Our little Jovi turned one just over a week ago on the 18th. I can not believe that she is already ONE! You always hear that time seems to go faster with each child, and it is so true... this was the first time that a birthday actually caught me by surprise. I look at Jovi and think, You can't be one... you're still a BABY! You're too little to be that old! But despite my incessant denial, the big day came and went all the same, and I am now the proud mother of a 3, 2 and 1 year old (and will be for 3 months!) I am so happy to be able to watch Jovi grow and reach new milestones, and I love every stage that our girls are in, but I am also so sad that we no longer have a little baby in our home at this time!
We decided to postpone Jovi's "official" birthday party a couple weeks for when more of our friends and family could be in town (so I will be posting that hopefully next week), but a sweet friend of mine and her husband were so kind and brought over a cake for Jovi's birthday in exchange for watching their little boy, so we were able to have a small family party on Jovi's actual birthday... doesn't that cake look amazing? It was absolutely delicious! Jovi is one lucky little girl!
Singing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl:
Enjoyiong some scrumptious birthday cake:
It was a peaches and cream cake with actual slices of peaches inbetween the layers! It was so moist and sooo good:
The next day, I took Jovi to get her birthday pictures. Bless her heart, the girl that was taking her pictures was so sweet and was actually, really great with kids, you could tell, but Jovi mostly just sat there staring at her with the most blank look on her face! The fact that she was able to get so many cute pictures where Jovi actually appeared to be smiling (well, sort of) in the very small amount of time she had shows how good she was.
Looking up at her mama!
About as close as we get to a smile!
My all-time favorite! I just love that look on her face!
About Jovi at ONE YEAR OLD:
height: 28.63 in.- 28.42%
weight: 18 lbs. 4 oz.- 25.94% (up from 5.33% at 9 months!)
head circumference:17.5 cm.- 36.77%
•After some serious alarm when at Jovi's 9 month check up we discovered that not only had she not gained any weight, but she had actually lost weight since her 6 month check up, we tried several strategies to help Jovi gain weight which included increasing solids as well as eventually weaning her and starting her on formula just after 10 months, I let out a sigh of relief at her appointment earlier this week when my pediatrician said how very, very happy she was with Jovi's recent weight gain.
•She now has three teeth: her two bottom center and her top left tooth. So far, she is definitely our latest teether, which makes for super-cute Jack-o-lantern looking smiles, but has made finding foods that she can easily eat a little more challenging.
•She loves to eat bananas (and will not be satisfied with eating ANYthing else if there is one in sight!), applesauce (now sometimes mixed with peanut butter), Mommy's oatmeal, mashed avocado with (lard-free) refried beans, bread, mashed potatoes (which we unfortunately do not have very often. Unfortunate because she seriously loves the stuff), cut-up whole wheat pasta (only with sauce), birthday cake and GREEN SMOOTHIES- she will always drain at least an entire sippy cup full of smoothie in a single sitting which I am so grateful for because I can pack our smoothies full of things (especially raw veggies) that she normally would not be able to eat, such as: spinnach, kale, carrots, cucumbers, pineapple, oranges, mangos, peaches, kiwis, berries, grapes, etc. and I feel so good knowing that she is getting all of those awesome calories and nutrients!
•She has been crawling for about 5 months, pulling herself up to standing for about 3 months, and started cruising along furniture shortly thereafter. She can easily "transfer" from one piece of furniture to another (taking several steps in between) and will now (1 week after turning one) take up to 10 steps away from whatever she was holding onto before losing her balance. She will be a full-time walker in a matter of weeks!
•Her favorite form of verbal communication is growling! She LOVES to growl and even makes a game out of growling at Minnette at the tbreakfast table anytime Minnette starts eating her food until she finally looks at Jovi and growls back- and then Jovi cracks up laughing! Loves to chatterbox- but mostly with babydolls or stuffed animals. The only word she says at this time is "Da!" for Daddy, and Kyle is definitely one proud papa!
•Jovi is our biggest Daddy's-girl yet and will cry when Kyle leaves and will instantly cheer up when I show her a picture of Kyle on the computer!
•Jovi's favorite toy to play with is the shopping cart. She just loves to put toys and babies in it and push it all around the apartment!
•Jovi is such a climber! She loves to climb absolutely everything she can... we have even found her sitting on top of our 4 foot tall slide!
•Jovi also loves to DIG. She loves to pull anything and everything out of everywhere if she can. She has become quite the professional mess maker in the last few months... it has come to absolutey amaze to me just how messy our living room can get from one one year old playing for only half an hour!
•She can defnitely hold her own with two big sisters around... she doesn't let them get away with taking a single toy...and she lets everyone know!
•Jovi is extremely content to just sit and play. She could entertain herself for hours. We always put in an effort to show her attention and talk to her while she is playing, and while she definitely enjoys it, she would never seek it out on her own... unless she's tired or hungry!
The three -toothed smile! (taken today)
We sure love this happy girl, she is truly a light in our lives! We are so excited to see her continue to grow and develop, and to see what a sweet and fun little girl she will become! We love you so much, Jovi... Happy Birthday!
