we were finally able to peel her away from the muffin crumbs she enjoyed opening her presents. The only problem was that she liked what was inside so much that she didn't really want to keep opening more!

The following weekend we threw a birthday party for Attia, and her family and little baby friends came over to help her celebrate. We had a great turnout - our little house was packed! I wasn't sure what Attia would think, but she really enjoyed herself! I'll post pictures of the big event soon!

We also had a couple of nice visit from Attia's St. Louis grandparents around her birthday. Nana & Dpaw came to visit a few weekends before the big day, and Opa & Gigi visited on their way home from Colorado the weekend after her birthday. She/we really enjoyed spending time with all of them!

Thank you to all of our family and friends who helped us celebrate Attia's first birthday!