Zoe's learned how to give a big cheesy smile for the camera this month
The month of September has arrived, and with it came a special little girl's milestone first birthday. I think Zoe had more birthday celebrations this month than any of us have had all year. We had Zoe's big birthday party in upstate New York with mostly family and some friends; a small gathering in RI to celebrate Zoe's first birthday and her Tio Mark's milestone birthday; and we also had a small gathering at the pool in NC with some of our friends from the area.
Celebrating the August and September birthdays in RI
Birthday cake in New York
Always amazing cookies made by Aunt June
Focused on her birthday candle and cupcake
Rose can blow out the candle as long as Zoe gets the cupcake
Indulging in the delicious lemon cupcake from J&S Watkins Desserts
In early September, we traveled north to celebrate Zoe's birthday after spending a very hot August in North Carolina. Normally, the heat subsides a bit in August and the weather is more pleasant, but we continued having hot (90+ degree) and humid days. Though it was humid, we didn't get much rain. We spent a lot of time cooling off at the pool and got to check out the new splash pad in Cary. Unfortunately, my phone broke just before our trip to New York, so all my photos from the month were lost. Thankfully, we took pictures during our trip and during the birthday celebrations, so those are the ones you'll see here.
Swimming off the boat in Lake George on her birthday with daddy
A boat ride on Lake George for Zoe's actual birthday
During the month of August, Zoe perfected the art of walking. She impressed everyone who saw her on her first birthday with her confidence and steadiness. Unfortunately for us, her confidence extends to walking off ledges, which has resulted in a few minor (we hope!) injuries.
Sisters at the EcoTarium in Worcester, MA
In addition to walking, we are seeing Zoe's personality developing. She is becoming very independent and can play by herself for a long time. She is also very smart and understands just about everything we say to her. The teachers at school have commented that she understands everything in Spanish too. When they tell her it's time to change her diaper, she walks right over to the diaper changing table. She still is not communicating much, just mama, dada, da (for Darwin), and "ah-da" for pretty much everything else, but we are pretty good at figuring out what she wants through her various hand motions and sounds.
Some of the games she seems to enjoy the most include peekaboo and keep away. She finds great joy in offering you food and then pulling it away when you reach for it. At the playground, Zoe is a daredevil. She walks up the steps confidently and would walk right off the steps or the slide if we let her. We help her sit down and she loves going down the slide all by herself. Her preference is to walk back up the slide and she does a pretty good job at it.
Zoe has always been a bit reserved and shy. When people greet her, she often turns away and burrows here head in the shoulder of whoever is carrying her. With the people she knows, she is very caring, kind, and gentle. She has started giving people kisses by extending her tongue out. She pets Darwin very gently as well. For some reason, she loves putting her hands mommy's mouth and touching people's eyes.
We continue to count our blessings that Zoe is a good sleeper. She typically starts getting fussy around 7 or 7:30pm and stops once her pajamas are on. If we lay her in our arms, she extends her body as if to suggest she wants to be put down. When we lay her down at night, we just turn out the light and walk out. She typically doesn't make a peep again until morning (10 hours later). She's fairly consistent with her wake up time between 6:30-7am, no matter the time she goes to bed. Her preference is also for 2-3 naps a day, the first by 9:30-10am, and a second longer nap (2 hours or so) after lunch time. If the first nap was short, or if she went to bed late, sometimes she wants a 3rd nap around 5pm.
Walking all over the place and showing off the guns rolls here
The Millers (minus Darwin) at Zoe's first birthday party
In preparation for eating the school menu, we started giving Zoe a little more dairy. We've encouraged her to drink kefir, which she isn't all that fond of, and we continued to give her foods with dairy cooked in them. It does seem her tolerance has improved since she doesn't break out much.
Meal time is extremely messy. Zoe insists on feeding herself and gets food all over her hair, face, clothes, high chair, and the floor. She usually starts off allowing us to feed her, but then demands the spoon or fork if we are using one.
Zoe continues to be a good eater. I call her our fruitatarian. The girl could eat her weight in grapes, strawberries and cantaloupe. She's also a big fan of bread. We try to encourage vegetables and meat at the table first and then offer bread and fruit last. With only one tooth, she manages to eat pretty well.
