Thirteen Months

13 Months

• One of the big news this month is that you can now have milk! We were suppose to do allergy testing, but in the middle of teething, I gave you Zurtec to help with your runny nose. I forgot that I wasn't suppose to give you any meds for a week beforehand. So we had to postpone the testing to the end of the month. I decide to at least try giving you milk and nothing happened. In fact, your diarrhea has gotten better. So we decided to cancel the testing and I have felt so good about that decision. The sad thing is since we have catered to your meals for a while, your good eating habits have gone south. We are working on that now. If I give you something you don't like (usually meats), you feed it to Mowgli. Well at least Mowgli is well fed. 
• I didn't record your stats from your one year appointment, so here they are. Length: 2'9". Weight: 21lbs 9 oz. They puts you in the 60th percentile. You have dropped in percentile, which is what your sister did, so we are not too concerned. 
• Let me tell you how your birthday went. On Sunday before, we invited all the northern families over for dinner and cake. You loved being able to stay up late with the big kids and eat a bunch of cake. Your cousins were so sweet to bring you some presents. You got a my little pony, some bath toys, and some fisher price learning toys. On your actually birthday, we started by going to the doctor's for your appointment and a bunch of shots (so sorry), took a big nap, played at the library, and then did dinner, cookies, and presents. Maggie and Sam were so cute in picking out your gift. They picked out a Minnie Mouse outfit. Your dad and I got you one of those popcorn pushers and a new rider toy for outside. It was really fun to see you get excited to rip paper and just be so happy.
• A rough time this month was having you get three front teeth in one week. You were so snotty, had a rough time sleeping, and wanted to be held all the time. I appreciate all the extra cuddle time with you, but I am even more happy that it is other for now. That front tooth was a beast.
• You are not wanting to learn to walk. You can walk while just holding one hand. You can walk while holding on to your push toy. But you do not enjoy any of it. You would rather crawl. Once if see that walking will lead to running, which is so much faster than crawling, which leads to even more mischief. 

One Year!!

One Year

Dear Millie,

This birthday is a big one. You are changing from the sweet, sleepy baby that we would rock to sleep into this spunky, giggly, loud toddler that would stop moving. I remember when your dad asked me if I wanted a third kid. Oh no, we have one of each and for selfish reasons, I wanted to be done. But how grateful I am that Dad, Maggie and Sam all begged for you. You are truly a light in our family. You may get into more mischef than the others have, but for some reason, it is super cute and funny when you do it. You have always been this chilled baby, but now I see that you really are independent, love others, curious, determined, cuddly little girl.

I love how you try to make others and yourself laugh. Like your brother, you truly enjoy life and want to share that sunshine with others. I love how you love Maggie and Sam. You try so hard to wrestle with them, get them to play peek-a-boo with you, and imitate them in their silly antics. I love how fond you are of Mowgli, smiling while saying "pu pu pu" for puppy. I love how excited and loud you get when daddy walks through the door. I love how you snuggle into my neck when a stranger tries to say hi, but will try to sneak a peak at them, giggle, and snuggle again. I love how we have the early mornings together, snuggling on the bed, looking through old videos, and tickle attacks all before the craziness of your siblings waking up.

I hate to say goodbye to your baby chub, rocking you to sleep, toothless grins, and having you lay perfectly in my arms. But at the same time, I am excited to see you learn how to walk, learn new words, figure out your favorites, and explore every more new things, and become the young women that you are destined to be.

I love you so much. My life has been more rich because of you. Happy Birthday sweet one!!!

