12 Months with Alice

I rather enjoy seeing pictures of babies growing up and changing, and since Alice is now one years old, lets look back on Alice's first year.

She came into the world quickly and so incredibly tiny.

Alice Juliet at 4lbs 13oz.

With an IV in her little head.

Her feet on the mend after five days of being poked 10+ times a day.

(these two photos by Becky Pitcher)

She never had a problem with her lungs, even though she was so small.

Just a little bit bigger than a piece of paper.

This was what the birth announcement looked like. It was only sent out to a few people, because $, but I loved how it turned out. 

This is for scale, and she was already so much bigger than at birth.

Cloth diapers made her look much bigger.

Alice is 4 months here, and still in newborn clothes!

A screaming mandrake at our Harry Potter party (she has always been good at screaming).

Photo by Becky Pitcher

Blessing day.

With her cousin Cedric in the bath.

5 months old here and gaining chub!

Halloween at 7 months old.

Alice at 8 1/2 months.

St. Patrick's Day at 11 1/2 months.

Easter at almost one.

 Alice at 1!

 Alice has grown up and changed so much in a year. She started out at 4 lbs 13 oz and not even on the charts, she ended the year at just under 18 lbs, so still really tiny but at least she is on the charts! She is such a wonderful addition to our family and we love all the humor and sweetness she brings to this world.

8 Months!...two weeks late

I know I need to do a Weekly Photo, and it was Elanor's birthday last week, but Alice turned 8 months at the end of November and I need to update before she's 9 months old!

{Phone picture, sent to Tyler at work, as he misses us when he is gone.}

I love this sweet, smiley baby so much and I am so glad she joined our family. I also love the baby stage and am so enjoying our baby each day.

This is a pretty horrible, early morning picture, but I love it! It shows how Alice is so sweet and loving. She loves to hug, cuddle and can kiss upon occasion. She loves to reach up and touch my face.

 Alice giving me a kiss. 

When I think of Alice, I think bright. She a little light of a person and brings so much joy through her huge smile and sometimes very loud sounds. She absolutely loves music and seems to already have good rhythm and taps her hand to the beat or moves her body to the beat. She is always right on with the music and I am thinking it will be something that she will always love.

Alice seems to be generally a little less social and not as talkative as Elanor was at this age (and still is), but is also sometimes very loud and does enjoy the company of other babies or children. She is also getting so much better with the whole stranger or even going to people she knows thing. She will often smile at strangers and lets people hold her quite often. She often still looks at me to make sure I or Tyler are there. Speaking of Tyler, she lights up so much when he gets home!  

Two weeks ago, Alice was just starting to army crawl around and could get places. She is even better now and gets up on her knees all the time and has taken a few knees and hands "steps".  She often will get frustrated with herself, but is very determined to get where she wants to go.

Alice also loves to eat and will eat anything. Smoked blue cheese, yep. A scone, of course. Soup broth, definitely. Brussel sprouts, she gobbled them up. She LOVES food. Alice has also got the pincher grasp down and can feed herself really well. 

 Alice still loves Elanor so much and Elanor loves her. I hope despite the age gap that they become the best of friends.

Oh, and she loves putting pretty much anything in her mouth and she is simply wonderful.

7 Months

I feel like these past couple months have flown by! I love, love, love babies and am really loving mine. She has grown up so much this month.

Just look at that posture!

 She was sitting up at six months and is pretty much a pro at it now. She scoots and rolls around, and also turns circles on her tummy (like a clock hand). She is getting much stronger and I predict she will be crawling within the next month or so.

 She still rather prefers me to anyone else (as it should be), but is much better about not crying when other people hold her. When she is in a new place, or even a place she has been, she takes some time to warm up to people and mostly observes and has a very serious expression. Once Alice warms up, she is all smiles! She has also started getting excited when Tyler comes home, which is so cute!

 Alice lights up so much when Elanor plays with her. Alice is also extremely patient with Elanor and only cries if she believes herself in real danger. I obviously watch Elanor very close (Elanor just loves her so much, so I have to remind her to not smother Alice with love).

As with most babies, Alice loves being outside. She also really loves animals and gets so excited when she sees a dog or cat.

 Alice is now sleeping through the night!!! I will write more on this in another post, but if your baby has trouble sleeping or napping I recommend The Sleepeasy Solution.

 Alice loves to eat and will eat anything! Her favorite is probably avocados, but she does seems to really enjoy soup broth as well. Alice is getting that pincher thing down and has started getting food in her mouth herself. She seems to be quite a dainty eater and tries to be very careful about getting food to her mouth.

 She is also pretty funny and likes to make us laugh with faces like these or funny noises. (She is doing this face on purpose.)

It is so fun to get to know Alice and figure out her personality. She is quite a bit different from our crazy, social, fun-loving, deep feeling Elanor. Alice seems quite calm, quiet and observant. She does however let you know when she is tired or upset in a pretty big way. Alice needs time to adjust to different places and people and is pretty dependent on me and needs me close. She likes to make us laugh, but does not seem to be an attention-seeker (being an attention-seeker is not a bad thing--being one myself as a child--so is Elanor). Alice also really enjoys music and dancing. She has the greatest smile and brings so much joy to our little family.