Adriana Leigh Herman is ONE!

Dear Adriana,

When you were born, I wrote you a letter in your baby book.  In it, I said that I couldn't use the typical line, "I never knew I could love someone so much," because I always knew that I would love being a mother and I would love my baby just as much as I love you.  Over the past year, this has proven to be true time and time again.  I absolutely adore everything about you.  I love nothing more than spending time with you (and our other family members, like Daddy, your grandparents, Brandon, the boys, etc.).  I dread the times that I have to leave you, and can't wait until I can get back to you to see what fun things you have done while I was gone.

The amount of pride I have for you is astounding.  You are the sweetest little girl.  You love to give kisses and hugs.  You're particular (you will only kiss people on their right cheek, for the most part), but SO friendly.  As long as I let you know that you can trust the person, you're open to pretty much anyone, but sometimes you do have to warm up to new people a little bit.  I can tell that you love your family.  One of your favorite things to do is to look at pictures of your family members and close friends.  You point to certain people you want to look at, and you always let me know that you want to see your Poppy (you think this sounds like "puppy," and you pant when you want to see him).

Boy, you are SO SO SO smart!!  You love to look at books.  You've even started turning them the correct way to look at them.  Being a teacher, I know that this is the first step to reading, but I'm sure that's still a little way off.  You also learn new things pretty quickly.  Grandma watches you while I work, and she says that she loves to watch you explore new things.  She will show you something new, and after watching her work with it one time, you try (and usually succeed) to work with it on your own.  Sometimes this is challenging because you figure out how to get past our babyproofing.

You know what a puppy says (pant-pant-pant), what a cow says ("mmmmmmm"), what an elephant says (this one is your favorite...you put your arm in the air and squeal), and are starting to know what a horsey says ("nay-nay-nay").  You just learned horsey because you just love your new rocking horse that "Uncle" Jeff got you.  You also know how to let us know that you want to see and/or smell flowers (sniff-sniff-sniff).  You know where your mouth is consistently.  You know where my nose is most of the time.  You know how to tell me when you want more, and when you want to eat (you do the "eat" sign to my mouth instead of yours).  You tell me you want other things by pointing, and you only whine when you get really tired (we're still working on that).  You raise your hands to ask where things are, and you wave bye-bye.  You have picked up each of these things in a very short amount of time.  You learned most of them just a day or two after they were introduced to you.

 You have a magnetic personality.  You love to go out in public and see other people.  Daddy and I are always amazed at how people are drawn to you.  We can't go anywhere without hearing someone tell us how cute you are!  You love to interact with other people, and you are a master at drawing new people into your world.

You are also very talented.  You took your first steps when you were only 9 1/2 months old, and you were walking completely on your own at 10 1/2 months.  You also love to dance, "sing," and clap along to music.  You love musical DVDs, CDs, and toys.

You are an absolute joy to be around.  I wish that I could spend every second of every day with you.  I know future years will go by just as quickly as this year has, and there will be a time when you don't want to be around your mom as much, so I want to spend as much time with you now as I possibly can.

My hope for your future is that you always have the amount of self-confidence that you have right now.  I don't want you to be conceited, and I don't want you to think that you can do no wrong, but I hope that you always know what a wonderful person you are.  I see girls every day who are so unsure of themselves, and I hope that you always feel as good about yourself as you do now.  I also hope that you know that a big reason you are so wonderful is because of your inner beauty.  Yes, you are adorable, but as I said before, it is your personality that draws people in.  It is your loving nature and kind heart that makes you so wonderful.  I hope, more than anything else, that you remain loving and kind to others forever.

I feel like I am the luckiest person alive because I get to be your mommy.  I thank God every day that I have such a wonderful little girl, and I hope that you feel just as lucky to be my little girl.

I love you, Adriana Leigh Herman.

Love,
Mommy

Measure Up Monday - 51 Weeks

This is it.  The last weekly post.  I'm still planning to do a monthly picture, but Adriana doesn't seem to change much from week to week anymore, so I won't be making her pose with Elmo as frequently anymore.

Adriana has completely recovered from her her Roseola, and she was back to her happy self this week.  She was a little more melancholy today because her favorite thing is being taken away from her.  She is no longer allowed to nurse during the day.  She's become a bit too dependent, and isn't doing well with naps for Grandma when Mommy is gone.  Plus, she's getting to be a big girl.  As a wise person told me, if she drank from a bottle, I would take that away at one year, so I need to take away nursing.  Big girls drink from cups.  She's sad about it, but as long as she keeps her mind off of it, she's fine.  We'll cut out bedtime nursing soon, but for now, we're taking it one step at a time.

Here's the serious face she had for most of today:

 But she was still our happy girl when she didn't focus on nursing being taken away:

Measure Up Monday - 50 Weeks

We are two weeks away from Adriana's first birthday!

