She isn’t quite walking yet but we’ve been trying to encourage some walking drills with her daily. She’s just so damned fast crawling that she prefers that mode of travel. Occasionally we’ll catch her standing up without holding on to anything and even take a step on her own.

Her personality is starting to come out. She’s kind of a silly, little goof ball, but she has a fiery temper (wonder where she gets that from…?). She is a far more adventurous eater than her sister is. Funny enough, Rose typically doesn’t like any of the food that her sister is willing to eat, but she will test and eat any food that we are eating. During the football game the other night she shared in some chicken wings and drummies with us!

What I find really hilarious about Rose is that she really likes to mimic people. She always has. When we’d make a noise she would make the same noise back. Lately we go through vicious circles of saying “Hi!” The longer the cycle, the funnier she thinks it is.

uh-oh!

nose!

Other words she’s saying lately: no, no, no…, hi, mumma, da-da, nose, eyes, uh-oh.

And lastly, big game lately is peek-a-boo. She plays it All. The. Time. In her crib she’ll put her blanket over her head and plays peek-a-boo.

where's Rosie?

there she is!

She’ll randomly put her hands over her eyes and plays peek-a-boo. Sometimes she even pulls her shirt over her head and plays peek-a-boo. And she’s so very proud of herself every time. Nothing makes her happier than playing peek-a-boo!

Rose had her one year checkup last Monday. Since her last appointment she has grown 1.25″ and gained 1.25 lbs! That puts her in the 95th percentile for height and 85th percentile for weight. Compared to Lulu at this age, Rose is 1.25″ taller and 5.25 lbs heavier.

1 yr. old!

As soon as she had her birthday we ditched the bottles and formula. After the fiasco of trying to switch Lulu over to whole milk (she had to drink soy milk for a while and then we built up a tolerance to regular milk), I started mixing whole milk in with her formula a month before her birthday. By the time she was 12 months she was pretty much entirely drinking real milk and at the same time I started cutting out the bottles. When I cut out the last bottle of the day she seemed to miss that a bit.

smiley

And for the past 2 months or so she has been getting her molars in, meaning lots of middle of the night visits. She almost always goes back to bed 5-10 minutes after I get her, but still, I’ll look forward to sleeping full nights again. At least Lulu sleeps right through it.

hi mumma

Rosie eats pretty much anything that I put in front of her. It’s a nice change to have a kid that actually eats without a battle. She is still cruising and standing up while holding on to things but she hasn’t tried to do much walking on her own. She gets a bit lazy when I hold her hands and get her to walk around. She’ll take a few steps and then plop down so she can crawl to her destination.

birthday girl

And she is saying a few words, “mama”, “dada”, “hi” (with accompanying wave) and she says something that sounds like “hi kitty.” She and Lulu are occasionally playing together, but it’s more like Rosie grabs something that her sister wants (a lot of times just to be playful) and then a lot of whining occurs. She does think that Lulu is a riot sometimes and Lulu is a really nice older sister (for now).

This past year flew by in a wink. I love to watch Rose grow and learn and become a little more independent, but I sometimes miss that sweet lil lump that she used to be!

lil cutie

Happy Birthday Rosie!

Sorry about the lack of updates, but this lil sweetie pie has been keeping me up at night for the past month while her molars came in.

We had her birthday party on Sunday. Thank you to our wonderful family and friends for being so incredibly caring and giving. Both my girls are lucky to be so loved.

She is a mischievous little thing and is keeping us on our toes. She’s cruising all over the place and stands alone for a few seconds before she topples over. Every little thing she finds on the floor she tries to put in her mouth. Doesn’t matter HOW much we vacuum, she finds something to pick up.

And the other day I actually watched in disbelief when she climbed up two stairs. UGH.

she's showing off her teeth!

She is a beautiful baby and has turned into an amazingly happy girl, she’s always so smiley. Especially with all those pearly whites in her mouth.

toofies!

She is actually starting to crawl on her hands and knees these days, rather than the weird zombie-with-no-legs mode of transport. We had to tape down the carpet the other day because she was pulling up the edge, picking off bits of the foam rug pad and chewing on it like a tasty piece of gum. I think she must be part goat because she puts everything in her mouth! Paper, fuzzballs, old Cheerios, any and everything.

Other progress includes saying “Mumma”, “Da Da” and giving big open mouth kisses to everyone, including her sister. She loves, loves, loves the kitty and does her best to chase after him, but for the time being he has evaded her efforts. Spooky is such a great cat. He’s very patient with the girls.

As she gets bigger I love to watch her start to interact more with Lulu. Every morning when the girls wake up I get Lulu out of her crib first. Then she runs to the other crib, leans over and says “Hi Rosie!” Rose’s response is usually kicking her little legs with excitement.

Every now and then I’ll catch Lulu try to hug and kiss Rose, and lately Rose has tried to kiss back. Soooooo cute.

But yesterday was Rose’s 9 month check-up at the doctor’s and I figured an update would be a good way to reboot.

Rose, 9 month checkup

age: 9 months, 2 weeks
height: 30.75
weight: 22.75

Rose is continuing to grow like a weed. She’s above 95th percentile for height and between 90-95th for weight.

always smiling!

She is essentially mobile these days. While she’s not doing a traditional crawl on her hands and knees she sort of scoots military style on her elbows, pushing off with one foot. Sitting up isn’t even a challenge for her at this point and she is beginning to pull herself up to stand on some things. We have found her standing up in her Pack-n-Play on many occasions. Problem is that she can get up but can’t figure out how to get down again. One thing is for sure, she is definitely more aggressive in developing her skills than her sister was.

She is also becoming a very stubborn strong-willed little girl. She refuses to eat baby food off the spoon these days and isn’t partial to trying too many new foods. She likes her crackers, rice puffs and Cheerios just fine, thank you very much. The doctor told me to be tenacious about giving her different foods to eat and I’ve also been adding some cereal to her bottles just to fill her up. I hope she turns around because I don’t think I can deal with another picky eater.

The past few nights she has been sleeping great, so we’re hoping this trend continues so that I don’t have a nervous breakdown!

cute and bratty

All of those sleep-interrupted nights has resulted in 2 more teeth: another bottom tooth and one of her top teeth just cut through! Poor baby…

I can say that Miss Rose makes the most adorable noises that a baby can make. Seriously, we should record her and sell CDs to sound effects companies. Such sweet noises. And then the next minute she whines or cries and it’s the most irritating noise you’ve ever heard. It can turn you into a homicidal maniac and before you know it you’re reaching for your hockey mask and clever.

crazy hair

Recently she has started to give big, juicy open mouth kisses and holds her arms up now when she wants to be picked up. Two of my favorite developments! She’s also begun to notice the cat and she tracks him like a sniper in the desert. She squeals with delight, with a big fat smile on her face. I would hedge my bet that she will be more gleefully torturous towards Spooky than her sister was.

Speaking of torturing, she’s doing really well getting up on her hands and knees and I fear that she will begin crawling any day now. And I can already see that she will get into everything she’s not supposed to!

Rosie gained almost 2 lbs and and inch & a quarter since her last check-up. The doctor sort of chuckled at her progress. She’s a big girl! Growing wonderfully, no concerns.

When we started solid foods she sort of struggled a little but now she eats really well. She sleeps so much better at night, too. It’s almost time to put her in the same room with Lulu, they both are almost on the same schedule. And we’ll get our room back!

She isn’t sitting up quite yet but she’s certainly rolling over. In fact she’s using rolling as a means to get from one place to another. It’s quite funny to watch.