Spots

I forgot to update after Livia's 1 year appointment. She is 30.5 inches tall (83%), weighs 21 pounds and 14 ounces (53%) and her baby noggin is in the 83% (not a surprise). The doctor said she's absolutely healthy and also told us the best thing we can do for her is to read to her, which we do several times a day so we're feeling like great parents :)

Unfortunately (and fortunately, depending on how you look at it) she had to get four shots and one was the chicken pox vaccine. She did really well the first 7 - 10 days after the shots because these were delayed-reaction vaccines; one possible side effect is a bit of a rash...well, call the FDA adverse reaction hotline because she looks like she has the chicken pox (you can kind of see them on her tummy in the picture). Luckily it's mostly on her tummy and back but a few cropped up on her face this afternoon. Mercifully they don't seem to bother her at all but we did buy baby benadryl today just in case. Poor little cheetah baby with her spots. I'll have to make the disclaimer at her next KinderMusik class so we don't make other moms worry.

On the bright side: it was really warm today in the house thanks to the sun so Livia got to wear her cute special cupcake birthday shirt.

A Girl and Her Chair

Daddys aren't the only ones who have special chairs.

Fourteen

When Livia's cousins were in town for her birthday weekend we went to the awesome toy store that's in downtown Lawrence. It's an old-school store and it's really big for an independent toy store. They have toys out to play with for kids of all ages - Livia likes to stand at the play tables and play with the magnetic toys (don't tell her but Santa might have them on his list) and makes her motorboat noises. Well, Carson and Reece were told they could pick something out. Reece picked out and held about 15 different toys and finally decided on a few little bouncey balls. Carson picked out Aunt Lindsay's least favorite thing: a huge plastic snake (very similar to the one his dad used to scare Aunt Lindsay in Colorado a long time ago). The snake has been christened "Fourteen". Unfortunately Livia took a shine to Fourteen and I'm so glad he lives in Garden City.

The little frog

Livia has show much more interest in walking lately. She stands up on her own and in case you're around she expects a party when she does it; it's pretty funny because she stands there and waits for you to clap and tell her what a big girl she is. Once she's on her feet she hops - hops back a couple of times then throws herself back on her baby bottom and giggles for about ten minutes. A couple of times she has taken a few steps rather than hop. The first time she did it was at KinderMusik where she had an audience of 10 to clap for her and she just laughed her head off the whole time. Tonight she would stand up, squat down and then do a little frog jump. She was very proud of herself (there is no way this child should ever develop self-esteem issues!). She now wants to walk up the steps holding your hand instead of crawling up so it takes a few minutes to get to the top now but it's a great work-out for Mommy and it totally tires her out.

She's just at such a fun age where everything is hilarious, she dances (usually the Twist) to any and all music and just chatters. Tomorrow she has her one year check-up so I wanted to write down how happy she usually is before she's miserable for three-four days after her shots.

These pictures are from early October. And no, I don't know when she started sticking her tongue out like Michael Jordan when she's playing hard but that's pretty much gone now since she clicks her tongue instead. Everyday it's something new and it's so much fun!