Sally lately

This sweet girl just turned one on December 28th.  We ended up doing a joint birthday party for her and Sophie since both of their birthdays are in December (this also helps keep things a little less hectic with all the holiday ongoings too).  I will do another post about their birthday party, but basically, we did a really simple family party.  I wanted to post about some of Sally's milestones since I haven't written any of them down yet.  I am already having a hard time remembering some of them, but here is what I do remember.

-sitting up well at 5-6 months ( I remember her doctor commenting that she was sitting up well like a 9 month old)
-first word was da-da (can't remember exact age, but maybe 5-6 months?)
-started crawling around 7 months
-started walking around 10.5 months (by this I mean taking a series of 8-10 steps without falling)
-walking well at 11 months
-breastfed until almost 13 months. always a GREAT eater, willing to try almost any solid food until recently
-always in the 95th percentile or higher for weight.  60th or so for height
-at almost 13 months, these are the words she says: dada, mama, shoe, show, bite (she says this LOUDLY and enunciates the consonants when she wants to eat), water, milk, mano (hand in Spanish), hi, book, bye-bye, poo-poo, kitty, vaca (cow in Spanish), moo, light, bath, yay, night-night, ball, baby, cracker (her FAVORITE food), all done (when she wants down from her high chair)

She was a pretty difficult baby when she was really little.  She cried A LOT for reasons we couldn't figure out during the first 2 months or so.  She was always a great eater, and gained 2 pounds in the first 2 weeks she was here (our doc said she had never seen a baby gain like that in the first 2 weeks!).  This was both a blessing and a burden because she wanted to eat ALL the time.  I never knew if it would be 15 minutes or 2 hours before she would want to eat again.  She woke up every 2 hours or so at night to eat for a long time (maybe 4 months).  She gradually transitioned to longer spurts of sleeping at night, but up until maybe 2 months ago, she would still wake up a few times at night to nurse.  We actually just completely transitioned to whole milk from breast milk about 4 days ago.  I had a stomach bug, and I think if that weren't the case, I would have given in and just nursed her.  Instead, I had to offer her regular milk for her 11 pm feeding (normally I would nurse her then) and during the night when she woke up a few times (she had been sleeping through the night, but since we were weaning, she was waking up more).  She would NOT drink the regular milk, and cried for a solid hour before going back to sleep.  This was with me holding her or not holding her.  It didn't matter.  I felt so sorry for her, and wanted to nurse her, but didn't want her to get sick.  After that, I decided if I had already put her through that ordeal, I should go ahead and finish weaning her completely.  I didn't want her to have to go through that more than necessary.  So, the last few nights have been a little rough since she is still protesting somewhat.  She will drink her milk if she is really thirsty/hungry, but she drinks MUCH less than she did when I was breastfeeding.  I am hoping she will adjust soon.  She has also had problems with constipation, so we have her on myralax which our doctor said is safe to give daily.  It just softens everything.  I feel like I have focused on a lot of difficult things about her, but she is a really sweet baby.  She gives hugs all the time.  To us, to Sophie, to the kitty.  It just MELTS my heart when I witness a sweet, unprompted sister hug.  She is almost always happy.  She KNOWS what she wants and communicates it to us pretty well.  Her favorite things are dancing, music, reading books, playing on any elevated surface (couch, bed, chair), going outside, pulling all her shoes out of her shoe drawer and climbing into the drawer, and seeing her da-da come home from work.  She takes one nap a day for about 2 hrs. (has done this since about 10 months) which is actually nice because now the girls nap at the same time.  She had been sleeping about 12 hrs. at night, but recently is waking up sooner because she is extra hungry (refusing to drink at 11pm when she wakes up and wants to nurse).  I love her SO much and am so proud of her.  If any of you have any similar experiences in weaning a baby and have some advice to share, share away!