I can’t believe it’s already been one year. It seems like only yesterday when she was a tiny little lump of 3 or so kilos who would only eat, poop and sleep. Now she dances when she hears music that she likes. She crawls, climbs stairs, and recently has started walking without holding on to anything. She grabs books and holds them upright, flipping them over if they’re upside down. She even makes little noises as if reading while turning the pages. I can’t believe my little girl is growing so fast!

Mobility

Annabelle’s increased ability to move around is what’s had a big impact on the household. She can climb over obstacles, climb up stairs and mostly down stairs too. During the past few weeks she’s started walking independently and she is walking all over the place. I built a large play pen in my living room, but sometimes that confinement makes her unhappy. She wants to get out and explore, picking up little things off the floor and putting them in her mouth.

Communication

Annabelle has been getting better at communicating what she wants or feels. We are slowly trying a bit of baby sign language (recommended by my mom). She knows to bump her fists together for “more”, but I think she just thinks it means “drinking” or “thirsty”. She only calls out for mamamamama when she’s upset or bored with daddy. She can wave goodbye, except she holds her hand the wrong way round so it looks more like she’s signaling for “come here”.

And clapping! She loves clapping. Also there’s this grin/smile she can do and show you all of her 7 or 8 teeth.

Regarding words, she does sometimes make sounds that happen to be words, but I don’t feel like she’s intentionally saying words with meaning. She does fool you sometimes when she says “Puss” when maybe the cat is around. Aaaand, she’s already learned a swearword. Not sure where she learned that…

Playing

I mentioned she likes books. I think that’s a good start and I will definitely encourage her to keep enjoying books. She also loves watching to see what mommy and daddy are playing on their smartphones. One thing that she really seems to enjoy is just checking out all the toys that are available. We have a box where we put all her toys in and she loves opening up that box, taking out each toy one by one and just tossing them on the floor, scattering the toys around. We can try picking up the toys and putting them back in the box and barely keep up with her.

It will be a good trick for her to learn to put the toys back into the box.

Eating

Around now we’re weening her off of breast milk. She’s been eating foods for a while already, but breast milk still consisted of around 20% of her food intake. She enjoys fruit and vegetable shakes most of all. Whenever daddy gets a big glass of fruit and veggie shake Annabelle’s coming over for a couple of swigs.

Sleeping

She sleeps through the nights without problems, but when it’s time for bed she still prefers sleeping in daddy’s arms.