I continue to nurse Zoe on the days I'm with her and pump breast milk on the days she goes to school. It's becoming increasingly difficult to produce much with the pump, but her school has put on the pressure to continue bringing two bottles to school each day. I'm still pumping about three times during the day to get about 6 oz, and then every night before I go to bed.
Our mostly toothless, blonde-haired and blue-eyed toddler!
At her 12 month wellness check up, Zoe was at the 25th percentile for height (28.5"), 29th percentile for weight (20lbs), and 83rd percentile for head circumference. She is well above most developmental milestones. We love this little girl and can't wait to see what the next year has in store for her and us. I think my favorite age for young children is 15-21 months.
11 months is such a fun age. There are so many big developments taking place and I can almost see the changes take place on a day-to-day basis. Zoe seems to understand a lot of what we communicate to her and she uses a combination of sounds and motions to tell us what she wants. We've been using some baby signs, mainly just "more" and "all done", and Zoe sometimes flaps her hands together when we are eating. I'm not sure if she's telling us she wants more, or if she's just clapping at us. Being able to communicate is one of the most exciting milestones.
Playing Peek-a-boo
Standing and cruising like a big girl
The other very exciting milestone that we are so close to is walking. Zoe still cruises a lot and may take a step here or there. Over the past week or so, I've worked on having her take a few more steps. I expect that at the 1-year update she'll be walking like a pro.
You can't turn your back on an 11-month-old
The two stresses of this age both relate to eating and food allergies. Because Zoe is not yet a year, her school still requires us to provide milk for her. On the days she is with me, Zoe does still nurse fairly regularly (like 4-6 times a day). On the days she goes to school, I try to send three bottles with at least 4 ounces each. At school they tell me she likes a bottle for her nap and she's been alternating between 2 and 3 naps a day. To get 3 bottles, I have to pump 3 times at work during the week, plus pump before bed every night (7 days a week). So many times I want to go to bed at 9pm after putting the girls to bed, but I have to stay up to pump one more session. Since we are now so close to a year, the end is in sight, which is what keeps me going. The major milestone that I look forward to is not having to pump anymore!
All dolled up for a wedding, and wanting out of her car seat
I'm not quite sure what we will do when we do get to a year. It's hard to know if Zoe drinks more breast milk because we don't offer as much solid food to her, or if it's because she just likes mommy's milk. Zoe has had skin reactions to a variety of solid foods, like dairy, eggs, and some nuts. She was fine with a cashew packaged bar, but then broke out in a rash when eating a similar bar that had almonds and walnuts. Most of the reactions result in patchy rashes on her face that look like hives. She'll often scratch at her face a bit, making it look worse, but once we wipe her down, the rash often clears within a few minutes. The cheese still continues to be the only food that made her throw up. We've given her very small amounts of cow's milk and most times she gets a little rashy. The pediatrician told us we could go straight to water and skip milk. To do that, I think we'll have to get better at giving her more food (and a variety) throughout the day. With it being summer, we've relied a lot on snacks (like fruit, cheerios, granola bars), and/or eating meals at the pool. I don't know how she does so well eating solid food without any teeth! We'll have some scheduling changes starting in October, which corresponds with the end of the summer from the perspective of the pool closing down. I expect we'll get back on target with cooking a variety of entrees that we can all enjoy. We stopped doing our community-supported agriculture (CSA) share last year because it was hard to keep up with it while having a young infant. I'm hoping we can rejoin for a winter share that will include produce and eggs.
Being a ham at snack time
This past month we also had to start double-stuffing Zoe's cloth diapers because she had been leaking through them so much at school, resulting in several clothes changes a day. Other than that, we haven't had many changes to her cloth-diapering routine.
In preparation for Zoe's entry into the 1-year-old class at school, she has started taking her naps on a cot instead of in the crib. I wasn't sure how that transition would go, but she's done great with it. For the most part, she still prefers a morning nap around 10 and a long nap mid-day (12 or 1). Many times, she also wants a nap at 4. Because of our summer schedule, she's been going to bed fairly late, between 8:15-9pm, which might be why she wants that 3rd nap during the day. She has a consistent 6:30-7:30am wake up time.
Zoe did a fair amount of sleeping in the car seat in July
We did a lot of traveling in the car during the month of July, and both girls did fairly well. During a quick weekend trip to New Jersey, we drove almost 1000 miles in two days. We left Saturday morning at 2am and arrived home Monday morning at 2am. It took a long time for us parents to recover from that trip. Because the girls got to sleep for most of the drive, they did just fine!
