State of the Baby: One Year Old

Ruby is one year old! Here are some things about her:

• She is suffering through her first serious cold. We were worried about her coughing and thought about taking her to the doctor, but then we looked in a few reference books and found that her symptoms are normal and don’t warrant a doctor visit. All the same, she’s coughy and snotty and tireder than usual. This means we get more cuddling than usual, which is the silver lining.
• She has said the following words/phrases (in context): mama, papa, up, down, light, shoes, gargoyle (long story), all done. She also has a very large vocabulary of gibberish that uses many vowels and consonants, and can often be heard talking to herself.
• She regularly uses these signs: all done, water, up. She has also taken our gesture for “come here” and made it into a sign that can mean “come here” or “give me that”. She claps, waves, nods, and points as well.
• She is not afraid of heights and loves to climb up on big-kid playground equipment.
• She giggles delightedly if you toss her, face-first, onto pillows.
• She likes to climb, and often climbs into her toybox, her wagon, and a low bookshelf (that usually holds her stuffed animals). Going up and down stairs are a piece of cake by now. She also really enjoys climbing on some cardboard boxes we put in her playroom for just that reason.
• She seems to have especially acute hearing and will pick up her head for any unusual sound. The microwave and telephone always cause her to react (usually by looking up and saying something we don’t understand).
• She often has a minor rash on her cheeks that looks like acne. We think she must be allergic to something but haven’t figured it out yet.
• One of her favorite places to play is near the front door where we keep our shoes. She loves to take the shoes off the shelf and strew them across the floor.
• She isn’t crazy about grass, and when forced to touch it (with hands or feet), she recoils in disgust. We hope to get her used to grass very soon, when the weather improves.
• She still uses her soother, especially for bedtime, but we’re working on minimizing the non-sleep times that she has it.
• We have weaned her off mid-day breastmilk for the most part. She still nurses before bed and in the morning.
• She can stand up without holding on to anything if she is a little distracted. As soon as she realizes what she’s doing, she’ll sit down.
• She has one nap every day, in the afternoon. It usually lasts at least an hour and a half. Her bedtime is around 8pm, and she wakes up between 6 and 7am.
• She eats oatmeal with banana every morning for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, she usually feeds herself diced food such as cheese, chicken, fruit, Cheerios, or sweet potatoes.