Transitions...

We had our 12 month check-up with Dr. Ben on Monday.  Ella's growth and development seems to be on track which is always a blessing to hear.  A finger prick and 4 shots later, I left with the doctor's office with a partially dressed (she wouldn't let me put her clothes back on) and very unhappy little girl.  I told Brent I'm signing him up for the next round of major shots because it was traumatic for me and her!  So 12 month stats look like this....

weight: 19lb 13.5 oz {50th percentile}, height 30 inches {75th percentile}, and head circumference {75th percentile}...that's down a little from the 85th percentile at  9 months so we are glad to see she is growing into her head a bit (not that we think it looks too big...just the percentile always made it seem on the larger side)!

So these transitions I speak of....well they are WHOLE milk instead of nutramigen formula and a sippy cup instead of bottle.  Ha.  Here's the positives...the organic whole milk we bought is $4.00 a gallon and will last a week.  A nutramigen can was $33 and lasted a week.  That's a savings of nearly $120.00 a month!!  Cha-ching!  Downside-- Ella is very bonded with the Nutramigen and will refuse the whole milk at times.  She will take the bottle, sip the milk, then throw it on the ground with disgust like..."You thought you were going to pull a fast one on me??  I don't think so."  Other times she's okay with it.  It's like a mixed bag.  The other inconvenient thing is the the whole milk has to be warmed now because she likes it at room temperature.  I feel like we've reverted back to the newborn days were everything had to be very specific!

But, the true THORN is the transition from bottle to sippy cup.  It stinks.  No other way around it.  Ella will drink water from a sippy cup, but if you offer her milk, she becomes irate.  This entails giving you a look like, "What the heck is this?" then HURLING it across the room (usually at you or your shins) and crying.  Yeah, it's not going so well.  We have tried three 4 brands of sippy cups and none of them will do when it comes to milk.  We keep trying and thinking she'll want a "big girl cup" soon...but it's not happening.  Ella has loved her bottle since the day she tried it.  It's her security blanket and something she is familiar with.  We'll just keep working at it, but wish us luck.  She gets really angry about the whole situation...yikes!!

Other than that things are going pretty well.  Ella has started to say Dada or DA when she wants or sees Brent, she says BA for Baxter, DUH for dolce, and will say MAMA when she's upset.  Notice the caps lock letters in the words-- she says the words very loud and with authority (thus denoted by the capital letters)!  She can point to and identify the Christmas tree, balloons, ball, Baxter, and Dolce.  Ella loves to read books and will often settle on the floor with a book and her favorite stuffed animals Mouse and Bunny.  She continues to love to play and spends her days playing with her birthday toys or bringing me the toys to play with her.  It's very sweet.  She's obsessed with the Wiggles DVD, "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing," and shakes her right leg while she watches it!!  Moms, I would recommend this particular DVD because it's musically theatrical and keeps her entertained time and time again.  Music and dancing are her favorite and we think she's going to be into the performing arts (early prediction...we know).

There is one little area that she's not showing a ton of motivation in and that's walking.  She darts around the room crawling at a lightning pace and is perfectly content with this form of mobility.  She loves to cruise around the furniture or cabinets holding on and and will even push the dining room chairs or small end tables around the room while "walking".  She can stand for 30 seconds to a minute...but really never tries to take any unassisted steps.  She doesn't appear to be interested.  I thought watching all the other kids walk around Mother's Morning Out would motivate her, but she doesn't seem ready.  She did take a couple of steps about a week ago to get from a chair to the couch.  She took the steps and realized what she had done and sat down immediately, like she was afraid or something.  I think she is terrified of getting hurt.  SO, we will continue to help her use her walking toys and encourage her to stand...but it will be a matter of when she is ready.  Maybe she'll walk in the next month or so?  We hope so!  Both Brent and I were walking by 1 so we were hoping she'd follow in suite...maybe soon!

We continue to enjoy every moment with Ella and can't BELIEVE how much she growing and changing.  It's like she's a little person now!  She can communicate with her sounds and facial expressions and we finally feel like she is telling us what she wants.  She's such a little sweetie.  We're hoping that the transitions with the sippy cup/milk continue to improve and that her disgusted response will subside sooner than later!!  Who know a 1 year old could get so mad??  I want to tell her to get use to it--In life you finally get use to something, then everything changes.  I never realize these lessons started so young.  But, she'll adapt!  In the mean time maybe we should wear shin pads to avoid getting hit with incoming sippy cups!!  Any suggestions on how to make the transition easier??