We had a great first birthday with my parents flying in to celebrate. I got a cake for Emily and we had a traditional setting with fruits and rice cakes.My mom even borrowed a hanbok (traditional Korean dress) from a friend for Emily to wear.
Happy birthday!
As Emily's birthday neared, I was amazed at how much she has grown in the last year. Babies truly are amazing. Here's a short update:
Emily was a sweet and relatively easy newborn infant. She may not have been able to do much, but it was great to just cuddle her. Newborn infants are definitely a lot of work with little return it seems. As you bathe, clean, and feed them all they do is eat, cry, sleep and dirty their diapers and you wonder if it's worth it. Once they start smiling, though, it becomes worth it. From that moment on, they become more aware of you and their surroundings and become more and more involved.
Now that Emily is older, she has become a lot of fun. She actually interacts with you and the environment around her. I love watching her play as she figures out something she has never done before. I love when she picks up a book and brings it to one of us so we can read it to her. I love when she climbs all over me while we play. I just love her so much!
Anyways, as certain things became easier since she was younger, other things became more difficult.
For example, a difficult issue was babyproofing. Now that she's mobile, baby proofing became a huge concern. And after months of agonizing about our stairs and fireplace, we finally found gates that worked. But she is able to play by herself for a little bit so I can do a quick chore while she plays. It's pretty great.
I love our gates.
A great thing, Emily is a great sleeper and she sleeps through the night like a champ. Only once in a while she will wake up in the middle of the night either because she was sick or was experiencing a mental leap. However, we had a rough few weeks as she transitioned from two naps to one. I think we're settled on one.
A great thing, I am slowly weaning her and I have stopped taking bottles for her to daycare. I give her sippy cups to take with regular milk instead. We are also now down to 2 nursings a day; one when and one at bedtime. This means that I am slowly phasing out pumping! It's incredible how much time I get back once I started dropping pumping sessions.
No more breast milk in a bottle!
A not so great thing, and it's kind of on the trivial side because it doesn't happen very often but, she's a lot more work to fly with. We definitely get a seat just for her (so we basically have a whole row to ourselves) and have a ton of snacks and toys for her to play with but she's a toddler who can now walk. She wants to be everywhere. We tried a movie but she doesn't really show interest in it. And she does play with her toys but, like all babies, loses interest eventually. So that's kinda sucky. Our trips usually aren't terrible but man is it tiring.
Story time on the plane
Overall, I love seeing her grow but I do miss the quiet days too.
Sweet girl! Happy (belated!) birthday, Emily! xoxo
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