Adventures of the Roberts Family: 13 months

Oh how strange has it been to say that I have a one year old? How is this even remotely possible? Our sweet little princess continues to grow, change, learn, and fill our lives with so much joy.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do when it came to April 20^th and I didn’t have an onesie sticker. Strangely enough, I dressed her in her cupcake outfit that day without even thinking about it being her 13 month birthday. Jared asked me if I was still going to take her picture by her bear. I said, “of course.” She is going to be taking pictures with that bear even in her wedding dress! Maybe a slight exaggeration, but how cool would that be to document big life events, such as first day of kindergarten, sweet sixteen with Mr. Bear riding shotgun, and even with her in her beautiful wedding gown? Thinking of this makes me teary eyed so maybe we’ll just take it month by month!

One of the last pictures with the pacifier
Aunt Sarah, Cousin Madie, and K

Our biggest change this month has been to get rid of the pacifier!! I cannot believe how easy it was. At Kherington’s one year appointment I asked the pediatrician about it. She recommended before 15 months, although two different pediatricians in PA recommended two other time frames, anywhere from 4 months to 11 months. This pediatrician said they waited until their daughter was almost 2 and they cut the end off of it. She told them it was broken. The pediatrician said, “We knew we waited too long when she was telling us it was broken.” We never wanted the pacifier in the first place, but that first night proved us wrong. A pacifier was a godsend after four hours of screaming and little sleep the previous two nights. In the end it wasn’t that big of deal, and was even a little reassuring when I learned that pacifiers are believed to help with SIDS prevention {still makes me sick to think about this possibility}. My biggest fear was that she would be that kid, you know they ones, where they are talking in full sentences with the pacifier hanging out of their mouth. I did not want to be the parent of that child!

Such a big girl with out the paci!

We talked that Friday night, April 5^th we would take the pacifier away so in case it went poorly with sleeping we could both take turns throughout the weekend getting caught up. The week before we put Kherington to bed without her paci and would get up to give it to her in the wee hours of the morning when she would wake up fussing for it. Friday night came; I picked K up from daycare, got her paci and the spare from her classroom and proceeded home. Going to bed was a breeze, no paci. At about 2 am she woke up fussing. Jared got up and I told him not to give it to her. I’d even put the spare on a little table, instead of her crib, so she couldn’t get to it. Well he claims he thought I said to give it to her. So at 9 am on Saturday morning when she was still sleeping I asked him if he had given it to her. That is when he told me what he thought he heard. So I said no paci on Saturday throughout the day and that night I hid all her paci’s so there would be no mistake. Saturday night/Sunday morning she fussed a few minutes but put herself back to sleep. And the rest has been history! Monday taking her back to school I told them about the change, and warned them to watch out for her stealing others, but surprisingly she hasn’t done any of this either. So glad it went so smooth. It was reassurance that it was the right time to take it away.

Kherington banner (notice the snow - we had over 6 inches that day!)

Mr. Bear and K month by month

Our little lady's chair

Some of her gifts including a card from her school friends

Cindy did such a great job on her cake

Kherington's cake

We celebrated K’s birthday with family amidst snowflakes. Everyone was luckily able to attend and we loved having everyone at our house to celebrate a wonderful year with our little munchkin. Thank you again to everyone that came and/or sent cards and gifts. Kherington sure is one loved little girl. Although, she was entertained more with playing with the trash bag of paper and wasn’t really interested in her cake that day (between the double ear infection and it being nap time), she loves all of her toys and clothes. We are blessed beyond what we deserve!!

Our wonderful family

Cousin and Nana love

Chase Me Kitty

Hey, I've got a piece of paper

Excited about her car

Eager to get it out and push it around

Sharing a book she received

Tissue paper - the best gift!

Picnic basket

That's not a new toy!

But it allowed a beautiful smile to be captured

So many nice things

Opening her kitchen from Mama and Daddy

Cake time!

That flame lasted all of 2.5 seconds

I know what to do....I had a practice round

Yummy cake

Dad didn't want the icing on his finger

This is the way to eat some cake -
from Nana and Aunt Cathy

We have been taking a few steps and continue to learn our balance and increase these each time. Our preferred method of locomotion seems to be on Mama’s hip, crawling, or cruising though. Maybe next month’s blog will include some actual walking. I’m not rushing her by any means because she gets into plenty of things and trouble with her current methods of travel.

