Elizabeth is One!!

Elizabeth turned 1 year old earlier this month.  It's so hard to believe how fast the year has flown by.  She really is such a joy to us.  The kids just love playing with her so much, and for the most part, she loves playing with them.  Sometimes, they tend to irritate her, especially Katie, who gets in her face too much.  Every morning, she usually gets up to nurse before the other get out of bed.  When she's finished, she tries to go down the hallway to find the others who are waiting to be given permission to get up.

Elizabeth was somewhat of a late teether compared to the other three siblings.  Her first tooth started breaking through right before her 11 month birthday, and then it was one right after another!  It was a bit of a tough month for her because just as soon as she'd go through a few rough days of teething, she get better and then start teething again!  By her 1st birthday, she had cut her two front bottom teeth and her two front top teeth.  Currently, her next two top teeth are both about to simultaneously erupt .

Because she has been slow at teething, Elizabeth still eats most of her food pureed for easy "processing".  :)  She eats mostly what we're eating unless we're eating something particularly greasy or high fat, then I'll give her something else to eat.  I froze a good bit of food for her in the summertime that she's still working on.  Most of the time, breakfast is either oatmeal (if we have oatmeal), bananas, cheerios, applesauce, a smoothie, homemade yogurt, or a combination of the above.  For lunch she eats more fruit and a vegetable, (and usually cheerios). For dinner she eats mostly what we're eating unless we're eating something particularly greasy or high fat, then I'll give her something else to eat. .  She's eaten some store bought baby food, but she far prefers "real" food that's just been pureed!  I just started giving her raw cow's milk last week and she loves it!  She still nurses a good bit too.

Elizabeth has been a good sleeper at night, sleeping the night through since she was around 2 months old.  She usually goes to bed shortly after the older kids do, around 8:30, and she wakes up in the morning around 6:30. Her daytime naps have been rather sporadic, but she's finally settled into one mid-day nap, lasting 2 to 3 hours.  She just started walking about a week to ten days ago.  She can walk across the living room, but still far prefers to crawl to get from one place to another.

Elizabeth has never been one to take a pacifier, but I do give one to her when I'm changing her diaper to occupy her sometimes.

Elizabeth has quite a sense of humor.  She loves playing peek-a-boo.  She enjoys someone else hiding their face and playing with her, but recently, she likes hiding her OWN face now.  It's funny because she'll cover up one eye completely, but she makes sure she can still look through her hand at you with the other eye while waiting to pull her hands away from her face.  She really has fun imitating people or making faces and noises so people can imitate her.

She loves loves LOVES her daddy and rough housing with him and riding horseback on his back.  It's the highlight of her day to make coffee with him first thing in the morning and play with him after supper.  We've been teaching her some sign language; she knows the signs for Mama, Daddy, More, Hot, and Milk.  She can say the words Mama, Daddy, Hot, and Dixie.  She also moos, barks, and meows. :)  When the phone rings, she gets all alarmed and starts "talking" as if she's telling us we need to answer it.  She also NEVER misses it when Dixie barks outside.  She gets all alert and starts saying "Dixie, Dixie" over and over again.

Can I play in the plate of saucy yumminess, Mama?

Elizabeth's worst habit is climbing!  It is hard to keep her from climbing into the kitchen chairs, up Alan's bunk bed ladder, and up every step stool and any other thing she can manage to climb on.  Her blonde hair is getting long enough that it curls uncontrollably in the back, over her ears, and gets a little wild and crazy up on top. ;)

And now, if my readers are still with me after this incredibly long post about nothing but Elizabeth, I thank you for not getting so bored you decided to leave before getting to the end.  :)