Today is the day, Maggie's big day! It blows my mind that my baby girl is one year old today. Her journey to life was a difficult one, and her birth was completely unlike her big sisters. If you want to re-live that day with me, please click here for Magdalena's Story.
Since I've been through two other "first birthdays" you would think that I would be prepared for this, but Maggie is just so different from her sisters. She was a difficult pregnancy, a difficult delivery, a NICU baby, slower to do most everything. She just seems too little to be one year old! And as odd as it may sound, this is the first time that we are having a "first birthday" without having another little one on the way. Perhaps that is why it seems so strange. With Annie and Abbey I was already trying to prepare for them to be big sisters instead of being the baby, and it is quite different with Magdalena.
Magdalena still nurses. A&A both were weaned at about 10 1/2 months, and I think this was mainly because I was pregnant and they weren't interested in anymore. Maggie will typically nurse at breakfast, before nap, and before bed, and then she is also still waking up in the night at least once, more often two times, and occasionally 3 times to nurse. Obviously she wouldn't "need" those night time feedings, but a part of me is not ready to give them up.
**This is one of my favorites. She just looks so sweet!**
Maggie does not walk. She will walk along the edge of furniture, or push a toy or chair and walk behind it, but she mostly crawls. She likes to hold my hands and walk, but doesn't seem too thrilled with the idea of doing it herself. Maggie can stand for a few seconds by herself, but not real long. She crawls like crazy and is into everything. She gives kisses, makes elephant noises, mimics her sisters and says several words. She says mama, dada, Non-non (for Annie), dog, more, doll, Mum-Mum (is one of her snack foods), yeah, out, down, hi, hey, and I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting.
She has such a sweet personality. She is very active like Anne was, but has this really sweet side to her that reminds me a lot of Abbey. She is shy around children her age, but adores older children and little babies. She definitely prefers mom over any other adult, but is beginning to go to other people that she sees a lot. This weekend she went to Paw-Paw, which surprised me, but she was very content with him as well as sitting on Uncle Troy's lap. This seems to be a common theme with all 3 of our girls.
Anne and Abbey can always get Maggie to smile and laugh. Anne is quite the helper. The other day I was out in the kitchen getting dinner ready and I usually have the gate in front of the stairs but did not on this particular day. Anne yelled to me that Maggie was trying to climb the stairs, but she'll get her. By the time I wiped my hands Anne had picked Maggie up and was carrying her over to a pile of toys on the floor and instructed her to play with toys while she went to put the gate up.
*This is Maggie's "I'm going to do something naughty" face that we see far too often and usually involves eating dog food and dumping the dog's water!*
Maggie's one-year well child check up isn't for about two more weeks. I stood on the scale with her and it said she was about 17 pounds. If that is accurate than she already weighs more than Abbey did at a year and is very close to what Anne was!
At her check-up I also plan on talking with our doctor about Celiac Disease and other food allergies and to see when we should get her tested. She does fantastic on the gluten-free diet. It is definitely difficult at times (and expensive!). She only has 2 teeth so there are limited options to what she can eat. She is at that stage where she is very independent and only wants to feed herself. She eats a lot of bananas, rice chex, rice noodles, carrots, peas, peaches, and other soft foods that can easily be cut up and given to her. We have some gluten-free animal crackers that she LOVES. When we get the box out after dinner she gets so excited. It's really cute. For her birthday party on Saturday we are making gluten-free chocolate cupcakes. I'm sure she will enjoy them since she has never had anything so delicious in her life!
*She covered all her big smiles with her hands, but I still love this one!*
As I sit here and think over the past year and all that we have been through, I am reminded of God's faithfulness. Even when Maggie was crying all the time and we didn't know why, God was faithful. Praise God for one whole year of life. I can definitely see how I have grown in my faith in the past year and God has used Magdalena to stretch me and teach me and challenge me in new ways. Her name meaning "Spiritual Faith" has proved true thus far. Happy Birthday Magdalena Faith, we love you!
*This is how Maggie praises God!*
Special thanks to my sister, Audrey for capturing Maggie's personality at one-year!
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