The Breuers: Lola

I cannot believe my baby is one year old! It seems like it was just yesterday that I was snuggling her at the hospital. Lola's first year has been wonderful - exhausting, yes, but truly wonderful. She is such a happy, beautiful baby and brings us so much joy. She smiles at pretty much everything, and her laugh is the best sound in the world.

Lola seems more like a little girl now and less like a baby. She eats a LOT of food and drinks less breast milk. In July, she was still nursing five times a day, but now she is down to two (morning and evening). I mainly decreased her feedings because I wanted to stop pumping, but I could also tell she was ready. I cut out one feeding while we were at the beach, so that I'd be with her in case she wanted more, but she never did. Her first week at her new daycare I sent two bottles a day, then I did two weeks of one bottle a day, and now she gets none. She's started drinking cow's milk at daycare instead, and her teachers said she seems fine with it. Lola has 7 teeth now, so that presumably helps with her eating.

She's also seemed to get on a pretty good sleep schedule. Because she's in the toddler class at daycare, she only gets an afternoon nap, no morning nap. That was rough at first, but she's getting better at napping at daycare (on the floor on a mat - it amazes me that they get 9 kids to do that at once). She goes to bed really easily now, probably because she's so tired, and still sleeps from about 7:30 pm until 6:30 am.

Lola isn't quite walking yet, but she seems very close, although she's seemed close for a while now. She's a speedy crawler and can walk with minimal assistance, such as holding my finger. She loves to climb things and can climb up onto the couch by herself. And she still loves climbing up our stairs!

We went to the doctor for her one-year checkup on August 11. Lola got a few shots, but she did great. Her one year statistics are:

Weight = 22 lbs (82%)
Height = 29 in (47%)
Head = 18 in (78%)

They took blood from her finger and tested it for lead, and unfortunately she tested a bit high. She got 7.8, and the doctor said anything over 5 they like to test further, but that harmful levels are in the 20s or 30s so we shouldn't worry. I had to take her to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta to get her blood taken at their lab. We went this morning and will wait to hear the results. Hopefully she's fine. We live in a very old house which likely has lead paint, so I have been worried about it.

As for celebrating, Lola's birthday was August 7, and we had her birthday party on Saturday, August 9. My parents and brother came down to visit and attend the party, which made me so happy. Lola was glad to spend her birthday with her family (and we celebrated with the Breuer half of the family at the beach). We had a low-key party at home - Chick-Fil-A food and a cake, plus a few decorations. It was a fun party, and Lola got to play with a bunch of her little friends. We followed up the party with a trip to the zoo and dinner out at Argosy in East Atlanta. It was a great weekend of celebrating our little girl!