One year old
Aug. 10th, 2007 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinToday is Jorie's first birthday! The past year seems simultaneously like a short time and like forever.
We're doing the usual thing of fretting about developmental milestones. Jorie still seems to expect to get most of her nutrition from breast milk, and hasn't been as interested in solid food as the books say she's supposed to be. She's getting more into it now, though. I think the big problem was just that she hated pureed food, and we didn't force it on her--now that she has enough teeth to start to chew things a little, food is getting more interesting to her. But she still sees it mostly as a novelty, not a major source of calories.
She's also finally learned to drink water from a sippy cup of the integrated-straw variety, which is a huge leap forward; she started rejecting baby bottles early on, and there's been no good way for me to feed her liquids when Sam is away.
The other side of the coin is that she's much, much more verbal than the books say she's supposed to be. The American Association of Pediatrics implies that a kid will probably start to say one or two things that sound like words about now. Jorie, though, has been talking for months and probably has a working vocabulary of 30 or 40 words, some of them pronounced very clearly. It's still all one-word utterances, with the exception of the occasional, possibly accidental mash-up like "uh-oh kitty" or "daddy bath"; grammar isn't there yet. But she can get her point across most of the time.
She's memorized the text of "Hop On Pop" to the point where she's starting to say some of the words in advance.
Jorie had a ferocious growth spurt between about 6 and 9 months, but she hasn't actually grown that much in the past three months or so, which means, I think, that now she's about average-sized for a twelve-month baby. I get the impression that this is common for kids who are mostly breast-fed--they tend to get their first-year growth in earlier than usual and then slow down a lot.
She's crawling faster than before, can pull herself to a standing position against furniture and cruise around the edges, and is getting very wiggly--this is the dangerous time when kids start acquiring additional mobility quickly enough to surprise you. We can't assume any more that she's even approximately going to stay put where we leave her. I keep thinking about the comment![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
iayork posted early on about how we'll end up reciting the mantra "kids bounce, kids bounce".
I have some newer photos, some of which might even be of passable quality, that I'll get around to putting up eventually. I think we're having our celebration tomorrow, but I don't think Jorie's going to stand on principle; it'll be another year or so before she understands anything about birthdays.
We're doing the usual thing of fretting about developmental milestones. Jorie still seems to expect to get most of her nutrition from breast milk, and hasn't been as interested in solid food as the books say she's supposed to be. She's getting more into it now, though. I think the big problem was just that she hated pureed food, and we didn't force it on her--now that she has enough teeth to start to chew things a little, food is getting more interesting to her. But she still sees it mostly as a novelty, not a major source of calories.
She's also finally learned to drink water from a sippy cup of the integrated-straw variety, which is a huge leap forward; she started rejecting baby bottles early on, and there's been no good way for me to feed her liquids when Sam is away.
The other side of the coin is that she's much, much more verbal than the books say she's supposed to be. The American Association of Pediatrics implies that a kid will probably start to say one or two things that sound like words about now. Jorie, though, has been talking for months and probably has a working vocabulary of 30 or 40 words, some of them pronounced very clearly. It's still all one-word utterances, with the exception of the occasional, possibly accidental mash-up like "uh-oh kitty" or "daddy bath"; grammar isn't there yet. But she can get her point across most of the time.
She's memorized the text of "Hop On Pop" to the point where she's starting to say some of the words in advance.
Jorie had a ferocious growth spurt between about 6 and 9 months, but she hasn't actually grown that much in the past three months or so, which means, I think, that now she's about average-sized for a twelve-month baby. I get the impression that this is common for kids who are mostly breast-fed--they tend to get their first-year growth in earlier than usual and then slow down a lot.
She's crawling faster than before, can pull herself to a standing position against furniture and cruise around the edges, and is getting very wiggly--this is the dangerous time when kids start acquiring additional mobility quickly enough to surprise you. We can't assume any more that she's even approximately going to stay put where we leave her. I keep thinking about the comment
iayork posted early on about how we'll end up reciting the mantra "kids bounce, kids bounce".I have some newer photos, some of which might even be of passable quality, that I'll get around to putting up eventually. I think we're having our celebration tomorrow, but I don't think Jorie's going to stand on principle; it'll be another year or so before she understands anything about birthdays.
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Date: 2007-08-10 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 01:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 01:14 pm (UTC)And, yes! What plorky said! .gif .gif .gif!
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Date: 2007-08-11 02:56 am (UTC)I guess my real issue is that because nothing I read seems to even acknowledge eating so little solid food at her age as a possibility, I can't shake the niggling feeling that I've done something wrong, that I should have been more active in setting up eating rituals and regular mealtimes, instead of just giving her bits of food off my plate and letting her eat it or not as she chose (mostly not). I thought that if I exposed her to a variety of foods and let her control the eating experience, she would just naturally start to eat more solids as time progressed. As Matt says, she is eating a little more, but it's all things like toast or crackers or potato. On rare occasions a little bit of meat or veggies (mostly corn). Never fruit. She needs the breastmilk for adequate nutrition. I can't entirely let go of this feeling of guily, even thought I'm not really unhappy with the situation on a personal level.
On the plus side, Jorie is nursing so much I still haven't gotten my period back. Don't miss it at all.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-11 11:20 pm (UTC)From http://kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html
"For some babies, delaying solids longer than six months can be a good thing; for example, some doctors may recommend delaying solids for 12 months if there is a family history of allergies."
and also
http://www.helium.com/tm/267806/culture-where-mothers-their
I know it's hard work, but you're awesome. :-) And you're right -- weaning was really a sad time for me.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-10 01:19 pm (UTC)(That's "Happy birthday to Jorie" in Caninese.)
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Date: 2007-08-10 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-11 06:17 pm (UTC)Those milestones are kind of silly, sometimes I think people write baby books to send parents into needless worried frenzies.
Happy birthdy to your girl!
no subject
Date: 2007-08-12 12:14 am (UTC)Baby Nannette has her birthday very soon, she's almost like Jorie's Internet Twin!
Nannette seems to be opposite of Jorie, she's outgrown baby food, or at least won't eat it anymore. Today she ate a bag of animal crackers (or rather just gummed them until they became soft enough to swallow, like spiders eat flies). She eats yogurt, cottage cheese, porridge, and prefers whole cow milk to formula. She'll eat a little bit of red Thai curry, and even hot wasabi peas (she'll suck one, get wide-eyed with surprise and spit it out, but she'll do it again in an hour).
However she doesn't seem to speak any words, and seems confused by the mix of Russian, English, Ukrainian, and Spanish she hears daily. I'm not sure if she'll enjoy reading, she seems to delight more in ripping out the pages of a book than hearing 'Cat in the Hat'.
And that's all!
-Derrick
no subject
Date: 2007-08-12 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-13 07:44 pm (UTC)As far as eating goes - I think that depends on the kid. Some kids never take to baby foods and go right to table foods - sounds like Jorie is one of those - nothing to fret about.
Belated Birthday to Jorie!
Date: 2007-08-17 04:40 am (UTC)