stats and shots

Alyssa had her 1 year appointment friday. i typed 1 month at first and had to backspace...my girl's age is no longer in months :( . She is doing great as always. 21 lbs and 29 inches which puts her in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. I knew she had really slimmed down here the past few months. She looks so tiny to me now. I'm used to a big chubby baby not a tiny one running all over the house. The doctor said I seem to be doing everything right as far as her health is concerned which is always good to hear. The only problem I am having right now is the issue of shots. Up until now, I have gotten Alyssa all of the reccommended shots. The 1 year ones are the controversial ones since they include the MMR. I have bought some books and been doing internet research on vaccine safety but its jsut too much information to process. There are SO many conflicting views and its really hard to make what I feel is the right decision for her. I am going to have Dave do some research as well so I am not responsible for the decision all by myself...its too big to make alone. Could giving her shots cause autism? thats the biggest question. As of now I believe the answer is no. And if it does somehow, I believe there must be a pre-existing condition or family history and somehow the vaccine could aggrevate it. But kids have autism whose parents didnt vaccinate them so the vaccines alone can not be the cause of autism. I also don't think its fair for me not to vaccinate my kid and have them get someone else sick, such as an infant who has not gotten that particular shot yet. Maybe spreading them out is the best option...possibly. That way their little immune systems can deal with one vaccine at a time and not have to be spread so thin taking care of 5 vaccines at once. I want to still be breastfeeding when I give Alyssa her MMR so her immune system is the best it can be. That is where I'm at right now...give her the MMR now (possible one at a time over the next month) before i completly ween her. The weening is going slowly. I started dropping feedings right before she turned 1. I am weening very slowly though since I had a problem with mastitis numerous times so I need to give my body plenty of time to adjust between dropping feedings.

Her birthday party on Saturday was perfect, just what I had in mind. A 1 year old bday party is more for the parents (mom in particular) but it seemed like Alyssa had a lot of fun as well. I made her cake and it turned out pretty well for my first attempt. We had 14 people staying with us over the weekend and that went really well too. All in all, it was a great weekend and thank you to all our families for making the trip to spend the day with Alyssa.

We received the easel off of her wishlist in the mail about a week ago but it did not say who its from. Alyssa would like to send you a thank you note so please let us know if it was you!

well i need to go help Alyssa to sleep somehow...shes been in her crib for almost an hour talking away (which is way better than when she screams the whole time). The past month or 2 she has napped terribly. I keep waiting for her to be old enough to reason with but that may take a while. She has had so much inconsistency all summer (well all her life really) with moving/traveling/Dave leaving over the summer that it messes her napping up. Right when it gets back on track we take a trip again...oh well.

Happy 1st Bday Alyssa Paige!!!!!!

sorry I have been such a bad blogger lately but we have been really busy. We have been traveling a lot and Dave has been working a lot so I haven't had much time for myself to sit down and write/upload pictures. Alyssa is naping now, the house is spotless, laundry done, so I have a few minutes before I go start getting dinner together.

Biggest new right now...its my baby girls first birthday today!!! Theres no way its been a year already...no way! So is all grown up and its happening so fast, too fast. I've always heard people say that they cherish the baby stage more with the second, third, etc child because they know how fast it goes. I surely did cherish it and its a good thing because it is gone! She is walking as her mode of transportation. She took her first steps about a month and a half ago but she was still opting to crawl since it was faster. Well that is no longer the case the past week or so. When she sees something she wants, she sure can pick up the pace, almost to a run now! With crawling, she was fast, but I could hear her little hands smacking the floor and knew she was on the move. With her walking, shes all stealth and I can't hear her running in the opposite direction. I can't take my eye off her for a second.

Last night we went to Chuck-E-Cheese's (since we thought dave was going to have to work tonight...although turns out he doesn't yay!) to celebrate Alyssa's bday. She had a great time and I'm not going to lie, so did Dave and I. There was not a ball pit at this one (it was really small) so we didn't have to worry about her catching 30 different viruses from that nasty thing. I brought hand sanitizer and used it often. We ate pizza although since Alyssa eats so healthy all the time she really doesnt have an interest in junk food. She picked the pinapple and chicken off the pizza and gnawed on the crust then she had some veggies when we got home. Dave tried giving her a bite of his chocolate covered pretzel (which she loves pretzels) but she spit it out. Hopefully she will dig into her cake on Saturday though so she puts on a good show. Her party is this saturday and I am so excited. I am making a fancy cake, getting a bounce house for the kids, and we will be eating some good food...sounds like a great saturday.

Its going to be a crazy weekend to say the very least. We will have 14 people sleeping at our house all weekend. We have 3 bedrooms (only 2 have beds since Alyssa's just has a crib). We will have people in the office/living room/playroom on air matresses. It will be a good time though and there will be 4 little kids to entertain each other, and the adults as well.

I've almost cried like 5 times today thinking about how old my baby is. She is the best thing ever and I can't even remember anymore what my life was like a year ago before I had my little love.