Eloise is ONE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOU!!!

Poor baby was sick when we took the above pictures, so none of her usual, big smiles :(

WEIGHT: 19 pounds 3 ounces
HEIGHT: 29 inches
CLOTHES SIZE: 6-9 months and 9-12 months
DIAPER SIZE: Three

LIKES:
 - Playing peek-a-boo
 - Fruit, especially the berries
 - Seeing herself in mirrors and phones
 - Toilets
 - Stuffed animals, especially pandas
 - Playing in water
 - Tapping/hitting surfaces (while singing our "Tap" song)
 - Being outside
 - Pulling chewed food back out of her mouth
 - Crawling and climbing over things
 - Reading books
 - Surprised faces, mouth in the O shape
 - Cardboard boxes
 - Singing
 - Opening cupboards/drawers and pulling out everything
 - Making monkey sounds
 - Being chased/chasing you
 - Music

DISLIKES:
 - Getting her clothes changed
 - Long car rides (anything over 45 minutes, really)
 - Getting boogers wiped
 - Vegetables
 - Throwing up
 - Being left to play alone

FIRSTS/MILESTONES:
 - Independently (without encouragement) walk a few steps between furniture (47 weeks)
 - Will try to share toys/food (48 weeks)
 - Clap, roll it, and put arms up in "Patty Cake" (49 weeks)
 - Halloween (49 weeks)
 - Solo road trip with mom (49 weeks)
 - Sleeping in a hotel (49 weeks)
 - Move! (49 weeks)
 - Time in Arizona! (49 weeks)
 - Stomach bug :( (49 weeks)
 - Dancing to music (50 weeks)
 - Knows some animal sounds (50 weeks)
 - WALKING! (51 weeks)

RANDOM NOTES:
 - This was Eloise's first Halloween, unfortunately we were in the middle of moving the whole week, so we didn't get into it much. She made the cutest old lady for our ward party though, pictures below.
 - Waaaay more clingy this month, and often throws little tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. I'm so bummed this started already, haha.
 - Also more cuddly this month, which I LOVE <3
 - Still the best little sleeper at night. Naps can often be iffy, I never know how long they will last. But she always sleeps at least 20 minutes for them, and up to about two hours on a reeaaally good day.
 - Says a few words! I'm not sure how parents always know what their baby's first word is, because how can you tell if they understand what they are saying or not?! Lou says "uh oh" and knows what it means, and also says "mama", "dada", and "wow", but I'm not positive if she knows what they mean, haha.
 - Signs "drink" and is working on getting "more" down still.
 - Can usually repeat the animal sounds for snake, monkey, and lion. Though monkey sounds are her favorite, and she will often just keep being a monkey, haha.

Eloise's current schedule is below! Not too different from the last couple months, other than trying to get Lou off formula and onto milk and/or snacks instead. This has been hard! I'll write more on that.
7:30 am - Wake up, breakfast
10:00 am - 3 oz formula or milk/snack
10:15 am - Nap
12:30 pm - Lunch
3:00 pm - 3 oz formula or milk/snack
3:15 pm - Nap
6:00 pm - Dinner
8:15 pm - 5 oz formula or milk, bath if needed, bedtime routine, down for the night

Halloween costume

I wasn't sure how to really define when a baby is actually walking. For a few weeks, Eloise was capable of walking but would rarely choose to do so and just take some steps between Dustan and I when we encouraged or bribed her. Just a week before turning one, she started walking around far more, and would choose to do so unless she couldn't find a good place to stand up or she wanted get to her destination faster by crawling. By the time she turned one, she was walking around pretty often, at least about half the time. So I guess I would define her as "walking"? Haha. It's so fun to see her tiny self tottering around though, I just love it! She still hasn't quite figured out how to stand up without using any prop though, which is stopping her from walking more.

A few weeks before turning one, I started trying to wean Eloise from the bottle, though not from formula yet. I tried out a few different cups with little to no success. It was pretty rough. I knew Lou wanted her milk, but when she saw something other than a bottle (like a sippy, 360 cup, straw, etc.) she legitimately would just throw a tantrum. For the first while, I would give it a solid effort, then go put the milk in a bottle. But a few days before we were leaving town for Thanksgiving break, I just stopped the bottle altogether. I didn't want to try to be dealing with this over break and bring half a dozen different cups to try. It was a struggle for a few days and she still doesn't just chug formula/milk like she would from a bottle, but she's doing fine!

Also this month, Lou had some major ups and downs with her eating. It has been rough. She got sick with some yucky stomach bug, which threw off her eating for over a week. She got super picky and would refuse to eat most foods. Then her appetite was back and better than ever! She was trying new things and eating a ton (which helped with getting off the bottle). Then, we traveled to Denver for Thanksgiving and Eloise decided that basically the only food she would eat was fruit. That was hard. And it still is. But hopefully she will snap out of it again soon!

Wearing the jacket Dustan wore as a baby

We had a fun little birthday party for Eloise where we took so many pictures it warranted it's own blog post, here :) But basically, we had it in Denver when we were visiting family for Thanksgiving, and celebrated along with Lou's cousin Elodie. It was so fun and apparently Eloise loves chocolate cake!!

We LOVE our sweet and spunky baby, and are so grateful everyday that she is ours <3 We can't believe Eloise came to this world a year ago! She has the sweetest personality and loves to play and interact with everyone. She is sassy and always wants to get her way, and usually succeeds. She has cutest grin than scrunches up her whole face. We love her so! Happy birthday, my beautiful girl!