- From the very start Maggie has had lots of nicknames (including, of course Maggie as the long story of her full name is here). I even did an entire blog post about her nicknames when she turned a month old. The ones that have seemed to stick and are in frequent rotation still include: "Precious Little Magpie," Maggs, Maggers, Baby Lady, Baby Girl, Magpie, MJ, M (only on the blog), Maggie J (I call her this very frequently), and occasionally Baby J (J being for Jewel which is her middle name). I don't mind nicknames and actually think they're pretty fun. I am somewhat surprised she has so many as "B" never had much variety in this area.
- She loves crocheted blankets and seems to have settled on two - the ones that Aunt Audra and Amy (Zach's Mom) made. She uses another Aunt Audra made for B as a back up if necessary. As with B, she loves to have her fingers in the holes and snuggling up with her blankets at any time.
- She still uses a pacifier to my great surprise. I try diligently to limit it to when she is sleeping or heading down. I don't always succeed and do take mercy on the Y childcare people and let her use it there, oh and at church... so perhaps more than I think. We did, in good news, relocate her treasured paci clip so that crisis has been averted.
- She much prefers to feed herself rather than to be fed and always has. We still feed her things like applesauce at times, but most of the time we have thing that she can manipulate herself. She definitely is an independent spirit.
- She has had three childcare providers as well as the Y childcare staff - Connie, Maureen and Courtney. They have all done a great job and I am so glad they take great care of her so I can work without worrying. She has generally been such a champ about being dropped off and picked up. I've so appreciate it as B used to struggle hard against being dropped off at the Y childcare while I exercised when he was younger. Ironically, or not, today was the exception and she was so very sad to be dropped off with Ms. Courtney. I think perhaps she got used to being with me all the time for nearly the last two weeks. I'm hoping for everyone's sake this is temporary as it makes Courtney and I sad too.
- She loves to be held but she will certainly take off on her own if her parents don't seem to be moving in the direction she wants. On the airplane, for instance, she was standing by the seat when it was time to disembark while I put on the harness and Brent gathered things. She attempted to just take off crawling up the aisle before Brent captured her. The other passengers seemed pretty amused. Yesterday, she bolted from Y childcare while I was signing her out as she was clearly ready to go.
- She loves the water. She has a great time in her bath, the pool, the sprinkler, a baby pool or whatever she can get. I love all the happy splashing.
- She has a funny bear crawl (up on her feet and hands) unless on satisfactory carpet and sometimes even then! It is so funny and I need to make sure we take some more video of it before it disappears.
- She loves to clap. She claps many times a day. Sometimes she seems to be applauding something in particular and other times I think she's just having fun. Today, I said "Yay!" about something and she immediately applauded so I think she knows what it means.
- She loves babies. It is so funny to see her with Zane or little Molly. She seems fascinated by them and tries to be sweet with them. She gives lots of pats -- to both real and toy babies and people of all sizes. I wonder if it is a gender thing or just a personality thing. B is sweet with them too, but sometimes I feel like he is doing it because he knows he is supposed to. It is hard to say.
- She gets very agitated when she wants something. This does not so much involve crying as much as waving her arms furiously to get whatever she wants (and opening her mouth too if it happens to be food). She will also gesture toward whatever food you have to indicate she'd like some.
- She "plays" with all her brothers toys. Sometimes this is to his frustration and sometimes he seems delighted. I am still enthralled watching them play together and take care of each other.
- They have a special sibling bond. It is noticeable already and so cool as my bond with my siblings is so close. Recently, she was crying in her crib one Friday when we was home and I was working. B was up so he went in an "checked on her." He decided she needed to play so climbed in to her crib with her and they, I assume started playing. I checked on them several times in the next 15 minutes and was informed they were playing alone. Adorable, sweet, and I can feel they will gang up on us later.
- She brings joy to the people she is with which is a great gift.
- She seems to adapt well to the changes in her world. For example, she has transitioned gracefully between care providers and seems to be handling the bottle with formula to sippy cup with milk transition well.
- She is incredibly curious. She wants to know what is in every drawer, on every shelf, in every cabinet. Her inquiry includes textures and tastes as well as the visual. She is just starting to be interested in smells as well.
- She is suitably wary with strangers. There is no screaming, but as you can see in the professional pictures it does take her a few minutes to loosen up and smile with people she doesn't know. She also babbles less in these settings, but as she relaxes will chat more.
- She, as mentioned before, is a babbler and has whole conversations complete with inflections now. She does have a few words like: Dada, Mama, Baba, A' Done (All Done), Zuzzle (Puzzle - somewhat rare), and Bye. Sometimes we think she's trying to say Bubba, Audra, Zach, Grandma, etc, but hard to be sure.
- She loves to dance. I sometimes call her my little Zumba baby as she will "drop it low" and bounce her little bottom. She also does plenty of standing up bouncing and dancing with me. When she had acid reflux one of the tricks we would use to calm her was me waltzing/two stepping, etc the little one around the living room, if you can imagine--- me dancing in circles with a screaming baby.
- She loves to try and eat dirt, leaves, and whatever else she can find outside. She likes to stand at the edge of our raised bed and pull things out at random. It is very cute, but we do try to somewhat limit the dirt intake.
- She likes to be naked, but can't be trusted as puddles tend to appear.
- She was a great trooper through nearly all her months of ear infection and teething. I feel like she has been on one medicine or another almost every month, but would never think of her as sickly as she just seems so robust.
- She has a sweet, gentle personality and is constantly (I cannot emphasize this enough) in never ending motion.
- She is loved dearly by many, most especially her Daddy, Brother and Mama.
There is so much more and so much already covered this week. I am amazed at how much I've already forgotten of the first year. As I was browsing the posts from the first month or two today there were already things I'd entirely forgotten. I hope that posts like this will help us remember what a special wonderful year we've had with our baby Maggie.
1 comment:
Happy Bithday, Maggers.
Grammie and Granddaddy love you very much.
Post a Comment