She:

>Weighs 18 pounds even and is 26.5 inches long, which is 75th percentile for both. She wears all 6-12 month clothes now. Nice and chubby!

>Is so grabby and purposeful with her movements now! She can pick things up, pull things toward her, and manipulate them in her hands much better. I especially love when she’s nursing, her free hand reaches up and plays with my hair, twirling it, caressing it, and eventually yanking it. However, she has also tumped an entire glass of water over at restaurants twice now. I am learning my lesson!

>Can basically sit up on her own now, although we still have to watch her because she’ll get distracted and topple.

>Makes all kinds of new sounds, and enjoys being extremely vocal when she wakes up in the morning.

>Sometimes starts crying around certain people, like David’s father and grandfather. I don’t know why she’s scared of them! But she warms up to them again very soon so it’s not too bad. It’s also unbearably cute to see her lower lip jut out when she’s afraid.

>Enjoys playing with toys (especially her new Jumparoo) and throwing them down on the ground too. She cracks up when we play Patty Cake!

>No longer sucks her two fingers. I can’t believe that phase was so short; it was the cutest thing and I miss it.

>Sits in the high chair for meals with us sometimes. We’ve tried giving her some food, and once she swallowed a bit of banana, but she’s mostly uninterested.

>Has a new baby cousin as of January 18 named Lily! I’m so excited that they’re going to grow up together and I hope they become good friends. Lily is tiny and perfect, and I absolutely cannot believe that Meredith was ever that small, and so recently.

I:

>Am dreading the start of solid foods. I keep postponing it. I want to do Babyled weaning, but even that low-stress approach is overwhelming to me. Breastfeeding (even with pumping at work!) has just been so easy for us, and even though I plan to continue for a good while I’d rather not have another thing to think about.

>Made up a little game where I say, “All aboard the Mermaid Express!” then I bounce her up and down on my knee making train sounds. She smiles every single time we start to say all aboard! She also for some reason really loves it when David sings “Mama said knock you out” by LL Cool J.

>Still love cloth diapers. We use mostly Fuzzibunz but I was surprised at how much I love the Flip system and want to get more of them.

>Have gotten serious about losing all the weight I gained, mostly because I want to fit in my old clothes again. I started counting calories a couple weeks ago using My Fitness Pal, and it’s definitely working. The first few days were SO hard, but my body has already adjusted a lot. I feel much better, am less bloated, and no longer need as much food to feel full. So far I haven’t noticed a change in my milk supply, either.

>Exercised for the first time since before I was pregnant (shameful) over the weekend by doing the 30-day Shred. I nearly passed out and am soooo sore now.

>Am still looking for a new church. We’ve tried out two different places fairly thoroughly, and neither feels quite right to us, although they both have great things about them. It’s hard because I’m ready to settle into a new place and get connected, but I want it to be right.

>Haven’t been as emotional or anxious this month as last. I think a lot of it is because I’m learning how to take care of myself better now; how to avoid my triggers and how to train my thoughts.

>Am planning on starting Project Life on my next birthday in two weeks. I’ve become kind of obsessed with it. I wish I had known about it before the new year, but I’m not going to stress. I’m just excited to get into a nontraditional, consistent way of scrapbooking that won’t take TOO much effort. The Smash Book is fun to carry around and collect scraps, and I’ll still use that for random things, but Project Life will be more of a reflection of the day to day.

>Can’t get enough of holding Meredith. Even if I just put her down for a minute, I’m always so excited to pick her back up again.

>Want to have more babies, but I kind of wish I could just have Meredith all over again.

For reference:

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