My big One year Old

Only a couple weeks late, right?
I seriously have not slowed down. I had my first business trip  since having Anika, this past week.  I sure missed her at night.

We went to a birthday party yesterday 1.5 hours away and we have 5 more in the next 6 weeks.  We did a 5K this morning.

We are heading down to MA this afternoon to see my friend and her almost 1 year old. Tomorrow is Marathon Monday.

Here are some pics from her 1st Birthday. As I have mentioned before, her party will not be until June.

I ordered the shirt from etsy, but its hard to see the name and the 1 is INSIDE the cherry blossom painting, so hard to see the 1 as well.  Owell.

Barefoot!  It was VERY warm on her birthday and her birthday week. Unusually warm for March!

SHE LOVES Being outside! LOVES IT. She stands at the door and wants to go out and play. Her sitter said she just LOVES to play outside too.

Taking the sticker off

Presents from daddy...note the Guzzi on one :)

My parents gave her the American Doll Bitty baby. I had this baby too.  She got some clothes and books from Nona too.  The hat goes with a bathing suit from Nona...whats it called, a skull cap?

We just had my parents and niece over for dinner.  We had turkey tips, quinoa and veggies.
I made Anika's cake.  The ingredients included: whole wheat flower, wheat germ, unsweetened apple sauce, baking powder, 6 bananas and I put some Cinnamon in it. The top had some REAL maple syrup from my dad's trees mixed with...tofu!  I didn't tell my family what was in the cake, and they LIKED IT! It was VERY dense. 

The morning of her birthday she had a lead blood test. UGh. STUPID idea.  Its not even protocol in our state. They give a questionnaire and base your child's risk off that.  They were not going to do a lead test, but since Andrew works with lead, he wanted one done for peace of mind.  He takes EVERY precaution. He drives a work car that Anika and I dont ride in. He doesnt wash his work clothes at our house and he uses a separate shower!  The person tried to get blood from Anika's right arm. After digging in her arm for a vein, they couldn't find one. THEN,  they tried the other arm. SHE WAS Freaking out.  STILL, they couldnt get blood. No one has EVER been able to get blood from my arm either. They always have to get it from my hand. They decided to prick her finger and held her finger over a vile and tried to Squeeze drops out for no joke, 10 minutes. IT was HORRIBLE. I was holding her and I just looked at Andrew and gave him the stink eye. We should have just gotten up and said, no thanks. Basically, we were all traumatized. It was really not good a good start to the day! Of course, her results came back fine. ugh.

Anika is 19 pounds and 28.5 inches.  She has a belly on her. She definitely is not SKINNY, just petite. She is saying lots of words and into everything. Her doctor was pretty surprised with how verbal she is considering how physical she is.  She doesn't miss a trick and is very observant. My guess is she gets THAT from her "curious" mom :) Healthy as a horse. She has a couple molars and has still been a good teether. She did have a rough week a while ago and thinking back, it must have been when she was getting the molars. It wasn't TOO bad, but she was very clingy for a week and woke up a few times in the night. She is going to her first dentist apt. this week!  We have used some hylands teething tablets a few times and we have the whole hylands kids kit.   As you know, we try to use natural remedies as much as possible....so far we have had luck with how we are doing things.

She has figured out how to go down the stairs the correct way. She still doesn't have a lot of hair.

She is still nursing mornings, nights and  weekends.  She drinks almond milk, coconut milk and goat milk during the day. She eats nuts and nut butters and has no issues with them.

Her doctor recommends no dairy until the age of 3, so we are tying to stick with that, but if she wants a bite of something, then of course we allow it.

LOOK at the difference a year makes! Above, Anika on Day 1

Anika almost 2 weeks old.

 Anika 1 Month Old.

I am sure I'm missing about a million things.  This sweet daughter of ours just amazes us daily.  It seems like every day she learns something new.  She went over to the oven the other night, touched the outside door and said "HOT" I thought it was a coincidence but then she said Hot when she grabbed hot food off my plate and then again when we hopped in the hot shower.  She says nigh nigh when she is tired and goes to sleep pretty effortlessly most nights. She is still taking 2 naps a day.  Usually 2 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the afternoon. She goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up at 5...she comes to bed and nurses and we get up for the day at 6. Sometimes, I put her back in her crib before 6 if she is keeping me awake :)

She helps me put things away often. When I bring her cloth nappies from the washing machine to the drying rack, I often drop some on the way. If I ask her to pick them up she will bring them over. She will also bring me the remote :)  She helps me put her books back on the shelf because she LOVES pulling them all off. 

Overall, she is a really good kid so far. She has started to pinch me and bite me at times and I hope that phase passes quickly.  She also gets bratty when she is tired...it comes on FAST and I know its just time to get her to sleep, which often means we leave wherever we are.

I know I usually write these posts TO Anika, but I forgot :)   I know I always say it, but I just cant believe how fast this year went! Its just amazing.