12 months come and gone!

I can't believe Maeve has been here with us in this world for as long as she has now! In some ways it seems like just yesterday she was born, we blinked, and then she turned 1. It's not even fair that my big baby is becoming a little toddler. She used to look so big to me, but now that she stands on her own and is walking some, I look at her and she just seems so little to be able to do that stuff! Perspective really does change everything. Anyway, 12 months have come and gone and here's pics from our photoshoot to prove it.

Immediately messing with the sticker of course

This picture literally kills me. So serious.

Just seriously relaxing over here.

This is her saying "ohhh!"

"Here mom! Butt paste solves everything!"

Flirting

That is a seriously seductive look right there. 1 going on 18.

That smile peaking through kills me!

That silly face!

Aaaand she discovered it.

I'm surprised the headband stayed on as long as it did honestly. This was bound to happen!

"Thank goodness! Why does she put these dumb things on my head!"

Now for some details on what this busy little lady has been up to from 11 to 12 months (or really, now, which is basically 13 months):

1. Probably one of the funniest new developments is that Maeve will pretend to be dead, or at least that's what it seems like she's doing. She'll just be sitting there playing and then all the sudden throw herself flat on her belly and extend her legs and just lay there for a minute. After it happened once I just laughed and then the next time I saw her do it I said "okay night night!" and she laughed and then did it again. And now it's a little game she plays multiple times a day. It literally kills me. Here's a video of her doing it, as well as playing hide and seek. Don't mind the little butt thrust at the end, ha!

2. I'm trying to remember the first time she really took some steps. I know towards the end of my time in Kentucky in mid April she was starting to stand on her own and I think probably a week before she turned 1 was when she took like 7 steps on her own for the first time! Before then she'd only taken a couple of steps here and there so this seemed big! We didn't see much after that but then on Sunday May 15th she took another 7 steps a few times in a row. I thought she finally might be getting her groove but then we went through another lull. She definitely started to become more and more steady though standing on her own and even maneuvering things while standing. Finally on May 27th, she really committed and I got three videos of her walking! Since then, she is walking more and more but still falls a lot and when she does just converts right back to crawling. Hopefully soon she'll be exclusively walking! Here are two of the videos. 

3. A few times she has planted her head on the ground like she's doing a headstand but still has her feet planted on the ground and her booty straight up in the air. It is so dang funny! Silly girl. 

4. I swear that she says "yeah" and "oh" now - whenever I ask her yes/no questions she always responds with what sounds to me like her version of "yeah" and I think she really is agreeing. And then whenever she hears unusual sounds or whenever she hears that I've gotten texts or other notifications on my phone she gets excited and goes "ohh! ohh!" Girl after my own heart!

5. I've been weaning her from breastfeeding basically ever since she turned one. I would have probably gone a little longer but she had bit me slightly on one nipple and I guess it made it raw enough that it literally felt like a knife was cutting into me every time she would nurse on that side. After a couple weeks of it not getting better, I just could not take it anymore, so that's when the weaning process started. I cut out a feeding week by week and I now just nurse at night before she goes to bed. I probably could already have cut out this final feeding, but the pain went away and I'm having a hard time fully saying goodbye to nursing. It's definitely bittersweet. We have both enjoyed it for sure, but I do think she's ready so we'll probably call it quits after I get back from our trip to Duck. Given that we've been weaning, she's been getting more and more used to her sippy cup. It took trying a handful of different cups but I think we've finally settled on the one that is easiest for her to use and she's finally getting a better hang of it after a rough start. She seems to like rice milk and soy milk mixed together the most! 

6. Girlfriend poops 3 to 4 times a day. A couple weeks ago it started to hit me that that was getting super consistent. She will consistently poop after each meal now. It's kinda crazy but I googled it, and apparently up to 4 poops a day is still considered normal. Just my luck to get an extra poopy girl!

7. She loves to dance now! She is always moving her legs up and down and when we say "oh yeah, are you dancing!?" she gets excited and keeps doing it. It's so cute.

8. I may have mentioned this in the 11 month post, but just after she hit 11 months, she officially would not keep a headband on her head at all. So we've been going headbandless for some time now. It makes me sad, but there's pretty much nothing I can do about it!

9. She is SO stinking chatty, like literally is babbling all day long. This video is pretty good evidence of that. I love all the different sounds she makes, they crack me up. Such an animated little girl full of personality. 

10. The combination of Maeve and food is never good. You let her control anything and a huge mess is going to ensue. For example, she loves to "eat" her peanut butter bread, which I'll put on her tray and leave her to eat while I get something done. On a few occasions I have come back to see her tray empty and her looking all proud! But then I see her bread strewn all over the floor. Like literally, she must throw it because it will make it as far as our bookshelves sometimes. Someone's got an arm!! I swear sometimes she throws every single piece without even eating any. One time she managed to pull a loaf of bread off our kitchen table and I came back to see all the bread dumped out around her, every last piece! Another time she got a hold of a bag of chips, somehow with me right there, and yet I still wasn't able to get it away from her fast enough before all the chips were dumped out onto the floor. She's always ready to create a disaster! 

11. She is obsessed with opening the bottom drawer in our kitchen by the fridge. Every day she is messing with the stuff in that drawer and taking it out and throwing it on the kitchen floor. And of course the way the drawer is designed none of the child locks work on it. Oy! That little body in these pictures below is killing me. She's so little just standing there. 

She also loves to open her drawers to her dresser in her room and pull every last article of clothing and diaper out of them if I let her. She even got to her old binkies recently and literally played with them, examined them, and took them in and out of the drawer over and over for 10 minutes before she attempted to put one in her mouth. I was so surprised it took her that long! 

12. Little lady HATES her diaper and clothing changes with a passion again, but yet she will totally cooperate when I want to put shoes on her. A few times now not only has she sit still, but she will also lift each foot one at a time for me when she can see I'm ready. It seriously kills me! So cute, but why can't she be the same way with the diaper and clothes??? #Bipolar 

13. I've discovered that she loves anything that drapes over her. If I'm using our blanket and it drapes off of the couch, she will just lay still underneath it (she probably loves how soft it is). She also was laying underneath me the same the way when I was wearing my extra flowy maxi skirt and it was draping over her. It's so funny to see because she's usually so busy and will rarely just lay still anywhere! Another funny thing she does with the blanket is bury her face in it. And sometimes she'll bury her face into me and I'll squeeze her and then she'll proceed to do it 20 more times. And with force too (her throwing her face into my chest can kinda hurt)!

14. She loves to take things out of their normal spots and put them where they don't belong. Like the day I found the trash from the trash can in the bathroom thrown into the tub and then I found a pair of my underwear in the kitchen trash can. She got a little mixed up! We have a candle in our bedroom on my bedside table and she has discovered that her play mcdonalds fries fit perfectly on top of the candle and you can still manage to put the lid back on the candle. So naturally, it's where they belong now. I agree Maeve, I agree. 

Alright, enough is enough. I could babble all day long about all the new silly and funny things that this girl of ours is doing, but I think I've covered the best ones. We sure love how she's changing, growing, and learning all sorts of funny things. Happy 12 months of Maeve!