The Jensen Family's Little Viking Tales: My Baby is One!

Last week, Maddie turned one year old. That was the fastest year ever! I started a post in November about her being nine months old and growing so fast, but I was waiting for her nine month checkup so I could include her stats. She had the checkup, but I obviously didn't finish the post. So here are some stats from Maddie's nine and twelve month checkups, and lots and lots of photos to document the past few months. Slow down, little caboose, slow down!

Dec. 2014

At nine months, her head circumference was 17.5 inches, and at 12 months, it's 17.9 inches. Both those measurements put her in the 64th percentile. Our smallest headed baby, but still plenty of room for those big, smart brains! At nine months, she was 18.5 pounds (42%) and 28.35 inches tall (74%). She's growing, but seems to be growing taller, rather than thicker, which is fine! She's now 19.5 pounds (25%), and 29.72 inches (72%). A tall, skinny baby? Are you sure she's ours? Well, she's definitely ours, but not fitting the usual mold. Maybe Utah babies grow a little slower than Vegas babies. Ha ha. We are glad that she is happy and healthy.

Maddie is the only baby I've been able to breastfeed for a whole year. Maybe that's why she's a little smaller... she's not chugging down bottles of formula. She is slowly starting to take bottles of whole milk, although it isn't something she seems to crave. She likes coconut milk, but when I told the doctor I was giving her that, he said the amount of protein in coconut milk isn't very high, so she really needs to have the whole milk. I've been mixing a little coconut milk into the whole milk, and that helps a bit. Something is going to have to work, because the more teeth she gets, the less I want to nurse! She also still wakes up some nights and I nurse her back to sleep, but hopefully, she'll start filling up on regular milk before bed and start sleeping through the night. This tired old mama needs her sleep at night! All the other kids were sleeping through the night much earlier than this little girl. Come on, Maddie, you can do it!

She has been standing up on her own since she was eight months old. We thought she'd be walking earlier than any of our other kids, but she took her time taking a step. The week before she turned one, she finally started taking a step or two. She's getting more and more confident, and traveling longer distances on her feet now. She's still more comfortable crawling, but improving the walking skills each day. She loves to crawl up the stairs on her own, and often finds her way up to Mormor in the evenings when we're trying to get the other kids to bed. She loves to root through the pantry and other cupboards, and she is a good little climber and dancer. She likes to eat big people food, and she likes to take baths. She loves to be outside, and with this unseasonably warm weather, we've been out in the backyard on the swings and the trampoline. She likes playing with the big kids, and pretty soon, she'll be running right along side of them!

We celebrated her birthday with the Haws family on the Sunday before she turned one. She got to attack and enjoy her own chocolate cupcake. Then on her actual birthday, we got a little cake from Schmidt's Bakery for her. Soren was mad when we let Maddie make a mess of the cake because he was afraid she was going to eat it all and he wouldn't get any. He was so relieved when I took the cake from her and cut it into pieces for everyone! The kids enjoyed helping Maddie open her presents. She is such a fun little baby, and we're glad she's one of us. Hard to believe we're exiting the baby stage and getting fully into toddler-hood!