Milk, does the body good?

After Naomi's 1yr birthday, we started to introduce whole milk into her diet as I weaned her off of breastfeeding. Unfortunately it seems that Naomi has inherited one of my not so great traits and is having issues with whole milk. When I was a baby, I was allergic to wholemilk and had to drink soymilk formula. Thankfully I outgrew the intolerance (could you imagine life without icecream, or milk in my 16 cups of daily coffee??? oy)
Going in has been no problem, she drinks her bottles as if there was no difference to the content. However, when it comes out...ugh it's a whole different, GROSS, story. I wont get into the details, but lets just say, the doctor has told us to hold off for another month. Thankfully I still have a lot of frozen milk from months and months of pumping at work. So for now, I'm still offering her 2oz of whole milk mixed in with 6oz of breast milk. I guess we'll see how her body takes to it, and if she does ok I'll gradually increase the ratio of whole milk. If not, I'll pull back and check in with our doctor to see if I need to explore formula, or soy milk.

No place like home

We're back home after a long weekend up at Cornell for Joe and Jess' wedding. We made it back in only 3.5 hrs, with no stops! Naomi slept for about an hour and half in the car, then was up and playing for the most part.

When we got home she was so excited to see her ah-ma, she greeted her with a joyful scream and quickly reached out to her. As soon as we got inside, Naomi started bouncing up and down and was screaming in happiness at the sight of her toys, her play area, her books. It was definitely a fun scene to watch as she bounced, screamed, laughed and smiled at everything. I guess even at this age, she's old enough to realize there's no place like home!

12 months

Naomi 1 year stats

Weight: 17lbs (2nd percentile)
Height 29 inches (48th percentile)
Head: 46cm (75th percentile)

Naomi turned 1 last week Friday. I’ve been putting off writing this update mainly because I’m still catching my breath after a busy couple of days, but partly because I’m finding it hard to admit she’s already 1. It really does feel like yesterday when brought home this squishy, red faced 6lbs little alien. She’s officially a toddler, and I’m obviously ecstatic, yet I’m sad at the same time. Before we know it she’ll be sneaking out on dates while Austin waits on the patio with a shotgun.

I think rather than try to describe the emotions or thoughts, I”ll just share this slideshow Austin made of her first year.



And of course the regular development updates:
In the last month, Naomi’s gotten more comfortable with crawling, and will follow us from room to room now. (usually while cheerfully screaming at the same time).
She’s learned to climb up steps
All this mobility means we’ve had to install a baby gate, and probably will need to invest in a few more.
Naomi’s turned into a regular miss chatterbox. From the moment she wakes up, she usually starts blabbering a way, with the exception of when we’re around strangers.
Naomi’s becoming shy, every once in awhile, when in new situations or around new faces, she leans into you and sometimes even clings to our arms.
But once she warms up to you, Naomi smiles, screams, waves, shakes your hand, in other words she becomes quite the charmer.
She can comfortably pull herself up on a table, bookshelf, or sofa.
She likes to pull things off of shelves
She likes to put her toys away into baskets
She can drink from a sippy cup on her own
She likes to drink out of big girl cups
She started drinking whole milk
She's starting to throw tantrums
She picks her nose...then sticks her finger in her mouth

Happy Father's Day

For Father's day, I asked my graphic designer to create this video for me. Enjoy!

Birthday Party success

Phew are we tired. Austin, Naomi and my mom are all napping, so I thought I'd take a second to re-live yesterday. It was crazy from the moment we woke up. After over 48 hours of prep work, the first guests started showing up at 12pm sharp. The house was completely decorated, (thanks Stacey and Chris for helping us setup and decorate!!). Despite the rain, we all had an amazing time. The kids ran amok in the house, Naomi loved seeing everyone, although at times it did seem like she was a bit overwhelmed...(but heck with almost 60 ppl in your house who wouldn't be!) Even Lilo and Stitch who normally cower in their crates when kids come over, got a ton of tlc. What started off as my "laid back bbq" turned out into a massive birthday shindig, and although I'm completely beat, and never want to see another "cupcake pop" again, I had a blast and dont regret all the hard work. (nope not even staying up til 2am to finish decorating all the cupcake pop favors!)

Here are a couple of pics from Naomi's first birthday party. Thank you all for coming, we had a lovely time, and we're so blessed to have so much love from all of our friends and family.

Party planning

Party prep is in full force. This is the outcome of last night's
lantern hanging extravaganza. T-minus one hour and 16 minutes!

Rain on my parade....

It's Naomi's birthday!! Her party is scheduled for tomorrow...big bbq party with tons of kids and friends and family. And of course, the weather prediction calls for 80% chance of rain, with thunderstorms and showers all day long.

now what will we do with over 50 ppl in our house??? Rock Band Tourney anyone?