One Year Come and Gone

I still can’t believe our little girl is one year old already. What a year it has been! When I think about the past year I marvel at how different Sarah’s first year has been as compared to most other babies.

She:
-Went camping twice before she was three months old
-Moved across Canada
-Has been on seven different flights (not including changing planes)
-Went on a Caribbean cruise out of Florida
-Played in the water off Belize, Grand Caymen Island and Roatan Honduras
-Has been to numerous tourist attractions in the Niagara area

And those are just the big things that come to mind. She enjoys going out and being where people are or where there are things to see. A trip to the zoo, mall, park, grocery store, etc are all great activities. She also loves being with other babies and little people. Sarah loves interacting with the other babies at our moms and babies group and in our church life group. She also enjoys being in the church nursery. It is such a relief for us to be able to leave her in the nursery and know that she’s happy. It wasn’t always like that but we’re glad that we persisted in bringing her each week. When Sarah was born a couple of friends that have older kids recommended bringing Sarah to the nursery early on otherwise it becomes very difficult and often doesn’t work. We’re so glad we took the advice. It feels great to know that Sarah doesn’t have attachment issues and can be taken care of by others. It also means for a more enjoyable service for us.

Sarah is a very independent girl. She likes it when we play with her; however, she is content to play alone for long periods of time. She loves to fill her box with Little People and small objects, take them out and then fill up the box again. She loves playing with Keisha as well as her new car. She can get to where she wants to go (not walking on her own yet but can move about easily). She remains a very busy girl, always into something.

We love how interactive she is and is becoming. She nods or shakes her head often when asked something. She likes shrugging her shoulders but not really to convey meaning, I think it just feels good. She says mom, dad(dy), Keisha and hi. She likes to wave hi and bye but often her hand is backwards (kind of funny). She also shows that she understands the meaning of the words. When we were in the mall the other day and store workers said hi or bye to her she would often wave to them. So cute!

She’s constantly watching us and trying to mimic what we do. When I took her to the doctor for her 1 year check up the doctor started tapping the desk with his hand, Sarah looked at him and his hand and then did the same thing. She’s almost got the hang of blowing kisses, but for now it mostly looks like she’s playing Indian (another fun thing to do).

Sarah is quite petite. I’m glad about his since it means that we get more use out of her clothes and she isn’t a huge weight to carry around (still heavy enough for me though). She only gained a few ounces since her 9 month appointment, making her 20.5 lbs (49th Percentiles). She's 76 cm in lengh (83rd Percentile) and has a head measurement of 44 cm (just 24th percentile).

So the one year mark has come and gone. I was reading over parts of the journal that I wrote in the first 5 months. It’s amazing how far we’ve all come! It’s been a wonderful year! What an incredible blessing and joy our precious little girl has been to us!