I know that time passes too quickly and before I know it, the girls will be grown, but there are a few milestones that are coming up soon that I look forward to. In addition to not pumping, being done with bottles, and seeing Zoe walk and start communicate, I also look forward to slightly cooler weather. While I do like summer, this year has been oppressively hot in North Carolina. We've had 45 days reach over 90 degrees. I hate that indoor spaces are freezing (like my office) and then it's so hot outside. I think my favorite time of year in North Carolina is September-November. The weather is comfortable and there are so many kid-friendly fall activities. I basically want to get to mid-September and then freeze time for awhile. Who can I talk to to make that happen?
Sometimes it feels like life is flying by and I want it to slow down and other times I find myself looking forward to the next milestone. I'm one of the first to admit that the first year is really hard and on many occasions I have said that I will look forward to this fall and winter when Zoe is a little older. I do appreciate this age and how fun it is to see our little girl grow and develop. But, it's also difficult to have a young child who can't yet communicate her needs and still relies on mommy's milk.
Zoe at 10 months (a week or two late)
A smile now that she can play with the camera lens cap
The big news at 10 months is that Zoe is close to walking. She still crawls from place to place on one knee and one foot, but any time she can stand with support, she will. I often leave and find her standing playing with toys at school. And at home she loves standing at the coffee table that doubles as a toy storage area. There she can reach into the toy box to grab the toys she wants (within reach). When she's busy playing, she often forgets that she is not holding onto anything and she can stand unassisted for several seconds. She hasn't gotten over her fear of taking steps on her own, but I expect she will fairly soon.
At 10 months, Zoe has mastered the wave hello and bye bye. Often, she makes the number 4, by tucking her thumb into her palm as she waves. And, we call her wave, the "pope wave" because she puts her hand just slightly above her head and away from her body and makes short quick waving motions. You can see a little bit of it in one of the science museum videos.
During June and early July we did a fair amount of traveling. Colin and I describe summer in North Carolina as "dog breath air." It didn't seem like June was that bad, but July has been very hot. We try to get out of town as much as we can in July. Our big 4th of July week trip took us up to State College, PA to visit a friend, further north to Niagara Falls, Ontario and Toronto, Ontario (Canada), a little farther north and east to Montreal, Quebec (Canada), and back home to North Carolina with stops near Burlington, VT to visit a friend and the Albany, NY area to visit family. I'll post about our travels on another post, and will stick to Zoe's updates during the month.
Enjoying the baby play area at the Toronto Children's Museum
Standing to play and poop at the museum
Zoe exploring the Toronto Science Museum
Zoe cruising and almost walking
Zoe pooping:
As you can see in the video of Zoe playing with the brush on the wall, she's very inquisitive and cautious. Many of you have seen how long it took her to smile for the camera. She's somewhat shy, but determined. Even though that brush pricked her hand the first time she touched it, she proceeded more cautiously the second time and focused on the task at hand. Learning is serious business.
I'm almost afraid to post of our good fortune related to health with both girls at daycare/school. Over the past month or two, neither of them have gotten sick. I was really worried when we received notice that Zoe's class had hand, foot, and mouth on two separate occasions, and Rose's class had a confirmed case of croup. Zoe's teachers do a great job of washing all the children's hands the minute they are dropped off at school. In Rose's class, we drop the kids off outside and when they come in at 9am, it's snack time and they have to wash their hands. I hope our good fortune continues because healthy girls make for a happy family!
A typical reaction from Zoe when Rose plays with her.
She has a 50/50 chance of being hurt by Rose each time.
We continue to introduce new foods to Zoe in the hopes she will be able to eat what we eat. Now that the weather is hot and fruits are in season and appetizing, we've been giving her more variety. She still loves bananas and now has a love for grapes too. She's also content to receive strawberries, blueberries, and watermelon. She's a fan of meats like chicken, beef, or pork. We tried salmon this month and her face got a little red and blotchy, but it wasn't bad at all. We also finally tried a little egg yolk and so far she seems to not have any reaction. We'll likely do the egg white soon. Zoe's 9-month doctor's appointment actually took place around 9.5 months. Since we were going to the doctor, we decided to let Zoe try a piece of cheese. Within a few minutes, her face seemed to be itchy and got red and blotchy. And several minutes later, she actually threw up. So far that has been the only reaction. We will likely not do block cheese again soon. She seems to do okay with cheese that is cooked in foods (like meatballs or pizza). It might also be the type of cheese, or type of processing.
