.:Remi - Twelve Months - 1 Year:.

It's official! We have another toddler! Although there is no 'toddling' going on around these parts quite yet!

This past year feels like a blur, but at the same time, I find myself in disbelief that it's only been a year. I can't really remember very well our family without Remi a part of it!

To celebrate turning one, Remi came down with a lovely cold on the day of her party. I was worried this was going to throw her way off for the festivities, but she was a champ and stayed super happy all day long.

As I said before, there is no 'toddling' happening over here. Remi is turning into quite the speed crawler, though. I love watching her get excited and go so fast. She also loves to pull up to anything and everything! Now that she's got that figured out, she is always standing. I think she is loving the new freedom that she gets from being able to explore more things. We try to get her to walk, holding our hands, but she just locks her knees and does a very Frankenstein-esque walk. She is starting to figure out how to cruise a little bit, so I think once she gets more proficient in that, she'll be more comfortable trying to walk with our help. I'd just like her to be walking by the summer so I don't have to deal with messy crawling knees all summer long! We'll see what happens!

Remi and Reece are just turning into the best of buddies. Remi happily follows Reece around the house, and they play with toys together. It really is so sweet, and I just hope they are always friends. They crack me up in the car a lot of the time; one of them will start giggling, which gets the other one going, and then it's all over from there! They try to out-do each other with how loud they can be, and it's just hilarious.

Remi is an absolute super star when it comes to eating! This gal will eat just about anything you put in front of her. She really enjoys her food and feeding herself. She just eats whatever we are eating, and it's the best! Remi is also now taking a sippy cup! She just decided one day that she was going to do it, and now she does. I am so grateful that being persistent with it paid off, I was getting a little worried. She has started to love apple juice. I don't want her to only want juice, so I try to water it down pretty well. I don't mind her drinking juice, but I've got to get her drinking more milk! We've been giving her some whole milk since we've been down to just nursing in the morning and the evening. She will drink a little bit, but doesn't drink a lot at one time. I think that will probably change once we start dropping those last two nursing feedings. I'll be dropping the morning one this week, and then hopefully the evening one next week. I'm sure she'll transition over easily!

Remi still only has eight teeth. Her two eye teeth have been right close to the surface for over a month now, but still haven't broken through. Her hands have been in her mouth constantly lately, and drool is abundant these days, so I'm pretty sure either those are going to finally come in, or maybe she's working on some molars or something.

Remi still doesn't say anything resembling a word. She squeals and sighs a lot, and the closest thing to a word is saying, "Mmmmmm" when she's eating something yummy. She doesn't even really do consonant sounds. I'm not sure if I should be worried or not, but I'll bring it up at her one year checkup. She has learned the sign for "all done" and is starting to understand the sign for "more". It's so cute when she does "all done" - she just raises her hands up in the hair and flicks her wrists down. I love it!

Remi is also down to one nap a day on most day. She was taking awesome morning naps, but then really struggling to take a good afternoon nap. So I decided to try out having her on one nap, and so far, it's gone pretty well! I love having my mornings free again!

Remi is just such a joy and blessing in our family. She has such a sweet spirit, and I love her fiery red hair. She loves to make cheeseball faces at us, and I don't think it will ever get old! I'm so grateful we were blessed with this beautiful babe!

At one year old, Remi likes:

- eating: mandarin oranges, bread, raisins, yogurt melts, strawberries, green beans

- smiling

- laughing

- being cheesey!

- brushing her teeth

- standing and pulling up to things

- crawling

- squealing

- peek-a-boo

- apple juice

- having back/neck tickled

- being sung to

- light up seahorse

- balls

- pulling down dish towels and dvd's

- throwing things on wood floor to hear sounds

- throwing/dropping things

- Reece!

- looking at herself in the mirror

- balloons

- clapping

At one year, Remi does not like:

- diaper changes (they are like having a wrestling match!)

- getting face/nose wiped

- being left alone

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!