Aili's 1 Year Check-Up

On February 8th we went into the doctor for her year check-up. Again...can't believe it has been a whole year. This is how big (small) she is:

Weight: 18 lbs. - 10%
Length: 28 1/4 - 25%
Head Circ: 47 1/2 - 95%

So again....her body it tiny and her head is huge. Our cardiologist has been a little worried about her weight. She doesn't gain very fast, and isn't very big, but the pediatrician said he is very happy with her weight. She has just kind of bounces between the 5th and 10th percentile.

He also asked, "Is she really walking already?" I said, "Ya, she is everywhere!" They are still blown away that all her heart issues has not held her back or slowed her down at all. Basically she's a rockstar.

So since I'm Aili's mother I pretty much think she is the cutest, smartest, sweetest, funniest, strongest, most amazing little human being on the plant, so her is all those stuff we love and enjoy.

Eating
This little stinker still breastfeeds. I love it, she loves it, and I'm not quite sure how this is going to change. I have tried to get her to drink whole milk, she takes one taste and won't even attempt a second taste. She won't drink out of a sippy cup or straw unless its juice or water, and even then she isn't a pro.

She eats all kinds of table food. Her very favorites are probably mandarin oranges and canned green beans. She just shovels them into her mouth as fast as she can. She will be chocking down one piece as she puts another handful in. She loves crackers (Ritz), Cheese, every kind of fruit, bread, and pasta. She actually kind of likes spicy things. She downed some southwest egg rolls I made once, and they hand a good spice to them.

Playing 

Her main play spot in the house is the two bottom shelves of our bookshelf in the front room. She pulls out all the books, DVDs and toys into a huge pill on the floor. She still LOVES her seal, that is her one tried and true friend that she gives kisses to and carries around. She has the Leap Frog Talking LapPup, and loves it. You push the buttons and it sings songs, a light goes on and off, it does numbers, colors and shapes. Her favorite part is that it sings Twinkle, Twinkle. She pushes the star button until the music comes on and she dances to it. She has tons of other toys she loves too, her name puzzle, Jack-in-the-box sock monkey, standing musical desk thingy, her little car, her pointer, all her stuffed animals...and the list goes on.


Books
She loves her books. I love her books. I try to buy her books as often as I can find an excuse to do so. Most of her books are the board books. She pulls them all off her book shelf and then just sits on the floor flipping through them, its so cute. We read books about 3 times a day. Before each nap, or attempted nap, and before bed at night. She turns every page, sometimes leans over to kiss the characters on the page, so cute. She has one book called Tails that has pop up pages, and moving tabs, and extended pages that you pull and open, and she knows excatly where every one is and how to pull and open each piece. Pretty much I think she is genius.

Songs
She loves singing songs with us. Our favorites are; Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Incy Wincy Spider, Patty Cake, and Five Little Monkeys. The cutest thing is that she has started doing the hand motions and trying to say parts of the songs. She does patty cake really well, clapping, and rolling it. For Five Litttle Monkeys she pats her head on the "bonked her head" part, and shakes her little finger at the "no more monkeys jumping on the bed!" part....seriously to die for cute! And then she says, "Upa ba ba" during the "Up above the world so high" part of Twinkle Twinkle. That is probably my favorite! It will never get old. Her little Leap Frog Dog I think taught her that. One day I pushed the button for the song and then I realized that she was trying to say that part. It started off as just "Upa" and now its "Upa ba ba" Love it! She opens her mouth in preparation of saying that part of the song, and it's just so cute and she is so proud of herself.

Learning the names of things around her
I'm amazed at how fast she is learning things. We play the "where is the ____?" game with her constantly. She can point/show you in her room where the flowers, heart, angle, monster, doggy, books, and ABC's are. She can find seal where ever it is in the house, and of course give it kisses. She points to her teeth, nose and head when you ask her (we are working on the others). She does the little Indian sound with her hand patting her mouth. She signs food, and milk, and tries to sign other things sometimes but it isn't always clear. When she watches signing time you can see her trying to do the signs like "play"when they are singing the song, and its so cute. She waves at people all the time, mostly little kids....she loves little kids. I feel bad because we don't really play with kids right now, because of all the sickness going around. I hope we can play with friends once it gets warm and there isn't so much sickness going around. We were in the food line at Ikea and she was so cute waving and craning her neck to see all the other little kids in line. She actually points at them and then waves.

Playing Outside
She loves being outside. Yesterday was warm enough for us to be outside for a while. She still LOVES swinging and going down the slide, she just giggles and giggles. She loves watching all the birds in the sky. We basically live in and aviary. There are SO many birds by our house....its kind of freaky. The geese and ducks are like taking over, along with those little black birds that all congregate in the same tree and are so loud. When you say, "Where are the birds?" She immediately looks up in the sky, finds them, and points at them. And she can see them when they are really far up or far away, she has some sharp eyes. I can't wait for summer, she is going to love being outside, especially now that she is walking. She will love swimming and just running around. It will be a BLAST!

I can't even tell you how in love I am with this little girl. She brings a joy into my life that I didn't think was even possible. I'm not going to lie this past year was really, really hard, definitely the hardest year of my life, but seriously the best year of my life too. Everything we have been through together as a family as just made us love each other more and more, and just really love every moment together.

Being a mom is seriously the best! I absolutely love it! I would be a mom any day over any dream job you could possible think of. Seriously. There is nothing else that could make me this happy.