Monaloca

wow, a year ago i was mid-way through labor and about to meet my little girl for the first time. i used to think that not much happened in a child’s first year. needless to say, i was wrong. i’m still in absolute awe at how much i’ve enjoyed every second (ok, nearly every second) of life with melina and our family. the magic and the milestone of her first birthday mean so much to us and so little to her, though it’s fun to think how this day will grow in significance for her in just a few short years.

on the morning of her very first birthday, my monthly “what’s melina doing now?” update.

move. meli’s on the move more than ever. her latest trick is standing hands-free for up to 20 or so seconds. this morning i saw her let go briefly to sorta slide to another piece of furniture. first steps towards taking a step, i suppose! the other day i caught her flipping through a board book next to her toy chest, completely hands-free. when she saw me looking she smiled, realized what she was doing, and promptly fell to her butt.

in portugal she started cruising (walking while holding onto furniture) and learned to use her stroller as a walker. back at home she pushes kai’s toy shopping cart all over the house every chance she gets. she can even turn corners with it now, and can manoeuvre it around so that she can walk back and forth over and over and over again. on our return we’ve also had to bring a whole new level of baby-proofing to our house. she is very curious and even more determined. she yanked open our baby-proofed door to the kitchen trash our first day back – so much for baby latches. she crawls incredibly fast and follows us all over the house. if i want her to come into a different room i just call her name and she does – sometimes with a stuffed animal or stray shoe in tow.

play. everything is a game these days, including newfound skills like following simple directions or mimicking what we do. her favorite trick is to put her lid back on her sippy cup, after which she expects applauds. she’ll guess which closed hand holds a treasure if she sees you put it in. she tries to comb her own hair and put her shoes on her feet. doesn’t get close to succeeding with either but the attempt is insanely cute. when she hears music of any sort – even her daddy’s iphone ring – she starts to dance. not sure if this is mimicking or just her natural inclination to boogie down.

my favorite development is that she no longer immediately puts everything in her mouth, but is now more interested in playing (or ripping or crumpling it, if “it” is paper) first. she likes putting things in and out of containers and loves anything that rattles or makes noise. she still loves her little blankies but now has added stuffed animals to her entourage. her favorite seems to be the only that kai ever liked, a little lamb he aptly named “chopeater” when he was three. (not sure he gets the irony even now.) luckily he doesn’t mind sharing with his little sis.

talk. melina now has a vocabulary of about a half dozen distinct words, most within the last couple weeks. cat was her first a few months back, along with ba ba (bye bye). she’s now added dog (hmmm, we don’t even have one), up, down, ball, and once repeated ni ni (night night) back to my dad. still working on distinct mama and dada calls, but she says hi da quite a bit. it’s kinda like her happy, look at this! sound. of course she babbles incessently, but apparently not at daycare. too busy exploring, her teachers say.

eat. in portugal pretty much all limits went out the window. meli feasted in stewed kid, grilled ham and cheese (“tosta mista”), sampled custard pies and enjoyed fish or pork on a nightly basis. by the time we got back joey was feeding her his beloved portuguese sausage, and she loved it, spice and all. can’t say we’ll make this a habit. she’ll be able to eat even more efficiently very soon: at least two top teeth broke through just days ago. we’re waiting to see if four arrive at once!

she’s still a lover of protein and fruit above all else, along with yogurt. not a big fan of green veggies or green fruit (kiwi at least, haven’t tried green melon). i’m sure this will change. we’re starting on cow’s milk this week and i’m dumping the pump for daytime bottles at daycare. weekend and night weaning will come later, probably in that order. wish us luck. i’m honestly not sure which of us will miss breastfeeding more, it’s such a wonderful, intimate bonding experience and i’ll be sad to see it go. and in portugal meli stepped up her feedings quite a bit – she does love her food, in all forms. it might take a while to cut that final, semi-literal cord between this mama and what little is left of the baby in her little girl.

happy birthday, jelly bean!

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