Bree's First Birthday

Her birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, so everyone had work and school.  On Saturday a cold that she had been fighting started to sound worse and she wasn't sleeping as well as she normally would.  That being sad, she wasn't sleeping horribly either, just not well.  She was also slightly more clingy, but aren't we all when we are sick?

On the morning of her birthday I tried my darnedest to get a picture of her in her birthday outfit.  She really did not want to cooperate.  During the day we took her over to the store to pick out a balloon.  I'm not sure who liked it more--Finn or Bree.  And finally when everyone came home, we had her little "party".  She tried pizza for dinner for the first time and really seemed to enjoy it.  And then she had chocolate cake for dessert.  She got a few fun presents and really just enjoyed having the spotlight all on her with everyone playing with her.  She had so much fun that it seemed she didn't want to go to bed.

Well.....that's what I thought.  I took her to her 12 month well-check on Friday (3 days later) and when we checked in I told the nurse she was sick and that we weren't going to do immunizations that day because I was concerned about her.  When the doctor came in, I talked to her for a bit and told her that at Urgent Care the previous month (when we all had bronchitis and got antibiotics except for Bree) the doctor said she couldn't see her ear drums because there was wax in the way and since she wasn't presenting like she had an ear infection she didn't want to go digging around in her ears.  Well, the pediatrician removed the wax for us and wouldn't you know, poor baby had two very, very bad infections.  Poor baby!  The numbing drops helped her for the rest of the day and within about 36 hours of starting antibiotics she was back to her happy, playful self.  I hadn't even realized how bad she was feeling and I felt awful about it.

Anyway, she did enjoy her birthday.  At the first 12-month well check she weighed 15 pounds 12 ounces and was 28 inches long.  We went back for immunizations and a weight check two weeks later and she was up to 16 pounds.  She started eating and drinking better once she was feeling better, go figure.

As for skills, at 12 months she was not taking steps or standing independently.  She could, but she was a chicken.  If she realized that she was standing alone she would sit down real fast.  She was a decent cruiser but was not interested in walking.  She could follow a couple of simple commands which always surprised me (such as "come here", "clap", etc.) and she made sounds that sounded as if she was imitating our words.  There were several times I was convinced that she had said, "I get it!" or "I did it!", but she really doesn't talk that well so it didn't make sense to have those moments of clarity.  She could say "mama", "daddy", "bah" (for bye or peek-a-boo), "this", and "that".  She also had 3 teeth at 12 months old.  Two on the bottom and the top left central incisor.

We love her so much!  (I seriously took over 100 pictures this day.)

My attempt at distracting her with toys to get a good shot.

Excitement over the large chocolate cake.  This girl can spot chocolate very quickly!

The concerned look over the flame.

Presents!

Some of you may recognize this as the helicopter that we got Kai for his 1st birthday.  A couple of years ago I cleaned and stored all of the baby toys to be used again.  So, we went shopping in the toy bin for Bree's "new toys".  She doesn't know the difference.  She LOVES the helicopter!

Yep, all of these presents were recycled ones.  And she LOVES them all!  Cheapest birthday ever.