Twelve Months Old

I'm still loading birthday party posts, but couldn't skip her monthly post.  I think this may be the latest one I've ever posted, I've been having a little trouble getting time to blog update lately.  And the mountain of photos still on my camera is daunting (over 300 from this weekend, eek!).

Anna has made giant steps this past month--literally.  She started taking steps on the day I posted her eleven-month post (March 7th).  Will took his first steps at Nana and Papa's house while John and I were vacationing in Jamaica (he was 13 months old), so I was afraid that Anna would follow in his footsteps (hee hee) and do the same while I was staying in the hospital with John during his surgery.  So Nana and I worked hard to get her to take some steps before we left for Orlando--and she did!  She can now walk most of the way across our living room, although she is still relies on crawling to get what she wants.

She now enjoys riding in the little red car around the neighborhood, which has made for fun family walks.  These pictures were outside our house, taken a few weeks after John's surgery (so we didn't walk very far).

She has also reached the stage of emptying the kitchen cabinets.  While I made her birthday cake last weekend, she emptied almost every piece of tupperware and all of the kids' plastic cups out of the lower cabinets.  Will came into the kitchen after his nap, surveyed the floor, and said, "Anna made a big, BIG mess!!"  Then he cleaned it up (which made me very, VERY happy).

She has also started playing with her dolls, giving them kisses and hugs and dragging them around by their feet.

Anna, at twelve months old:

• Has 4 upper teeth and 2 bottom teeth (and may be getting a few more--she has been uber fussy the past 2 days and I can't figure out what is going on, but her gums look a little swollen and she is made happy by Motrin, so I'm suspicious she's getting more teeth).
• Says "Mama," "Uh-oh", "baby", and "dis" (this)
• Waves, points, and hugs and kisses her dolls.
• Is still in size 3 clothes, graduating to 12 month clothes only.
• Loves eating bananas, pancakes, watermelon, and food from our plates.
• Officially weaned 3 days ago.  This was harder for me, since she might be the last baby.  I still haven't forced myself to toss the breastpump or her bottles, though (still holding out a little hope for one more baby!).
• Is done with the bottles, on to sippy cups!  Still clinging to the pacifier, though.
• Can walk several steps, and can squat to pick up a toy and stand back up.  She loves to play with the big yellow ball but hasn't quite figured out how to roll it yet.
• Loves to push her highchair and kitchen chairs around the kitchen.

I ordered this collage from Shutterfly with each of her monthly photos.  She has changed so much in the last year, and looks like more of a big girl each day!  Sniff.