Valette is Growing

February 14, 2012

Sailor Girl Outfit

Valette is now ONE WHOLE YEAR OLD!!!

I still can't believe it. The time went so very fast. I know every parent says that, but it is so incredibly true.

Valette is now officially walking. She took her first step on January 7, 2012 and Eric and I weren't even there to see it.  She practiced practiced practiced and as of this past week she is walking basically full time. Until she falls down, of course. I have never seen her stand up independently in the middle of the room, so I don't think she has learned that. She just crawls to the nearest piece of furniture--or my leg--and pulls herself up. It probably won't be long before she suddenly does that too though.

She gets excited when her Daddy comes home. Such a big smile on her face and many "Hi Dada"s. This is a big deal because Valette was a Momma's girl almost exclusively until 9 months old. She now loves loves loves her Daddy. She reaches for him over me frequently.

He finally succeeded in teaching her to give kisses. Most of the times you ask she'll lean over and give you a big wet one on the cheek. Eric then branched this out to eating. If he is feeding her he will frequently withhold bites until she leans forward and gives him a kiss. Super cute.

She also started giving hugs. She holds my neck very tight. It's so tender. Sometimes I think she's saying "don't put me down" but other times I think she just likes to hold on tight. Valette also likes to pat you. Especially if she just woke up or has been around the house and it took her a while to find you. Sometimes she pats my back and sometimes she pats my collarbone. It's actually kind of possessive on her part.

She loves to play "pass the baby" too. She goes from person-to-person whenever we have visitors or while chatting with people at church, or sometimes between me and Eric over and over. One of her favorite games is to try and pry your lips open. She wants to get in people's mouths so badly, and sometimes up the nose too. I try to use this as a teaching game to name parts of the face, but I don't think she's getting that yet.

If our front door gets opened she bolts for it. She and Lexi will stand at the screen door and just watch what goes on in front of our house. She loves to go outside. I have been telling her for a couple months that when she learns to walk she can play outside, so now I am probably going to have to follow through with that. The day we took these photos I just wanted to document the outfit, [and how she wore this hat for TWO whole stores plus the ride home and only pulled it off once, not even complaining when I picked it up and put it right back on, a serious miracle] but Valette had a BLAST getting to roam around outside all she wanted.

Valette loves to wave. She mostly says hi but she is learning about waving for goodbye too. She smiles really big and says "Ha-ai" like it's two syllables. Eric and I decided that hi can go down in the books as her first word because she knows it is a greeting. It is currently the only word that she knows what it means. Unless you count "haha,"she laughs and says that at the appropriate time too, but I'm not sure if she knows it means funny. Da da is what she calls just about everything, except Lexi, she has some sound that ends in "-ee" that she says when looking at Lexi.

"Sounds" Valette knows/says:

go

hi

da da da

ma ma ma (finally)

ha ha ha

na na na

ba ba ba
doh

wee-oh wee-oh

shoo shoo shoo

ow! (like "out, Lexi")

gwee gwee gwee

sic sic sic (clicking her tongue)

geego geego (like giggle)

This is her newest sound. She sticks her tongue out and it is one of the cutest sounds ever. Eric took a video, please enjoy this adorableness:

She also did the tongue clicking and loved on her baby. So cute! In the past month or so Valette has really been interested in her baby dolls. She pushes them in the stroller, she shares her pacifier, she carries them all around the house. Also Eric asked her to wave bye to the camera, she wouldn't do it, but she looked straight at the front door. It's crazy how much they understand.

Another activity she loves right now is sharing. She gives the baby a love, then hands her to me to love on, then back to her, then over to daddy for a love. She also loves to do this with the toy phone she got for her birthday. (Thanks, Valayne.) She pushes the buttons and talks to it, then brings it to me. I can't just hold it though, it HAS to be up to my ear and I have to talk on it. I hand it back to her and she puts to her ear and says "ha-ai" then quickly gives it back to me for another round. This makes Valette smile so big. If I sit down on the couch, especially with a book, she will always bring me something we can pass back and forth.

She loves to point. She has been pointing and waving since about 10 months. I didn't teach her either of them, she she just started up one day. Grandma Julie calls this her "bossy finger." She wasn't accomplishing anything specific with the pointing, she just loved to do it. She also loves for you to point with her. Valette used to do "ET phone home" with our pointed fingers together, but now if you try to do that she smiles really big and grabs your finger and shakes it. In the last week she has started pointing to things she wants (usually food) and this has been really helpful to me.

See the pointing? She loves that.
Also in this photo you can see that she still has ZERO teeth. 12 1/2 months and still nothin. At her last Dr. appt he said there are 2 on the bottom that should break through the gums within 2 weeks, but it has been 3 weeks and there is no sign of teeth. She was a little cranky and I thought maybe it was a good sign for teething but now I'm not so sure.

She is mostly a good eater, she tries to have everything even though she has to gum it. Especially if it came from your plate. She loves "mommy and daddy food." Baby food and crackers are fine if that is the only thing out.