One year old

Mini has now been in our lives for one whole year.

Personality

Now that she's turning into a toddler we see her personality more and more which has been really fun. She will take our hand and walk with us around the house. She loves getting into everything. If there is an open press, she will crawl over to it and start taking everything out of it as quickly as possible. I'm still working on teaching her to tidy up again after herself, haha! She likes to pick up random things off the floor and try to eat them much to our dismay. She enjoys looking through her books and being read to. She has a great sense of humour too. She often gets the giggles which is the cutest thing ever. She loves playing chasing and peekaboo.

Eating

She prefers to feed herself rather be fed and likes to eat whatever I'm eating. She'll try most things. Sometimes she'll eat a lot and still seems hungry so we keep offering her stuff and other days or times she barely eats anything. Breastfeeding is going well. I reached the one year mark and decided to keep going. The new goal is to make it to two years which is the WHO recommendation. I've noticed many people have opinions about breastfeeding a toddler and aren't always that supportive. A lot of people have already asked about when I'm going to stop. It's a shame that some people feel uncomfortable about the idea of a child above 6 months or 1 year continuing to nurse when it should be seen as natural and normal. When we are out and about I don't tend to nurse much, usually just at home before naps and during the night and more often if she's sick.

Sleeping

Sleeping has improved but it's still not ideal. On a good night she'll go to sleep for the night around 8pm, then wake up once around midnight and then at 5am and be up for the day around 7. On bad nights she's more restless, whether due to teething or something else I'm not sure and she wakes those nights up to 4-5 times. When she wakes I usually try cuddling back to sleep to see if that works. If it doesn't then I nurse. Sometimes if I've just recently fed her then my husband will rock her back to sleep.

She's not saying any new words yet. Besides "dada, mama, duck.." She seems to understand things pretty well though. She points at places she wants to go and she recognizes words we use a lot. I recently tidied away a whole bunch of her old baby clothes and it made me feel sort of nostalgic. Sometimes I feel a little sad that Mini will be our one and only but I've mostly come to terms with it and am happy with our little family of three!

Now she's a toddler she shows her frustration at times. She's not old enough for me to reason with her but distraction usually works well. Or I just let her keep doing whatever she wants to do sa long as it's not dangerous or hurting anyone. Life with a one year old is exhausting but fun!