Love,
Mom

Eleven Months

11 Months

• This has been more of a quiet month. Your sister has been sick so much that we have stayed home a lot. You don't mind, you get great naps and roam all over the house.
• You learned how to crawl up the stairs for better or for worse. We have a baby gate for the stairs going down because that would really hurt for you to fall down the wood stairs, but the half flight up is free game. I thought you were getting into trouble on the main floor, but now that you can go upstairs, we have entered a whole new game. We have to keep the bathroom door and my room door shut at all times. There has been so many times that I have walked into the bathroom with q-tips scattered all over the floor, the toilet paper unrolled in a big pile on the floor, the trashed scattered and you either sucking on the toilet bowl brush (so gross!!) or splashing around in the toilet like its a swimming pool (nasty!!!). My room has books and I have a page or two ripped out of my Book of Mormon now. But also it has been nice. As long as the legos are picked up, your brother and sister are pretty good with letting you play in their room. You like to sneak up there and play cars or pull out the dress up clothes out of the drawers.
• You have been nicked name the "Wild Child" for more than one reason. The first reason is from the bullet point above. The second reason is your hair. It is so long in front and it grows straight down into your eyes and nose boogers. I try hard to always keep it pulled back in a pony tail, but after each nap it is a diaster and then the other times when I just redid it nicely, you will rip out the hair tie. So about 75% of the time, your crazy hair is stuck in front of your face covered and splattered with boogers.

Ten Months

10 Months

• December is always a fun month and for it to be your first Christmas made it even more special. We visited Salt Lake to see the different window displays at the Grande Hotel and also the Temple lights (though it was really cold). We drove through the lights in Layton Park, made and passed out goodies to the neighbors, walked through a live Nativity, visited the Criche (a large collection of Nativity sets), watched a ton of Christmas movies, and went to a few parties. Let's be honest, most of the activities were a bit too late for your bed time, you spent a lot of time in the stroller, and were surrounded by goodies that you couldn't eat. But you were a good sport for all of it. Daddy did sneak you a good amount of cookies and a few sips of egg nog-both which you screamed afterwards because you wanted more.
• The big thing this month is that you learned how to crawl. I attribute it all to the presents and Christmas tree. You kept wanting to pull on the tree skirt, pull down the ornaments, and try to rip open the presents. It was a big motivator for you to crawl. Those three weeks with all the Christmas decor up and you crawling around the house has been some of the most stressful mommy time in my mommy career. All of a sudden, you were in everything. The tree, the lamp, the bathroom, the dog food, the baking goods. I had to keep rearranging the kitchen so you wouldn't make messes every three minutes. I think we finally figured out everything though once Christmas was over. 
• Our whole family got hit with influenza. It was first your dad and then you. For one whole day, you just wanted to cuddle on the couch or sleep. It was so sad to see you so sick. Thankfully we did get you the shot this year so it wasn't as long for you and you were all back to normal for Christmas. 
• Christmas was a blast. You loved all the paper and wrappings. You just would crawl all over the room, rolling around in the paper and ripping it up. Santa brought you a new sippy cup (though you still don't like it) some Minnie Mouse pacifiers, and baby puffs. You really needed some bigger winter clothes so both us and Grandma Price got you some cute new outfits with leggings that actually fit. 
• New Years was spent in the cabin, which meant that Dad and big kids played out in the snow while I literally followed you around every minute that you were awake. There were so many things that you shouldn't get into that you could-the fireplace, tons of cords, stairs, and books. We took you out in the snow for a while. This was your first real time in the snow. We took you down the sledding hill and pulled you around in the tube. You were more indifferent to the idea.

