One Year Old!

Georgia with her great-grandma, Georgia, whom she is named after

So, today, my little baby is one. I am continually amazed at how she is growing and the changes I see in her every day. We spent most of this last month in the US. We had two weeks with Dave's family, one of those weeks being spent celebrating the wedding of Matt (Dave's brother) and Kyan. Georgia also had her first ear infection and was very miserable (as was I, getting up 5-8 times/night with her) for a couple of days! We then went to Colorado to see my family and spent that week celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Georgia's birthday. Needless to say, although this trip has been our longest back to the US since we've moved, it felt very much like a whirlwind. We are so thankful though, that Georgia is able to get to know her family!

Excited for a bath at Grandma & Grandpa's house

Weight: I'm guessing 23 pounds
Height: 31 inches (measured today)
Diapers: Size 4 (both in the US and in UK)
Clothes: I just put away all her 9 month stuff. She is mostly in 12 or 12-18 month, although I have pulled out some of the 18 month outfits
Teeth: Still 8!
Words: dada, mama, diaper (bah-buh), bye-bye, dog (bah), bird (bi), book, ball. My mom believes she said "pretty" when looking at the Christmas tree, and when we were in California, it sounded like she said "grandpa" a couple of times. Who knows!

Dave and Georgia in front of Notre Dame in Paris

Sleeping/Eating/Nursing: In all honesty, since we have been traveling across time zones (and got her first ear infection), her body clock has been off. We're going to start working on sleeping through the night now, getting on a good schedule and night weaning. I'll let you know how all this goes in a month ;-)

Some things that Georgia loves:
- reading books
- listening to music and dancing
- dogs (and any other animals)
- doing everything herself - brushing her teeth, brushing her hair
- pointing to things and having us tell her what they are
- playing with other kids. She is always interested in the toy they are playing with
- clapping for herself

Georgia has just started trying to do things herself. I have been giving her a fork (kid-friendly, of course) at meal times and she loves trying to use it. She has a lot of trouble getting anything to stay on the fork, but can easily get it into her mouth.

When we were in Colorado, my siblings were trying to teach her body parts - nose, eyes, mouth. It seems like she's picked them up because most of the time if you ask her where her nose is, she can point to the right thing!

We had a "cake smash" in honor of Georgia's first birthday. 

We are so thankful for this girl that is a part of our family. She has such a big personality and it is so fun to see her light up a room. It is exciting thinking about what her future brings. Happy Birthday, darling!

Paris

About a month ago two months ago, we did a two-day trip to Paris. Dave had had meetings with his work, his friends from the office in Monrovia. We did the trip with them - another couple and a baby the same age as Georgia and two single girls. Doing a trip this short with Georgia was a very crazy idea. We left early on Saturday morning, taking the train from our place, a switch to the tube, and finally the Eurostar (a fast train ride from London to Paris), and arrived in Paris around 10am.

After checking into our hotel, I put Georgia down for a nap while Dave sat with her and the rest of our group went to get some lunch. One thing we learned about eating in Paris (well, Europe, really!) is that everything moves at a snails pace. So, before we were done eating, Georgia had woken up and Dave joined us. We then decided to head towards the Louvre.

We spent a few hours in the museum, and although it was a neat museum, I was not very impressed. There were way too many people and the museum was not very stroller-friendly, with lots of stairs that Dave and I ended up carrying the stroller up and down.

Everyone looking at the Mona Lisa

We saw the big things: the Mona Lisa and the Egyptian section (Dave wanted to see the mummies). One of the wings was also closed, and it made navigating a little more difficult.

Dave & Georgia walking around the museum

Georgia was just starting to walk more and more. Before this trip, she mostly walked in the evenings if we encouraged her to. During the trip, she decided she wanted to walk all the time. The second day there, she wasn't okay with sitting in her stroller. She only wanted to walk. Thankfully she was okay with us holding her hand as being in an unknown place with many people around.

Anyways, after we spent a couple hours at the Lourve, we thought that we would go to the Eiffel Tower. Not knowing the city, we thought we would walk. We walked and walked and walked. It was a beautiful walk along the river, but it went on and on and on.

It started drizzling.
We kept walking.
It took maybe an hour.

We finally got there! We got there right around 7pm (I think!) when they do the light show. And of course right as we got there and the light show started, the rain came down! And it poured and poured. We had the rain cover for the stroller but of course we couldn't find the umbrellas. And, if you've been to Paris you know that the underground stations are few and far between. So, we walked about 10 minutes to the nearest station with the rain pouring and a baby fussing (having been awake for 14+ hours already) and all of us hungry and tired (remember walking for 3 hours at the Lourve plus the hour long hike to the Eiffel tower). Needless to say, I was pretty unhappy.

