The Joys of Being One

Lilly had her one-year checkup on Monday.  She weighed in at a whopping 20 pounds, 1 ounce and she is 29 inches tall.  That means that this year, she has gained a little over 13 pounds and she has grown 9 inches!  Her doctor, Dr. Brown, is fantastic.  He’s an older man who has years of experience in pediatrics.  He’s practical and doesn’t believe any of the latest trends.  He only gives a baby medication when he believes it is absolutely necessary.  He has hundreds of stories and I always leave his office feeling that I am doing the right things as a mother.  I’ve found that it is extremely rare for people to complement mothers.  Most people question other mothers and how they are raising their children and as a result, over the past 13 months, there have been many times when I have wondered whether I was doing the right thing.  As time goes by, I ask myself that less and less as I see that Lilly is a happy little girl and that Jim, Lilly and I have so much fun together and love our little family, so we must be doing something right!

Lilly was great during her check up.  She babbled away to Dr. Brown, tried to take his stethoscope, and pushed all the chairs around to the opposite sides of the room.  She was fine during her shots too.  She got 3 shots, cried after the third one, and then I took her over to wave at the fish and she was happy again.  She was even fine when the nurse pricked her toe to take blood.  Lilly was pointing at the paintings on the wall and babbling away while the nurse took an eternity taking the blood.  She drew the line, however, when the nurse put a band-aid on her toe when she was finished.  Lilly gave that nurse one of the dirtiest looks I’ve seen her give someone.  She was furious and was not afraid to show it.  She proceeded to put her toe in her mouth, used her teeth to pull off the band-aid, and then was as happy as could be again.  She did exactly the same thing with the band-aid on her finger; so if you want to stay on Lilly’s good side, don’t put band-aids on her.  When we left, she was blowing kisses at the nurses and waving to the fish.  All in all, not such a bad appointment.

Dr. Brown said that I may be noticing some new, maybe even defiant, behaviors in Lilly as a one-year-old, and boy, did he hit the nail on the head.  In addition to the toilet episode, which took place last week, I have witnessed a few other “new behaviors.”  The other day, I put Lilly down for her afternoon nap.  She often plays before she falls asleep but this particular afternoon, she played for an hour and showed no signs of falling asleep.  I went in to check on her and this is what I found:

I looked away and smiled.  Every single blanket, stuffed animal and book thrown out and in a pile on the ground.  I wondered how she managed to get her huge quilt out of crib by herself, and what must have been going through her head for the past hour when she was doing this.  And then, I decided that it wasn’t worth pursuing this nap any more.  It was a gorgeous day so we spent the afternoon outside instead. 

Walking and waving!

Lilly continues to help with day-to-day things like doing the laundry, unpacking the dishwasher and vacuuming.  When I am moving the washing over from the washing machine to the dryer, Lilly stands there taking each piece of laundry from me and putting it in the dryer.  She’ll often take everything out of the dryer and then put everything back in.  She does this with her closet too.  She has learned how to open her closet and pull all her clothes out.  She’ll put them back in, but only after shaking them to make sure they’re completely unfolded first.  I can’t begin to count the number of time I have re-folded her clothes.

One of my favorite “new behaviors” is Lilly’s interest in whatever we’re eating.  The second Jim or I put something in our mouths, Lilly toddles over and stands as close as she can to us, and just stares.  If we don’t get the hint that she wants some,  she stands there going “mmmmmmm” which is what she says when she likes something that she’s eaten (something else she learned from visiting Grandma and Grandpa in DC).  It’s pretty cute, and inevitably, Jim and I give in to the “mmmmmmm”s and give Lilly a bit of what we’re eating. 

Jim and I have the best time watching Lilly.  We’re just waiting for the day when her constant babbling turns into a stream of words, and then we’re really in trouble!