1 year update

The development that occurs around the one-year-mark is crazy.  There's so much.  Walking, the different foods, the increase in eating, talking, the personality that starts showing.  Ella has grown so much just in the past two months that I had to document it.  So here we go.

Walking.  She started walking at just over a year old and hasn't stopped.  When she discovered how to use her legs, she completely ditched crawling (and seems to be well on her way to running).  She's pretty good at holding our hands, but babies will be babies, she will often go in the direction she wants to go.  We have certainly entered the "always running" phase of parenthood.

Eating.  Eating has been a breeze lately, and I couldn't be happier or more thankful.  Currently, she eats what we eat.  Lasagna rolls, veggie stir fry, sausage, tacos.  She tries new foods and often likes them.  Her current favorite food?  Bananas.  I swear she'd eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if she could.  I want to incorporate and teach moderation from a young age, so I've started to give her a little dessert after a well-eaten meal.  A couple recent faves have been strawberries with angel food cake and an Oreo. My philosophy on food is pretty much eat healthy throughout the day, and never skip dessert. Those baby pouches are still in her diet, but if I'm being perfectly honest, they're purely for convenience.  If we're going out, we will grab one in case she gets hungry.  Ella likes them, and it's a serving of veggies, right? Though she has Happy Belly snacks still, she also has more grown-up snacks like fruit and raisins.

Play.  My two best friends really know how to buy Ella gifts.  For her birthday, she got a kiddie slide and bouncy ball and they are her favorite things.  On most mornings, we'll get her dressed and she'll waddle on over to her slide.  She can make it up the first couple steps, but her tiny-human legs won't yet allow her to tackle all three steps on her own.  She's gotten brave enough where she goes down the slide without holding our hands (and promptly claps after each time she rides).

My current favorite thing she does is she will often walk up to me and stick up her arm signally for me to hold her hand.  Sometimes, if we're at home, we just make a lap or two together.  It's the sweetest. She loves to dance, run around with dish towels on her head, and watch the laundry in the washer.  I can't believe she'll be 14 months on the 21st!  Time has flown by in the best sort of way.