Saturday, November 24, 2012

One Amazing Year with Peyton

In one short year our little peanut went from this:
To this:
And then this:

While her actual birthday is November 29th, we are making it a week long celebration!
We are celebrating her birthday this weekend with her Nana. Next weekend we will celebrate with her maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and surrogate family!

What have we learned this year?
* Spit up rags are necessary and must be placed strategically around the house.
* You think you want your daughter to roll-over/sit-up/roll around/ crawl/walk... until it happens and then you spend days baby proofing things you didn't know you needed baby proofed.
* Technology, like many other things, is extremely helpful in child rearing... until your child realizes that Sesame Street comes from your phone/laptop/tv and you have to wrestle it away from her at nap time.
* Car trips can either be extremely enjoyable or a "terrible-horrible-no good-very bad" idea... Our child got so excited about her week at church camp at Flathead Lake with mom that she didn't want to leave. She screamed the entire 4.5 hours home. I thought about sending her back on the bus. 
* Food is very very exciting... but at some point your child could develop a healthy love of fruits and vegetables and reject the idea of noodles and meat. The second it goes in there is a pause, then a terrible face, and finally everything comes back out. The second and third attempts ended the same way.
* Teaching your child to play with animals gently is a very good idea... it might be good to teach her to play with other children the same way. You know, so she doesn't try to claw their eyes out.
* Trimming fingernails is not fun... but necessary. 
* The saying "sleep when baby sleeps" is nearly impossible but also necessary. Even if its only 15 minutes.
* Just because your child has never been around, personally seen or had a "temper tantrum" demonstrated to them... doesn't mean they can figure out how to throw one all by themselves. 

There are so many "momservations" that I could post here but we can save those for another day.

Everyday Peyton learns something new that just astounds us. One day she just started waving at people. The next day she was clapping her hands for everything. Last week she decided to start blowing bubbles in her bath tub. Her favorite game is chasing mommy and daddy down the hallway after a diaper change or bathtime.

She makes us laugh, cry and shake our heads each and every day...

And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!