Madison: 1 year old!

Talk about the sweetest little bundle of joy!  Full of smiles and character and energy.

What's new...
Words - mama, dada, baba (bottle), uh oh (with a very well pronounced "oh"), stuck, dog ("dah")

While she doesn't say many actual words, she understands a bunch of words or phrases that I say (Where are your shoes?  Where are your socks? Where is the flower?  Nose, eyes, Do you want to eat? All done, more, caterpillar, drink, monkey, bear, spin, hi, bye, stand up, sit down, book, bath, ducky, Give it to mama, doggie, birdie, squirrel, open, close, and probably more that I'm forgetting).  She now uses sign language to say "more" and "all done" very clearly now.  She is walking and wanting to run.  She absolutely loves being outside.  We go outside a couple times a day and just walk up and down the sidewalk, go to the back yard, collect leaves, pick up sticks, and look at flowers.  It is her favorite thing.

Sleep
She sleeps great.  She goes to bed around 7:30pm and wakes up around 6:30am.  She still takes 2 naps a day.  Her morning nap is almost exactly 2 hours after she wakes up and she sleeps for about 1.5 hrs.  Her afternoon nap is about 3 hours after she wakes up from her morning nap and it's only about 45 minutes.  After company left for her birthday, we started a new bedtime routine.  Before that, she basically fell asleep while we rocked her and gave her a bottle, then we would lay her down in her crib.  Rarely was she still awake when we put her down.  Now, we read 2-4 books with the light on while she drinks her bottle.  Then I sing a few songs to her (Jesus loves me, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Amazing Grace...) while she finishes her bottle.  Finally, I turn the light off, give her a kiss, and put her in her crib awake.  She is getting better and better at not crying.  She usually cries for 5 minutes or less and then talks for a little bit to herself before falling asleep.  I love putting her to bed.  It's the sweetest time of day because we just slow down and spend a few special moments together.

Eat
Nothing new here since last update.  I'm going to do a separate post about feeding a baby and what I did at different ages.  It really helped me to research ideas of foods to try, good finger foods, and moving from each stage to the next.

Growth:

Birth - 6 lbs, 3 oz , 20 inches

1 month - 8 lbs, 21.5 inches

2 months - 8 lbs, 14 oz , 23 inches

4 months - 12 lbs, 4 oz, 24 inches

6 months - 15 lbs, 12 oz, 25.75 inches

9 months - 18 lbs, 5 oz, 27.5 inches

12 months - 20 lbs, 8 oz, 30 inches

Surprisingly, the doctor described her as "long and lean" while I thought she was short for sure!

Now excuse me while I go cry a little since my "baby" is now a "toddler"...