1 Year

Happy Birthday, Lark Elizabeth! That may have been the fastest year of my life ever!

Likes: 

Sneaking in her sister's room
Climbing
Eating any food at all, anything you'll give her
The dog's water bowl
Playing with all her new Christmas and birthday toys
Kisses from the dogs
He wearable blanket and her heated teddy bear
Eating anything she can off the ground

Dislikes:
Being cold at night
Having her face wiped
Taking medicine
No one paying attention to her (unless its when the dog bowl is unattended!)
An empty food plate
Dad walking out of the room
Not being allowed to climb on things/up the stairs

Schedule:
Half of the month was pretty normal- wake ups happen between 6 and 6:30 AM. We eat breakfast and she's off to daycare for ANOTHER breakfast. I know they are trying to get her down to just one nap, but often it doesn't happen. Usually there's two naps instead of one during the day. Lunch and afternoon naps, home by 5:30, dinner, bath time, bedtime at 7. She's usually awake for a snuggle and a snack sometime between 11 and 1. We've noticed that most of the time when this happens this month, its because she is cold. We introduced the wearable blanket and also have been microwaving her teddy bear (it is a special toy made for that!) and it really does seem to help with sleep. On the weekends, we're still a mad house.

I wrote the above paragraph about half way through the month.... and then the sickness hit us all. Not only was it Christmas and we had TONS of visitors in and out, but we all got some kind of cold- Lark's morphing into an ear infection. I haven't slept for four hours straight in weeks. We are aboard a struggle bus.

I do have hope that as she transitions to one nap a day at daycare and here at home that we will find better luck at night. 

Features:

I can't believe there were 35 years of my life where I didn't know what her face looked like. At out most recent doctor's visit, she was just over 22 lbs and a little more than 30 inches tall- above the average for her age and gender. Her brown hair has the exact same cowlicks as her dad's does and she has his big dimples. Everything else is all me, though. He lighter brown eyes, the big fluffy eyebrows. I see much more of myself in Lark, although her disposition is much sweeter. She loves to say words over and over and has the sweetest little voice. I think she is going to have an outtie belly button! She's still a thumb sucker and the little gap between her front two teeth always do me in. She is perfection.

Milestones:

Standing unassisted for several seconds
Primarily solid foods
First Ear infection
Can say "bye bye" and wave, clap, say mama and dada

Firsts:

Meeting Santa

Christmas
Ear infection/antibiotics
BIRTHDAY PARTY :)
New year's eve

Challenges:

Sleep. This is the constant refrain for our girls this year. Neither are doing a great job of sleeping through the night and this last month was no exception. For the last two weeks at minimum, we have had to divide and conquer, Daniel getting one kid, me getting the other in the middle of the night. On top of the financial struggles of being a single income household, this is pretty defeating and makes every moment kind of colored with frustration/exhaustion. I am sure it will be temporary and both kids will eventually sleep.... eventually.

Along with the lack of sleep (or maybe in tandem with), it was a weird Christmas. I can't really say much more than that, but I hope next year is a bit better. 

Thoughts: 

With that, I have a toddler and a big kid. Frankie turns 4 at the end of the month and its like a brand new chapter has begun. I am mourning some of the things... the rocking to sleep at night and letting us hold her without struggling to get away, the easy bottles rather than the full meals for two kids we now put together. I thought that I would be more devastated, but I am not. Something about Lark's personality and watching her and Frankie begin to play together for a few moments a day.... instead of looking back with sadness on the end of my last "baby", I am looking forward with excitement to know who Lark is.