We spent most of the first half of the month sorting through everything and packing up our house in preparation for our move. After a lot of frustration, we found a cute 3 story townhouse about 30 minutes north of where we were living and moved on the 18th of January. Fortunately, we had a lot of help from my family and some friends, which was great. It was a much bigger job than I had anticipated.

Audrey did pretty well with the move. She had a few rough nights at the beginning but seems to like her new room. My mom bought some paint and wall decals for her room so that’s on the list of projects to do. Her new room is much bigger than her old room. The old house was much smaller and we didn’t have a lot of space, so Audrey shared her old room with the computer printer and some bookshelves of mine. She doesn’t have to share her new room with our junk anymore!

We now have a staircase in the living room which has proven to be interesting. Audrey figured out pretty quickly how to go up stairs but can’t figure out how to go down the stairs. A few times, I’ve followed closely behind and let her climb up a few steps but she gets frustrated quickly, not wanting to go the full staircase but unable to back up. We keep the stairs blocked off but she often eyes them with intense curiousity.

January 15th was Audrey’s first birthday! Akiva took a lot of photos and they’re all on his camera, so I’ll have him upload those soon. My mom organized a great party at her house, since we were in the middle of moving. Audrey received a lot of great gifts. Thank you to everyone who came to the party!

This week, Audrey and I started swimming classes. I am afraid of water and can’t swim so the class is as much for me as it is for her. I’m putting on my brave face and showing her that swimming isn’t scary. The concidence is that the class is held at the exact pool where I had my first swimming lessons. I hated them and have such a negative memory associated with that pool. It’s been sort of therapeutic to be back there, as a grown up, showing Audrey that water can be fun to play in.

In terms of her size, Audrey is still a tiny thing. She was last weighed on the 14th of January and was 16 pounds, 2 ounces. Today, she’s wearing a 6 month size onesie and 9 month size pants. If she didn’t have a puffy cloth diaper on, she would probably be in 6 month size pants, too. She is becoming a better eater and I’ve stopped buying baby food. Right now, she loves plain yogurt, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, Ritz crackers, and bananas.

February should hopefully be calmer for us. We’re mostly settled into our new house with the exception of unpacking a few last boxes and finishing a few projects. Swimming classes continue through the end of the month. We’ve also just joined a mom/baby parenting group that has playdates a few times a week so we will be attending the first playdate soon!

It’s technically a bib, but she prefers to wear it as a cape. Expected arrival of the new addition is mid-August!

• Ma-ma
• Da-da
• Key-tss (kitty)
• Hewwo (hello)

Things that have no meaning:

• Dumb
• Duh
• Bwah
• La-la-la
• Ummm
• Hemm
• Ah-ba
• Several other baby sounds that can’t really be spelled out

Audrey with Sarah.

Audrey after the walk. Look at her pink nose!

Audrey with my mom.

Next weekend, we’re participating in the Jingle Bell Run and Walk for arthritis in Seattle so last weekend was good practice!

In addition to her usual milk, she has been eating about two jars of baby food a day, having one (baby-sized) serving of another food (maybe a teething biscuit or a few spoonfuls of steamed broccoli), and about 8 oz. of mixed rice milk and water mixed. She wasn’t so sure about the rice milk at first but she quickly warmed up to it. I also want to try hemp milk at some point, too. We’re waiting on dairy milk for a few more months.

She has also had a few more adventurous foods, including a little bit of cottage cheese and a Ritz cracker (see the previous post for a video of that!). Although she’s still developmentally behind in her eating, she is quickly catching up after her surgery!