Michaela at 12 months

In honor of her first birthday, I'd like to write a little (okay, not so little) post about Michaela's developing personality. I know it is pretty early to make any set claims on who she is and will become, but when I think about raising my first daughter compared to raising my second, it is becoming extremely evident that the "nature" of this little one is totally overpowering the "nurture" side! I hope my description doesn't come across as neither boastful or negative, but just an interesting observation in the gifts my second daughter was born with and how she uses them. I know comparing children is dangerous ground, and I will tread it with caution. While both my girls are very sweet, it is just fascinating to me how different Mj is from her cautious, rule following older sister.

Appropriate play. Michaela has amazed me at how early she has started to really play. She went quickly from the shaking of toys and making noise, to rocking & feeding babies, pretend talking on the phone, using look alike objects to brush teeth and hair, accessorize, trim her nails, take her temp, pretend eat and drink, and all kinds of things that are amazing from a kid who can't really talk! While most kids her age would have a hard time playing in the sand box or sorting through small rocks, she does a good job of keeping those things out of her mouth (with some reminding) and shovels and sorts like her 2 year old sister!

Motor skills. Michaela sat, crawled, and stood at 6 months. She took her first steps at 10 months. She is still using both crawling and walking as transportation at 12 months, whatever will get her there fastest. She likes to climb on the couch, and knows to turn around to dismount. She also turns around to independently go down steps, slides, chairs, mountains, or whatever else she has climbed up! :) She will try anything she sees other kids do, no matter if they are 1 or 12. She can climb ladders and go down slides, she scoots on bikes, she pushes wheeley objects, and will sit on any chair that looks her size. She is brave enough to jump or go head first down things again and again and she has had more mouth bleeds this month than Maddi has in a lifetime. She shines in the motor area and has me constantly on my feet preparing for the face first risk she will inevitably take.

Eating. She started solids at 4 months. Pretty typical development from rice, veggies, fruits, then meats. I think I shortened the 3 days per food rule and introduced a few at time. I figured if there was any strange allergens, we could back track and figure it out. Since I made my own food, it had a little more texture and she moved on to chunky and bite sized things by about 7 months. She was lucky to have teeth by this point on both top and bottom which helped tremendously! She was picking up her own food and grabbing for mine constantly, so I started letting her take little samples. I started REALLY breaking the "rules" at 9 months when she was eating things like lasagna, sandwiches, and other mixed table foods with the meats and cheeses and nuts she was supposed to wait until a year to have. By 10 months she was DONE with all baby foods and wanted to hold her own spoon and feed herself whatever we were eating..... and surprisingly she was chewing and swallowing it all without any tummy troubles! At a year she can eat anything. Due to some well meaning but uninformed family or friends, she has even sucked diet coke from a straw, tried fritos, cheetos, and other chips, and stolen Maddi's candy!

Language. At 12 months she says Ma Ma, Da da, Ra Rah (any dog or Sasha), Bye Bye and Baby. Anything she doesn't know for sure she says Rah Rah for. She seems to understand a lot (even multi step instructions such as, pick up that baby doll and rock her) but hasn't really boomed in terms of talking. I have read that kids either work on language OR motor skills and swing back and forth. Some kids even regress in terms of talking when hitting huge motor milestones. It is pretty obvious her focus has not been on developing speech at this point..... PLUS 4 weeks of ear infections couldn't have helped how she was hearing the world either! :)

Prediction. My prediction for Michaela is that she will be a good student, a good athlete, and a risk taker. She will probably test her parents and cause some gray hairs, but also have the confidence to demand respect. Being a class clown type MAY get her in to trouble now and again, but she won't have trouble making friends that enjoy to laugh. While I hope her cautious sister doesn't find her too abrasive or too physical, I hope that they can be great friends their whole lives. Her strengths continue to shine in her motor area and perhaps can be channeled into a good positive athlete type of role.