five years

Believe it or not, Sarah and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary this weekend!
Look at these two kids. So young and in love, if they only knew what life had in store...
Five years is one of those things that seems like forever and five minutes at the same time. I think we're both just so excited to see what the next five years holds for us, and the rest of our lives for that matter.
But here's to my beautiful bride, I love her more every day.

dress up

As you saw in a previous post, Libby loves putting underwear on her head and wearing them around her neck. She has expanded her wardrobe to include a grilling apron, which she wears as a cape, a pink scarf, and a bracelet from her Fisher Price Pretty Learning Purse. It's soooo cute to watch her take her little bracelet out of her purse and put it on! She's just fabulous.

chowhound

Although you couldn't tell from looking at her, Libby loves to eat. She's eating finger foods almost exclusively, except for the yogurt we feed her for breakfast and the baby food we use to round out some meals. Luckily, she likes a wide variety of food and she hasn't shown any sensitivities or allergies. We introduced peanut butter last weekend, the final food on the "highly allergenic" list, and she loved it. Her favorite foods include cheese, berries, bananas, grapes, veggie dogs and crackers. She's also drinking milk out of a sippy cup really well now. I feel quite lucky that it's not a struggle to get her to eat, especially since she's kinda teeny tiny. She can really pack it in!

this little piggy

Libby has learned how to insert the plastic coins into her Fisher Price piggy bank, and as her mother, I'm just amazed. She went from fumbling with one last night and pushing with all her might while holding it a little crooked, to putting every single one in with ease tonight. We're just so proud of our little banker. Thanks, Art & Pam, for this great Christmas gift!

weaning

I wasn't aware of it then, but I think Libby nursed for the last time this week. But let me start at the beginning of the end.

My goal was always to nurse Libby for a year. As the year mark approached, I decided that I would keep nursing her when she woke up and at bedtime, but wean her from her two mid-day feedings, which were also my two workday pumping times. I was so tired of pumping and wouldn't have the time to do so in the middle of the day during the HOW conference I was scheduled to host in Washington, DC two weeks after her first birthday. And I wanted to make sure she would take cow's milk from a bottle. Otherwise, I was actually going to have to ramp up the pumping in order to have enough breastmilk for her while I was gone (she'd always had breastmilk exclusively, so I didn't want to introduce formula at this point). So two weeks before her first birthday, we introduced cow's milk twice a day with no problem.

With that worry behind me, I phased out the pumping but was determined to nurse her in the morning and at bedtime until she was ready to wean. I figured breastfeeding was still healthier, easier and cheaper, and I genuinely still enjoyed nursing her. About a week after her first birthday, she started getting her upper two teeth and, consequently, biting me while she nursed. I tried to reprimand her without making her cry, but I wasn't having much luck in getting her to actually nurse, especially at bedtime. A few days later, I left for the HOW conference with my pump in tow. Kevin had frozen breastmilk to give Libby in the morning and at bedtime, and cow's milk to send to Katie's house. The morning feedings went OK, but she wouldn't take the bottle at bedtime. Since she eats dinner fairly close to bedtime, we decided to give her a cup of milk during dinner and to cut out the nighttime bottle. Meanwhile, I pumped at the conference to keep my waning supply up, hoping she'd be over the biting and would nurse willingly after not seeing me for 4 days.

She was already in bed when I got home from my trip Saturday night. When she woke up Sunday morning, she was so excited when I went into her room to get her up. She nursed eagerly without biting. I was sleepy, but I was more focused on her than usual since I had been away and missed her so much. I talked to her a little, studied her little face and hands, stroked her arm. It was a lovely experience that both of us seemed very "present" for, the way it should be, the way it all began.

And that was the last time she nursed. I've given her the opportunity to nurse the last two mornings, but she's started to suckle then burst into tears, and I've had to make her a bottle. So I have a bottle ready for tomorrow morning.

I really thought that "the last time she nursed" would be a big, emotional to-do, that I would really put my heart into it because I knew it would be the end of perhaps the most important and intimate time we'll ever share. I thought I'd concentrate hard on it, trying to soak it all in. I thought I would cry. I'm so grateful that I didn't have to force all of that, that it came so naturally, that I unwittingly paused to savor what had become so routine one last time. I think nursing may be the most important gift I ever give my daughter. And I think giving me that one last sweet, relaxing moment early Sunday morning was a gift from her.

my day at the zoo

Mommy and I went to the zoo today with Amanda, Maddox, Katie and Morgan. It was such a pretty day, and there was hardly anyone else there. Lots of animals were out and about. I got to see almost all the cats, including the baby Bengal tigers and lynxes, so I got to use my favorite word (cat!) a lot. The baby gorilla was playing with his dad, and the Sumatran rhino was taking a bath. A peacock even strolled right by us and took a rest a few feet away while we at our lunch at LaRosa's. But I was more interested in the wrens who gathered by my stroller to catch the Goldfish crackers I dropped. I liked the fish at Manatee Springs, too. And I even got to feed a giraffe a cracker, although I didn't really want to let go of it, so Mommy helped me. It was a very fun day. Thank you Aunt Katie for organizing it!

happy grandparents day

I love all of my grandparents so much! I am such a lucky girl.
I hope you have a great day!!!
~Love, Libby

Make a Smilebox slideshow

libby's birthday pics

I'm still working on the video, but we thought we should get a few pics on here from Libby's birthday and her party. There are lots more in Our Gallery, so check them out too. I hope to get the video up by the end of this week -- I hope I'm not building too much suspense, it's not all that thrilling...

libby stats

I know we haven't posted anything about Libby's party. Kevin is working on a video (there's a lot of footage to comb through), and we'll get some photos posted soon. I just wanted to give you all the scoop on her 1-year check up, which was yesterday.

Our little string bean weighs 17 pounds, 11 ounces, and is 29 inches tall. That's 10th-15th percentile for weight and 50th for height. The doctor has no concern about her weight. She's trending well on her own curve, and she's gaining steadily. She's just long and lean, as always.

Little Libbs got 4 shots yesterday and they had to squeeze 2 small vials of blood out of her tiny finger to test for lead levels and anemia. Needless to say, it was a long 2 hours at the doctor's office. I'm just not used to her crying uncontrollably, and it was 2 hours past her nap time, so she was a mess, and Kevin and I were drained. She's running a little fever today, probably from the shots (one was a flu shot), but she's doing splendidly overall!

Also, a footnote: She is not cooperative at all for her Watch Me Grow chair photo anymore, so now that she's a year old, we're only going to take it monthly. Although you may be disappointed, you should also be in awe of us taking that photo 52 weeks in a row! :-)