Standing and pulling things out of the cabinet

We also love to crawl under, around and through things

Kherington has mastered the stairs going up and down. We taught her just once how to turn around to go down, and man did she master it quickly. We don’t even have to really remind her. She just crawls around so she is facing away from the stairs, backs up until her feet hang over the edge and then down she goes! It is amazing how smart this little girl is.

We are still working on learning not to stand in our chair though

Speaking of smart, she is getting really good at being able to sort her shapes correctly in her shape sorting toys. She is also a great little stacker. She loves stacking rings at school and also her nesting bath cups. Such a smart little cookie!

Shape sorter pot

I love riding my car and releasing the balls out of the hood

Shape sorter barnyard

Let's have a picnic

Berlin thought Chase Me Kitty was interesting

Loves her ball poppin' elephant

Although we're still trying to push the balls back down

Kherington loves bath time and loves playing with all of her toys. We are still doing a bath every other night, but that may soon change with moving up to the toddler’s room at daycare. They venture outside when it is nice weather or go to the gym when it is crummy outside. I’m sure this will lead to a much higher need for a bath every day, in addition to the need for a more set routine.

Good thing we're not germ-a-phobs

Our official move up date is May 6^th. She has been visiting since March, but just a couple of days a week. This has been a big adjustment for all of us. Kherington currently in the baby’s room can take a nap whenever she likes, and however many naps she would like. In the toddler’s room naptime is very structured. There is one nap, and only one nap from 11:30-2. Here they also take naps on cots instead of in their own crib. I wasn’t sure how this would go, but overall it has gone well, at least at school. The problem lies in when Kherington gets home. One nap leads to a very, very cranky baby in the evenings. These end up being an early bedtime night for K.

Happy one minute

Cranky the next
Anything to keep her entertained in the car

Kherington attended her first friend birthday party this month as well. Her best friend from school invited her to her birthday party. Mara turned one on April 11^th and K loved celebrating with her. I was surprised when the invitation was in her bag, as it seemed early to invite friends to birthday parties, but it was a lot of fun. I’m glad we decided to attend.

Kherington’s vocabulary remains about the same with bye-bye, dada, mama, cat, and dog. A funny thing has occurred this month in this category. She makes a hissing sound. She is going to be the only kid when asked what a cat says, she goes “hisssss” instead of meow, because of the weirdo cat we have. Thanks Memphis! She has picked up her sign language. She understands eat, and will sign for all done and more. I wasn’t 100% convinced on the baby signing before, but I think it is definitely valuable.

Beautiful Easter baby

The Easter bunny found us in Southern Indiana at Grandma and Pops

Belly laughing has increased dramatically this month. It seems as though many things are just hilarious now. I wish I could bottle that sound, especially for those dreaded teenage years. I may need to video record more of this to keep my sanity then! Dear Lord, please help us!!

Papaw making the girls laugh

Where did he go?

Tickle time!

Kherington continues to be a good eater. I think if you asked her she would say her favorite food is peas. Man does this kid love peas. I mean handfuls at a time. I have noticed more swings in her eating. By this I mean she will go a couple of days where she hardly seems to want to eat anything. But then she must make up for it other days, because boy does she pack it away! I am thankful for her palate of food and her good eating habits.

Morning snack time (Berlin obviously is a good eater too!)

Cousin Madie is silly

Love these two

Such good friends. Both play and share so nicely

We are still just doing water and whole milk. I had to get a note from the pediatrician for school for the toddler room saying no juice. I’m by no means against juice, especially since I have a glass of apple juice every morning for breakfast. But I just think it is unnecessary at this age. She is perfectly content with water and milk, so I am okay with her being oblivious to a sugary drink known as juice. She has the rest of her life to explore this. Kherington had her last ounce of breastmilk in a bottle on March 24^thduring her birthday party. I was a sobbing mess. I’m sure everyone thought I was crazy. But it was just a bittersweet moment for me.

Last Mama's milk bottle

Kherington is wearing size 3 diapers during the day and size 4 baby dry’s at night, just for the extra absorbency, as we all know Ms. K hates a wet diaper. She is wearing a variety of sizes of clothes from 6-12 month onesies and pants, 9 and 12 month pants and one piece rompers, and some 12-18 month onesies that seem to run a little small. She is wearing a size 2 (3-6 month) pair of Sperry’s {thanks Sam, Kevin, and Levi} and a pair of 3 StrideRites. Will her feet ever grow? I’d love an excuse to buy her a new pair of shoes!