A year ago, I was 9 months pregnant. I was worried about how Kyper would react to a sibling. I was worried about how I was going to be outnumbered during the day and not knowing how I was going to handle trying to care for 2 kids--a baby and a 3 year old. I was wondering how I could ever love another little being as much as I loved Kyper. Well, it is a year later and we have a beautiful little girl who is celebrating one year of life on April 22.
I know why I was worried, because I am human. I didn't need to be worried and my head and heart knew that God would take care of me, but it didn't stop the worrying. Well, God did take care of me and apparently I had nothing to worry about. I can't imagine my life without my little girl. I told Joel the other night that I can't believe she is already a year old, but at the same time I can't imagine/remember what it was like without her in our family.
I haven't written much about Anja on this blog, so here is a little picture of her and the last year.
Anja is a peanut. Last time she was at the doctor she was still under 14 lbs, with what she was averaging, I think she is a little over 15 lbs now at he birthday. She is healthy though, in all other areas she is developing just fine. Actually, I am just waiting for her to walk. She has taken a few tentative single steps in the last couple days and I can see that she wants to walk. But, I also can tell that she thinks crawling is faster. She started crawling when early November around 6 to 7 months and she has been non-stop since. I joke that she had to learn early either to keep up with her older brother or to run away. She never gave me the sit on the floor and play stage. Instead she started crawling before she could even sit up.
I have a feeling she may end up being a little adventurous. She has had more bumps and bruises than I remember Kyper having and it is not just because she has an older brother. She just gets to spots where she ends up boinking her head or falling. She also is less tentative than Kyper in some situations. Maybe it is because she hasn't really developed fear yet, but I can see a little adventurous spirit in her too. For example, Kyper had nothing to do with the play structure at Great Wolf Lodge when he realized water was going to spray and fall on him. Anja loved going up on the structure with Daddy and didn't mind getting a shower.
At the moment, Anja is a mommy's girl and I have to be very close to her for her to be okay. I either have to be holding her or sitting in the same room that she is playing in. If I am in the same room she will play fine by herself and just needs me in the room not necessarily playing with her. But, even if she has been playing nicely by herself for a good 20 minutes, the minute I stand up and go to another room I hear an unhappy girl following me. This does make it hard for me to get stuff done while she is awake, but I am also going to cherish this attitude, since I don't think it will last. She also loves when her daddy comes home. She may be a mommy's girl, but she lights up when Joel comes home. (And she totally has daddy wrapped around her little finger.)
This post is mostly about Anja, but I do need to write a few things about Kyper, because I just love seeing their relationship develop and deepen. Kyper loved her the minute her saw her in the hospital. I was worried he would be jealous of her, but he hasn't. Instead, he has taken to be her guardian and lately her best friend. He tells her that he loves her almost daily and also tells me what a cute and beautiful baby she is. Anja, if you read this someday, you have a great big brother. One story that gets me every time happened when Anja was about 3-4 months old. We went to a department picnic with Joel's co-workers. He let one of his fellow residents hold her and the minute Kyper saw Anja in a "stranger's" arms, he burst into tears and ran to us all while crying "Give me back my baby." I have a feeling that he will be the only one that can tease her, but will protect her from others. Now, I just have to remember that protectiveness when he is being rough and does tease her. I just love to see his love her and can't wait to see how she relates back. She is just starting to respond more to him. She smiles at him and Kyper can get her to giggle. Just the other day I held her on Kyper's back while he crawled and she was delighted.
Not only is Anja a little adventurous, she is also fairly serious. She is not ticklish and it takes awhile to get her giggling and smiling. It isn't that she doesn't have fun or is crabby often, she is just serious about things.
Bragging alert: She is an awesome sleeper. She slept through the night since day one. Seriously there were very few nights even at the beginning that she didn't give me at least a 4 hour stretch. She still is a good sleeper. She still takes 2 naps when we are at home for the day. Her sleep schedule typically looks like this: wake up around 8 am; Nap at 10am; wake up around 11:30/noon; Nap at 2; wake up around 4:30pm, bedtime 7pm. She can skip her morning nap and often does if we are out and about, but on those days her afternoon nap will be earlier and longer. She is sometimes a light sleeper and will often roll around if we go and check on her before we head to bed, but at least she stays asleep or falls back to sleep right away.
She has 6 teeth all the way through and is working on at least 2 more.
She is done with baby food and loves to eat with her fingers. She is a good eater and has been all along (another reason we are not so worried about her size.) Her favorite food is avocado at the moment. She could probably eat a whole one at each meal if we let her. She also likes cheese, mandarin oranges, and of course cupcakes. She got a littler early birthday treat at her photo shoot.
I love you Anja Rose. I can't imagine life without you and I am so grateful and filled with Joy that God has blessed us with you! Happy first birthday!