While we are likely in okay shape with Zoe's milk intake, I have really stressed out this month with pumping breast milk. Zoe's school has not been as receptive to me bringing less milk to school like Rose's school was. So, I've spent more days "power-pumping" at work and adding in an extra bed-time pumping session. Going back to my first paragraph on this blog, this is one milestone that I can't wait to get here. I have about 5 bags of pumped milk for Zoe left and she still has 6 weeks before she turns 1. Part of the problem at school is the teachers and the other part is that Zoe likes her milk. Rose liked food and milk and could take either with no problem. If given the choice, Zoe would choose mommy's milk 100% of the time. On the days I am home with her, she still wants to nurse 5-6 times a day. Unfortunately breast pumps are so inefficient at pumping breast milk. And, I would guess that Zoe stops nursing when the milk doesn't flow so easy when she is with me, but when she gets it from a bottle, she wants more.
Zoe continues to be a great sleeper, going to bed between 7:45-8:30pm and getting up between 6-7am. She is starting to transition from 3 naps a day to 2. At home, she usually wants a 1 hour morning nap around 9:30, a two-hour nap mid-day, and a 30-45 minute nap around 4 or 5. At school it seems like she takes a two hour nap late morning and she's often sleeping when I pick her up at 5:30. The pacifier is a source of comfort for her, and she looks for it when she wakes up in the morning. Sometimes sucking on it puts her back to sleep. We've been trying to put her down to sleep without it and only giving it to her when she needs to relax.
Sleeping in daddy's Ergo backpack
Going for a ride on Grandpa's boat is tiring
While the lifejacket pillow was nice, the jacket constricted too many movements
We continue to use cloth diapers at all times except overnight. At this age and with giving her so much milk or water, Zoe pees a lot and her diapers are often saturated. She frequently pees through the diapers and needs several clothes changes per day. After 2.5 years, I think my Bum Genius diapers are done. I had about 12-13 and there are only a few that actually have an in tact PUL. I've switched back to using my Charlie Banana diapers and the newer Fuzzibunz from Costco. I'm hoping these will get us through another year and that we can get Zoe potty trained early like Rose did.
Zoe is excited about seeing Niagara Falls from the Ferris Wheel
Rocking some shades on Centre Island (Toronto) beach on Lake Ontario
As you can probably see in the pictures, Zoe's hair is really coming in. It's fairly straight, somewhat thick, and light-colored. In the sun she looks blonde. Her eyes remain blue and I don't see any hints of other colors. Thankfully, we haven't had any problems with her skin, with rashes or sunburns. She is fair-skinned and I worried she would burn easily, but she seems to tan with the sun's rays.
Though I look forward to Zoe reaching one year for selfish reasons relating to pumping, I do enjoy the 10-month-old stage. I love seeing her personality develop, her start to "talk" and make noises, her persistence in getting what (or where) she wants. While Zoe's talking is still mostly babbling, her favorite sounds are "ah-da." We've been working on "ma-ma" and I sometimes get that sound when I'm around and she wants to be picked up. It will be interesting to see how her language develops since she spends 3 full days a week in a Spanish-language immersion school. In reflecting on Rose's 10-month-blog post, Rose was already making different letter sounds like "fif" "mam" "da" and "ba." We'll just have to wait and see what she says when she's ready and when she decides to walk. Only time will tell!
These updates sure do creep up on me so quickly! I wouldn't mind if time would slow down a bit. This past weekend, on December 7th, our little girl turned 10 months. The age is symbolic in our world because it means she is ready to be moved up into the older infant classroom at her school. Since the school is closed two weeks at the holidays, we decided to wait until after the new year to switch her over full time. During this month, she'll spend a few hours a few days a week with the older kids to help with the transition. I don't expect it will be a challenge since Rose seems to prefer the older kids, and two of her friends just moved into the older class last month.
Rose is happy to be 10 months!