The view as we were walking away from the Eiffel Tower in the rain

That night, we had reservations at a little place by our hotel for dinner. We didn't expect much, but we were all blown away. It was a fun non-touristy, authentic French restaurant. I think the meal took us 2 hours to eat, but the food was wonderful and the atmosphere was great!

Day 2: We (Dave & I) explored the city with Cole & Sharon. Cole works with Dave and they have a little girl that is 2 weeks older than Georgia. We kept a bit slower pace because it was easier to do with the girls.

We walked to Notre Dame, let Georgia chase all the pigeons she wanted. We walked down the Champs-Elysees, and Georgia just wanted to be out of the stroller. Thankfully she was a good hand-holder, otherwise it wouldn't have been possible to let her do this.

We made sure to see the Arc de Triumph, but this is the closest that we got to it. By this point, we didn't need to touch it!

After this, we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and have some dinner. We rushed to the train station, and got back into London around 11pm. It was an absolutely crazy trip and we were exhausted! We only scratched the surface of everything there is to see and do in Paris, but will wait until we can take a trip without our kids (or in many years when Georgia is older!).

Another note: Paris is not very child-friendly at all! It is very difficult to take the stroller on the underground as there are lots of stairs and the strollers don't fit through the turnstiles. Also, not a single place we ate had a highchair. The people themselves were fairly friendly but didn't speak much English. It seemed that they knew what we were saying, but either didn't know enough English to respond or didn't want to try responding in English.

11 months

We officially have a toddler in the house! Although we still have one month until Georgia is a year old, she has begun toddling around.  This month has been very busy for us. Dave's mom was here at the beginning of the month and his sister, Kate, is now living in London for the school year, so we see her a couple times a week. We had a church retreat, Dave went to Costa Rica and had another work conference an hour away from here. My brother came to visit and this weekend we're going to Paris! (okay, okay, I wrote this paragraph a week ago... we went to Paris and are back home again.... more on that to come!)

Georgia was watching the light on my camera that flashes when the subject is in focus. Normally she doesn't notice it because I take pictures during the day. She kept blinking and making silly faces!

Weight: Almost 21 pounds
Teeth count: 8 (still!)
Word Count: 5, maybe 6: dada, mama, do (dog), bi (bird), bo (book), ah! (hi)

Georgia has been walking more and more. Just a couple days ago, she began taking off on her own, and now walks from room to room. She walks probably 80% of the time.

I have said it a lot lately... Georgia reminds me of a little boy. I guess I don't know many other kids her age, and she just seems so active and rebumctious, she reminds me of what I think a boy should act like. In my mind, girls are supposed to be dainty and clean, and Georgia is just about the opposite of this.

She loves doing anything that she can do to get dirty - eating sand, chewing sticks, putting food in her hair, etc. She is rough and tumble, climbing over anything that she thinks that she can. At the park, she loves climbing on the little play structure, and going down the slide.

She also takes after her daddy in her personality and voice. She definitely has her daddy's loud voice and loves to use it, talking loudly throughout the day, especially in places where it is most inappropriate: libraries, church, sightseeing at very quiet places (Cathedrals, museums, etc). She has the gift of WOO and loves waving at strangers, smiling broadly. She also loves kids, especially those a bit older than her. She follows them around and tries to mimic their activities.

Sleep: Georgia is becoming a lot more flexible with her naps (yay!). She still needs two naps a day, but can survive on one nap a day. This has made trips like Paris much easier because she is unable to sleep in the stroller. She takes 1.5 hour nap in the morning and 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon. She still sleeps 12 hours a night, and is close to sleeping through the night. She did a 10 hour stretch this last week. Unfortunately with our upcoming trip to the States, her sleep schedule is going to be upset.

Eating: Georgia is nursing 4 times a day basically (plus if she wakes up at night): when she wakes up, before her naps, and before bed. She eats regular meals with us that are always hit and miss. She always will eat meat, but everything else depends on the day. She has taken a liking to Grape Nuts (the cereal) and will often have that in the morning. For lunch, she usually eats lunch meat and frozen peas. Dinner she eats what we're having.

Georgia's favorite thing has to be animals (still!). She often sees birds before I do, and will exclaim, "Ba" followed by panting (the noise she makes for dog.... although now it has become the noise made for any animal that she sees).

Georgia got into a bottle of olive oil, and I stripped her down and had to wash the floor. She loved the sponge and ended up eating just as much soap as she used on the floor.