Happy Birthday Pancake

Pancake had her first pancake for breakfast this morning, at Doodle's request. She had her first piece of cake on Saturday at her (and Doodle's) birthday party. It's hard to believe that my precious little newborn baby is one! I am looking forward to the year ahead. I loved ages one to three with Doodle and knowing what I know about Pancake's personality she'll be a wonderful delightful toddler. We just have to get to the toddling phase! She has physical therapy once a week for an hour and still doesn't crawl, pull herself up or cruise around the furniture. In due time I'm sure she'll be running around after her big brother.

Pancake has been through many medical tests and countless doctor visits over the past two months and she smiled through most of it. She's been catheterized three times already in short life and there will be more (in a year from now for sure and possibly before then if an UTI is expected). Her spirits are better than ever now that she's been diagnosed and is on an antibiotic (she's infection-free now and we're hoping she'll stay that way).

Her personality is so sunny and happy and delightful. When she laughs that good hardy belly laugh it's contagious. She's just so damn adorable. A year ago it was hard to imagine loving someone else as much as I love Doodle, but as all parents of multiple children know, you just do. You grow as much love as children you have.

When I was pregnant with Pancake I would have been happy if she turned out to be a boy or a girl. I really and truly didn't have a preference. But now that we know she's a girl I'm really happy to have one of each gender. I'm happy to be able to experience raising a boy and a girl. And I have a brother and really like growing up with a brother, so I'm glad Pancake and Doodle will have each other to grow up with.
Pancake has been doing some pretty cute things lately. She LOVES bananas and nana is one of her words (one of twelve or thirteen), but for fear of constipation I usually only let her have one "nana" a day and Mr. D usually gives it to her in the morning for her first breakfast (first of three). When I have her she points to the bananas and says "nana." And I reply, "no more bananas today, Pancake, how about ____" fill in the blank. So now she points to the bananas, says nana, while lowering her head, raising her eyes and shaking her head no. It is really cute to see. She repeats it a few times and then moves on to something else.

She used to just say thank you when she wanted to play pass items back and forth, but now she says it whenever I give her something whether it's a toy or a piece of bread or any food. She's still a great eater, though she did go through a rough patch where she hardly ate anything when she had the UTI and numerous ear infections one after the other. She leans her head in and says aaahh when you ask for a kiss or a hug.

She hasn't nursed for more than a week so I guess we're finished. She skipped two feedings after I jumped and said "no Pancake" when she clamped down on my nipple with her sharp new teeth. Then I got her to nurse a few more times and then she just stopped all together. She turns her head and clearly wants nothing to do with my milk. I've pumped a bit to decrease my supply slowly, but I don't think I even need to do that any more. I was sad for a few days because I wasn't ready to wean her, but if she doesn't want it, she doesn't want it. For the past week she's had whole milk and water. She's been drinking quite a bit from a sippy cup so I think she's staying hydrated.
She's playing more with Doodle. They roll the ball back and forth, Doodle tickles her and she laughs uncontrollably. She loves following him up the stairs (with my help). She dances when music comes on and sings the ABC song a little bit. She stands at her play table and makes the instruments play. She loves playing basketball with our toy net and ball. Mr. D holds Pancake and she puts the ball through the hoop. Doodle makes Mr. D keep score for all three of them, which can get confusing.

She recognizes and shows she understands many many words. Some examples: she touches her feet when I say, let's put on your shoes or socks, she can point to people's noses when asked, she combs her own hair and brushes her own teeth (one of the top ones is poking through the gum now with the other top one coming soon), she looks for her spoon on the floor when I say, where is your spoon?, she recognizes outside, bath, splash, water, Cheerios, graham crackers, many other foods, and many other words I won't bother typing here.

She says about 11 words. I'll try to remember them all now:
Daddy
Mama
Doodle (really cute version of his real name)
eat (almost always while pointing to her mouth)
thank you
uh ohbye bye
nana
kiss
mmm (for cow)
woof woof (for dog)

I've heard her say fish once and a friend heard her say eye once while pointing to her eye. But she hasn't said either one since so I don't count them.

She gets scared and cries when there are loud sudden noises or actions near her (just like most kids, including Doodle), like a dog barking or a cat jumping toward her. She's not afraid to have water poured over her head in the bath, she laughs when Doodle splashes her in the tub, she finds it amusing to be bullied by her brother. For the most part she's pretty tough. She also is already showing signs of being a girly girl. She loves her pretty pink shoes with flowers on them. The other day Mr. D got her dressed putting socks on her. He wasn't going to put her shoes on. Pancake held up her pretty pink shoes and said "eh eh" for him to put them on.

She's our sweet baby girl and I feel so lucky to have her in our family. Happy birthday, Pancake. I love you.