Nine Months

9 Months

• This has been such a fun month. Quite stats on your nine month appointment: weight 20lbs (71%) and length 28 inches (70%) so you dropped a bit on the charts but you probably will just hit a growth spurt again here soon. 
• Eating: you love everything! I don't think I have given you anything that you haven't liked. You will eat tomatoes for dinner and spicy curry. Your finger coordination is coming along so now you can feed yourself pretty well. Whatever doesn't end up in your mouth, Mowgli just cleans up after you. 
• Moving: we have been working on crawling with you. You are at the pre-crawling stage. You can get into crawling position and then rock back and forth. Since the wood floor with easier to slide around on, you slide yourself over to the movies and will pull them out everywhere. I actually like the mischief you are getting into (for now at least).
• Social-you are getting even more sillier. You love playing peek-a-boo, where you hold the blanket up to your face and pull it up and down while we say boo. When I sing Five Little Monkeys, you will shake your head back and forth while I sing. 
• This month we celebrated Thanksgiving at Auntie Catherine's house. You loved all the food. We went to Arches and Goblin Valley. You were a good sport for being in the carrier the whole time. We stayed at a hotel and the pool was fun. The water in the pool was too cold and the hot tub was too hot, so we had to had to just put our legs in the water but you still had funny splashing around. 
• Christmas is around the corner. While we were setting up the tree, you managed to roll under the tree and started pulling down the branches. Well, you have gotten into the presents several times since, but the tree hasn't fallen down yet so I call that I win.

Eight Months

8 Months

• I just now noticed that you were wearing this same outfit in last months photo. Well it is a cute one on you I guess.
• You have two teeth! The kids have been so excited for you to get these. They will stick their fingers in your mouth to feel, even when I say not to, and then it was taking so long that we stopped extra. Well, on our rode trip to Cedar City to see the Temple Open House, I saw them, and both were there. Maggie kept calling you her "two tooth baby sister". Sam now thinks that you can eat anything because you have teeth.
• Eating! You are loving it. I started giving you more table food and boy, you go to town on it. I have given you bits of dairy here and there and so far no reaction, so I have slowly been added a bit of it. That makes giving you table food so much easier, as so much of what I cook has a bit of butter or cheese in it. Often, I will take a bit of our food (chicken and rice) and mix it into your homemade baby veggies. The banana muffins are also a huge hit.
• You are rolling all over and getting so close to crawling. The other day, you were just rolling back and forth across the whole rug just because it was fun to roll.
• You and Mowgli still love each other. We were playing fetch/tug-a-war with him and it got you to laugh so hard.You are really fascinated by his tag and tonight, you grabbed him by the ears and started sucking on his nose. I stopped that one pretty fast.
• You are super chilled as always. You love going on hikes or walks in the stroller, just looking at all the stuff around you. I bring you with me when I volunteer in Maggie's class and all the kids think you are so cute. You are so good to just hang out in the stroller while I work with the other kids.
• You got your first cold this month. You haven't made a big deal about it, but you can see it in your eyes. Your eyes are just glazed over. Snot and drool are everywhere, and naps have been shorter. It looks like you are finally getting over it.
• You are continuing to stand against the couch, though it is not your favorite thing, nor are you great at it. You tend to grab something and then slowly tip over to the side.
• We let you cry it out officially this month. So if you wake up before 6:30 am, I don't get you. It took a few weeks for you to stop waking up around 3, not that you needed to feed anyways at the time, it was just a habit for you to stir at that time. Now, you sleep straight through.

7 months

7 Months

• One really exciting thing this month is that you are rolling all over the place, both frontwards and backwards. Mix this with your "handsiness", you are all over and into everything. The kids were playing chess and you made your way over there and knocked down all their pieces. They still think it is funny (thank goodness) and calls you "Monster Millie".  You are rolling around in your crib, grabbing the baby monitor and playing with the cord.
• We have been starting to give you more food, specifically allergenic food. We have tried peanut butter, strawberries, and eggs. You are not a super fan of table food. You really love the smooth texture of store bought baby food. 
• You are super loud. We have found you make up around 11pm, just making the motor boat sounds and then going staight back to sleep. During church, you never cry, just screech the whole time, to the point where it was hard to hear the kids answer questions. Also, you will wake me up with your kicking. 
• Your personality is showing more. You are really ticklish, you smile a lot, tease others by grabbing their hair and feet.
• You really enjoy sitting in the exercisaucer, banging the buttons to make the music play, drooling all over the place. 
• Everything goes in your mouth. EVERYTHING. 
• You are saying mama, not in connection with me, but I feel like it is because you will say it when you are crying and then you will stop crying when I hold you. You just like me.