1 year check up

Eliana had her one year check up a couple of weeks ago. Here are her stats compared to 9 months:

Weight:

9 months - 16lb 7.5oz/7469g = 10-25th%

12 months - 18lb 12oz/8550g = 10-25th%

Height:

9 months - 28"/71.2cm = 70th%

12 months - 30.5"/77.5cm = 90th%

Head Circumference:

9 months - 17"/43.18 cm = 25th%

12 months - 17.5"/44.5cm = 25-50th%

So, as you can see, Eliana had pretty steady growth except for a decent jump in her height! She has slown down a lot in how much she eats but apparently that's normal for this age. I weaned her from nursing a couple of days ago. I thought it would mean a lot of tears from me but, surprisingly, Eliana seemed to take it harder than I did! She got over it after a day or two though. Breast feeding, or more specifically, struggling to produce enough milk for Eliana, brought me more tears than anything else has in my life! Why did I keep it up? Because I absolutely loved it. It was so kind of the Lord to allow us to make it this far!

What else has Eliana learned this month? She's still not walking but took a few steps on her birthday (after great encouragement from and practice with her mama). I'm not sure she'll be walking any time soon but I'm lapping up the last of these 'baby' days. She has learned to sign "up" and "all done". She has been a constant finger sucker up until now but her 2 favourite fingers are calloused, dry and swollen so Nate and I have started saying "not now" and limiting finger sucking until bed time. To our amazement, she has been wonderful at obeying us in this area! She has spent the last month with congestion and coughing and colds (and fussiness). She is finally starting to get better and I'm so glad to have my happy girl back. I almost forgot how much fun she is when she is at 100%!

If you want to see more photos of Eliana's last 6 months you can go to this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=281097&id=543241773&l=fa43473c23

Eliana's Party

We had Eliana's 1st birthday party yesterday. I made her the red and white dress, hoping to have her look nice and summery, but had to transform it into a winter outfit at the last minute. It turned from 25C/75F and sunny in the morning to about 12C/55F and rainy in time for her 5pm party. We planned to have the party at the local park under cover and didn't have a wet weather plan as it hadn't rained for about 3 months. I guess we forgot there was such a thing! Praise the Lord for life giving rain :).

It cleared up enough to go ahead with the outdoor bbq plan though. Thanks to all the troopers who turned up! We shared Eliana's day with 2 friends that just turned one, Eowyn and Grace.

Below we are blowing out their candles after singing happy birthday. I made Eliana a pumpkin cheesecake, as cheesecake is one of my favourite desserts (and I figured it had a tad bit more nutrition than a cake :). It didn't look the greatest but I guess it was a hit as I came home with an empty tray!

My champion husband mastered the bbq and faced the cold with bare arms as he selflessy lent his jacket to someone else. I love that man. It turned out being a really great time, despite our hopes and prayers for the weather to be nice. God always knows what's best :)