Watch Me Grow - Twelve Months

Well folks. That's it. It's over. My baby is no longer a baby.

This is literally the best picture I could get of her. It took a paci and me holding her lovey
above her in order to get her to look at the camera for .00358493 seconds.
Its grainy and blurry but at least I got one of her looking!

Just kidding, she still totally is. Until she's running around by herself and talking in sentences I'm going to pretend that she is still a baby.

Speaking of running around, this girl is on the move. Well, she's not technically walking yet, but she is taking a few steps here and there. The most I have counted is four steps in a row, which was a couple days after her birthday. She took her very first steps about a week and a half before she turned one. What an exciting moment!! She is still very hesitant, and she basically walks with the top half of her body only (meaning she leans over and falls nearly every time), but she is so exciting about walking and I can see her confidence growing day by day. But just because she isn't fully walking yet doesn't mean that she isn't moving around like a maniac. She cruises along furniture, walls, people, appliances, and pushes chairs, tables, walking toys - pretty much anything she can to get around.

Right now Lauren only has about 2 "words" - maybe three if I stretch it. "Da-da" is the obvious Daddy, and she also makes a "buh buh" noise when bubbles are around. Lately she also goes "Ooo Oooo" when she sees birds so, uh, yeah. I'm going to count that as three "words". Nice to see that she's following her sisters lead and not including MAMA in those first few words. Thanks girls ;)

She had a great month celebrating all sorts of birthdays in May and having lots of visitors - Nana and Pop-pop came to visit for Kaitlin's birthday and then Pahmoo and Grandpa were here for Lauren's birthday and baptism.

Food continues to be a big part of her day and it seems like dairy is no longer bothering her. She has no problem eating cheese ravioli and fruit/yogurt pouches. She also eats lots of food with dairy in them and has no problems. I've recently tried to introduce milk to her but she doesn't usually take more than one or two drinks. She makes the funniest face when she gets a big swig of milk and realizes it isn't water - and then she shakes her head "no". I can't tell if it's because the milk is usually cold from the fridge or if it's because she doesn't like the taste.

The biggest excitement over the past month is that Lauren ended up having to get tubes in her ears about a week before her birthday. She had another ear infection at her follow up ENT appointment and considering all that we have going on in the next month we decided it would be for the best. Apart from being super hangry the morning of her appointment (she couldn't eat after midnight and for a chunk-a-monk like her that was hard!!) she was a total rockstar. I'm hoping these are for the best and she won't have any more ear infections from now on!

Happy 1st Birthday, sweet baby Lauren <3