Sporting a 12 month outfit
Here's a summary of Rose at 10 Months:
The big news this month is that Rose got her ears pierced. In the Portuguese culture, it's common for little girls to have their ears pierced within a few months. I was torn because I wanted her ears pierced, but couldn't stomach the thought of actually having it done. Our Brazilian neighbor recommended her dermatologist who pierced her daughter's ears and we were told they would only do it until a child's 1st birthday or we'd have to wait until she was older (like 6-7 years). We decided to have it done the week before Thanksgiving. Rose screamed when the "gun" punctured the ear, but was fine within 30 seconds of it being done. She really is a tough girl. Maybe people will stop mistaking Rose for a boy now that she has earrings. That hair just isn't growing fast enough! Our mobile "cruiser" is close to walking. She walks all over the place with some assistance. Sometimes she'll walk with the help of our hands, but more often she will alternate between crawling and standing holding a stationary item. With us, she loves alternating between walking slow and very fast. When she's playing with things on the table, she often uses both hands, leaving her standing unassisted for a short period of time. One of these days she is going to forget to hold onto something and just start walking. As you can see from the videos, she's a very busy girl at 10 months!
Rose still loves saying goodbye to everyone with her full arm wave, or her Ciao, Bella wave.
She and daddy are saying Ciao Bella to mommy
After her slight head cold while traveling for Thanksgiving, Rose caught another bug at school. This time, the bug infected the whole house! We were all pretty miserable last week with a stomach bug that started with Rose, passed to me, and even managed to get Colin. Thankfully we weren't sick at the same time. Rose fought the bug quickly with a couple episodes of vomiting in the early morning hours on Tuesday. I didn't get sick until Thursday afternoon/evening, and Colin got sick on Friday afternoon/evening. Colin usually has a stomach of steel, so for him to get sick, it must have been a bad one. Rose got over the bug like a champ and really didn't act sick. Her symptoms were a few episodes of vomiting and diarrhea. I on the other hand, seriously debated going to urgent care after being sick for 4 hours! Colin said he's probably only had one stomach bug in his life that was worse than this one. I should be grateful that Rose doesn't complain much and that she recovers from illness quickly, but I am ready for her to stop catching stuff at school!
Rose still loves to say yell "ma-ma-ma", "ba-ba-ba" and the occasional "da-da." She also learned how to make fun sounds with the teachers at school.
Rose still eats what we eat and loves her grapes and meat. Over Thanksgiving break we ate a fair amount of turkey and had meatballs a few times. Rose had no complaints with those menu items. She's also good at eating her vegetables. Rose hasn't tried desserts or nuts yet. We also haven't done fish in awhile. I'm excited to report that we've made it another month without formula. I think we are now in the clear since Rose eats so well. I did notice a drop in supply when I had the stomach bug, but Rose seems like she gets enough even when she gets less. Rose seems to be having longer stretches of sleep at night, and since we got back from Thanksgiving, she's done a great job soothing herself to sleep. We've gotten into a better routine of bed by 7:30p, and she's been waking up on her own (fairly happy) around 7am. For the most part, she still wakes up once a night to nurse (around 12-1a), but we sometimes experience a full night's sleep. I continue to hope that sleeping through the night becomes a regular occurrence in our house again. While Rose still takes a power nap of 30 minutes once or twice a day, she's had more frequent episodes of sleeping 1-2 hours during her nap at home and at school. We continue to use cloth diapers at all times except overnight, and it seems like Rose is leaking less. Last month I was worried about stretched elastics, but I think the problem was lack of absorbency. There is a whole science to cloth diapering that I can get into (maybe another post), but you have to "strip" your diapers once in awhile. The stripping removes buildup from chemicals released in urine (ammonia) and from buildup that might occur in detergent. With traveling and using washing machines at our family's houses, I wasn't able to wash the diapers in my usual way. Poor Rose ended up with ammonia burn (a bad diaper rash) from the drive home that cleared as soon as I stripped the diapers, let her bottom air out, and used some shea butter diaper cream. I just stripped the diapers by washing the diapers through a few extra cycles (one of which had bleach). Next time we head north, I might try to bring some detergent that is to be used with hard water to see if that cleans the diapers better.
Now on to some of this month's pictures...
Pecan picking at Oak View County Park in Raleigh
Our ticklish girl
Intently observing mommy put together the Christmas tree
Enjoying the colors and textures of the Christmas tree
Dressed in an outfit from Portugal, Rose is ready for a Portuguese dinner with the Portuguese Association of North Carolina
Finding the right foods to bring to the dinner
Satisfied with so much delicious Portuguese food and enjoying being the center of attention!
