Sabah Turned One!

I can't believe it, but my baby turned one yesterday. We actually celebrated her birthday on Mother's day, so yesterday we just had a low key celebration....just my baby and me. We tried a new Ethiopian Restaurant, The Blue Nile (not as good as Burqitu), and then headed home for some ice cream....which Sabah went gaga over. That really was the extent of the celebration. Besides the ice cream, it was really just a normal evening. My bosses at work today asked me if I at least got her a cupcake with a candle in it, I said no....they gave me such a hard time about it (jokingly of course), and we all came to the conclusion that I just scarred my child for life and need to put an extra dollar into her "future therapy fund" jar. Believe me, it's not the first dollar I've had to put in there. :)

Sabah had her one year well baby check up today, and it went....WELL! She charmed the pants off of the new doctor (our regular doctor wasn't there today). He said she is very healthy and seems to be like any normal one year old. She weighed in at a whoppin 22 1/2 pounds (up from 19 1/2 pounds from last visit), putting her 50-75 percentile for weight. This girl is also going to be TALL....she measured at 31 inches...up from 27 1/2 inches. This puts her at 90-95 percentile for height!!!! That's my girl (I'm 5'9).

I had made a little wager (with myself), that Sabah would be walking by her first birthday. Well, I lost. HOWEVER, this evening, one day AFTER her birthday, she finally took her first step. It was just one step, but it is the first time she has actually figured out that she needs to move her feet and not just her upper body. It was so cute, and the excitement on her face was priceless. I think that since she made that first step, the rest will come very soon.

Sabah has been off formula and on whole milk for two weeks now. She pretty much made the change herself, as she just decided to stop drinking her formula. Then, yesterday, I took away the bottle (except for her bottle just before bed....I (not her), can't seem to part with that yet). She had absolutely no problems giving up the bottle and LOVES drinking out of her sippy cup....such a big girl.

I also turned the car seat around......she can now see where we are going, and we both enjoy the ride a lot more.

Sabah continues to be a very content, even-tempered baby. She rarely fusses. The things that actually make her cry: 1. If I leave the room 2. If I say "no" to her too sternly...she HATES when I am upset with her. 3. If she sees her food and I don't give it to her fast enough (Yep, she still LOVES to eat) 4. When she hurts herself. Really, other than that, she doesn't cry much. Sure, there are other things that make her cry, but they are not on a regular basis. There is another 1 year old (14 months) in her 'day care' that just is always crying when I pick Sabah up. I don't know how the babysitter can stand it. She says that the child cries whenever she puts her down. YIKES! I'm so thankful that Sabah is such a content baby.

I'm so blessed to have this little one in my life. I had kind of a hard transition to motherhood, but after six months, I am finally starting to really enjoy her....I mean, REALLY enjoy her. She is a bundle of fun, and I have even gotten her to laugh out loud on several occassions now. We have finally molded into a family of two. And with that being said.....I'm already thinking about making us a family of three.

Below are Sabah's one year photos....enjoy.

Another nice day at the beach

Saturday, my sister, two nephews, Sabah and I headed to Seaside for a glorious day at the beach. The weather was absolutely perfect. Sabah and the boys enjoyed playing in the sand and getting wet in the surf. Mommy and Auntie enjoyed watching our youngins have so much fun.

Pics of the day:

Swimming Lesson Pictures

The mother of the other little girl, Della, in Sabah's swim class, was kind enough to take pictures for us. Sabah loves the water and it is apparent in some of the photos. We had a great time at Great Wolf Lodge this weekend and will post pictures later.

My Mother's Day Gifts

Sabah is such a sweet girl that she got me TWO Mother's Day gifts. Apparently she went out shopping with her Auntie and picked me a cute little flower necklace. Each of the petals say MOM in a different language. Thank you Auntie for helping Sabah with her gift.

Then, she somehow got on the internet and ordered me a beautiful pendant that says ENAT, which means MOM in Amharic.

I love both my necklaces, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE my beautiful daughter. What a fantastic Mother's Day.

Sabah's Party

Sabah turns 1 in a little over two weeks, but she had her party today. My nephew Elijah's birthday is on the 5th, and since my parents live in Eugene (about two hours away), we decided to celebrate both birthday and Mother's Day today. It was a very busy day. Sabah had fun opening presents, but I think the thing she enjoyed the most was digging into her birthday cake. It had a couple of big strawberries on it, and before I could even blink, she snagged one off and put the WHOLE thing in her mouth. I had to pry her lips open and almost needed the jaws of life to get her mouth open....she did not want to give up that berry. But, I got it out, cut it into bite size pieces and then let her go at the cake. She LOVED it. I had to cut her off since I didn't want her to eat the entire thing.

Here are a few pictures of the day (sorry for those of you on facebook....they are pretty much the same pictures).

Swimming Lessons and Other Stuff

Yesterday Sabah had her first swimming lesson at Matt Dishman Community Pool. I had a feeling she would like it because she LOVES her bath time, but I was ill prepared for HOW much she would like it. Let me just say that this child is a fish!!! She was slightly hesitant at first, I think mostly because of the temperature of the water, but once she got in there and started kicking and splashing around, she just wouldn’t stop. It was so darn cute and I really enjoyed seeing her have so much fun. We are definitely going to be spending a lot of time at the pool this summer.

Being a single mom, I had no one to take pictures of her in the pool, but I did get one of her in the locker room (actually, you aren’t supposed to take pictures in the locker room, but no one was around, so I snuck one in). I’m going to ask the parents of the other baby in the class if they can take pictures and e-mail me some (they were taking TONS of their daughter).

Other happenings worth noting:

Sabah is getting her top two front teeth. One is coming in faster than the other, so she has a lopsided smile. It’s so cute. She had a rough time cutting these two teeth…..runny nose, diaper rash (her first one ever), crabbiness. It was not fun. But, once they cut through the gums, she was much much happier….and so was I.

She is also starting to want to stand on her own, and will let go of whatever she is holding onto, to see how long she can balance. It is all of about 2-3 seconds at this point, but it is so exciting for both of us. She gets so excited that she actually GIGGLES! And for anyone who keeps up on this blog, you know that Sabah does not giggle. Oh, she is a happy, smiley baby, but she does not giggle. So it is really exciting to see her laughing. Her 1st birthday is in three weeks and I am betting that she will be walking by then….she is soooooo close.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This girl still continues to eat like a horse. She is hardly interested in her bottle anymore, and I have a tough time getting her to drink all her formula. I even dropped her from three 8 oz bottles down to three 6 oz bottles and she STILL does not want to finish them. As soon as she turns one, she is getting switched to whole milk, and we will start switching her to a sippy cup. I can’t believe how fast she is growing up and how much she is changing.

We are going to Great Wolf Lodge in Olympia, WA this weekend to celebrate my nephews 6th birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIJAH), and I am really looking forward to it. Great Wolf Lodge is an indoor water park, and since I now know Sabah LOVES the water, I think it is going to be a blast. I’m not looking forward to parading around in my swimming suite all weekend, but will suck it up to enjoy the time with Sabah and nephews. Oh the things we do for our children.

On Mother’s Day (my first mother’s day), my parents will be in Portland and we will celebrate Sabah’s birthday, Elijah’s birthday, and of course Mother’s Day. It is going to be one busy weekend. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures.

I don’t know yet what I will do on Sabah’s actual birthday. It’s a workday, so we will probably just celebrate with an Ethiopian dinner and a small cake.