During her 50th week, Adriana got sick.  Adriana's great grandma, Dot, passed away early on Wednesday, August 15.  The following weekend, we went to the viewing and funeral, and Adriana was around a LOT of people.  Much more than she is normally used to, and we're pretty sure she picked up a bug from someone.  She just wasn't herself all week.  We thought at first it was because I was working again, and she was having some trouble adjusting.  I still think that might be part of it, but then the fever came, letting us know that it was more than just trouble adjusting.

On Wednesday evening, I thought that Adriana felt a little warmer than normal, but it wasn't anything I was too worried about.  I just gave her some Motrin.  Thursday was a different story.  I had Open House at school, so Scott put Adriana to bed.  He said she just wasn't herself.  She didn't play during her bath, and she just wasn't as animated as normal.  At around 11:30 on Thursday night, Adriana woke up crying...er...screaming.  I went to get her, and realized she was burning up.  We took her temperature, gave her Motrin, and then I held her all night.  I'm so scared of fevers because of Quentin's seizure due to a fever when he was 9 months old.  I don't think I will ever forget seeing that little baby shake and shake.  I'm so glad he is fine, but the whole ordeal terrified me.  I wanted to make sure Adriana's fever didn't get to that point.  I figured if I held her, she would get a good night's sleep, and I would be able to tell instantly if her fever came back.

When she started to get hot again at 6:00, I gave her more medicine right away, but she still didn't get the best sleep.  She woke up screaming several times that night.  When I talked to the doctor's office, they said they definitely wanted to see her because if she had Motrin and I held her, she shouldn't have been waking up screaming unless something was really wrong.  So, I took Friday off and took Adriana to the doctor.

It turns out Adriana has Roseola.  The doctor said she would have a high fever for about 3 days, and then the fever would break and she would get a rash.  Adriana's rash appeared Sunday and got worse today.  She doesn't act like it bothers her at all.  She looks at the spots like she doesn't quite know what they are, but she doesn't scratch or act irritable.  She still wanted to be held a lot today, but overall, she's doing much better.

I took Adriana's picture this week before the rash broke out, but you can tell her hair is a little out-of-sorts from laying on me so much and her eyes have lost a little of their sparkle.

  Here's hoping next week's picture looks a little healthier.  :-)

Measure Up Monday - 49 Weeks

She's making her "stank face" in this picture.  She thinks this is the funniest face to make right now.  Someday she'll say, "Mom!  Why did you take that picture?"  Every time I got her to laugh, she would bury her face in Elmo.  Oh well.  I still think she's a cutie!  :-)

Adriana Leigh is 11 Months (48 weeks) Old

I can't believe it!  We're only a month away from Adriana's first birthday.  I have party ideas, but I have yet to actually put any plans into motion.  I'm sure I'll get there soon...

The hair was going a little crazy that day!

As my summer with Adriana comes to a close, I'm amazed by how much she has grown and developed in the past 11 weeks.  Although I am sad to go back to work, and I know I will miss seeing her every day, I am so lucky to get such a large stretch of time at home with my baby girl.  When school ended last May, Adriana had just started to crawl, only had two teeth, was starting to stand without holding on (for about 5 seconds) and could only walk if she had help, mostly babbled, but sometimes said "dada," and was just trying out waving.

Now, at the end of the summer, she is less of a baby and more of a toddler.  She is walking.  She gets more and more steady every day.  She has six teeth, says "mama," "dada," "baby" (sometimes), "hi" (sometimes), and "night-night."  She also communicates in other ways.  She knows her Poppy and knows that he is connected to Grandma Coley.  She pants to let us know who Poppy is.  She loves flowers, and she will sniff when she wants to see some.  She also waves enthusiastically and is such a friendly little girl.  She loves to smile at her friends and meet new people.  She loves to clap her hands, whether it's because she's happy and she knows it, she's playing pat-a-cake, or just because she's excited.  She also loves dancing to music, and is starting to try to sing.  Right now it's more of an "aaaa-aaaa-aaaa" noise, but she's getting the idea.

According to the baby development app on my phone, Adriana is already doing everything that she should be doing by 11 months.  In addition, she has also reached all of these 12-month milestones:

• Takes one-two naps daily
• Bangs two cubes together
• Puts objects into containers and then takes them out
• Voluntarily lets objects go (she has to kiss them goodbye first, though)
• Has fun opening and closing cabinet doors
• Interested in books and identifies some things
• Understands some simple commands
• Pushes away what she doesn't want
• Pushes, pulls, and dumps items
• Pulls off socks
• Understands the use of certain objects
• Tests parental responses to behavior
• Identifies self in mirror

I'm so lucky that I have gotten to be around Adriana every day to see her learn how to do all of these things.

Measure Up Monday - 47 Weeks

Adriana and I are going to try to enjoy our last week of summer.  I know Adriana misses Grandma (and I'm sure Grandma misses her as well), but Adriana is going through a major Mommy phase right now, and I know next week is going to be hard on her.  I expect there will be tears on Monday...and Adriana may cry, too.  :'-(

On a positive note, I told Scott today that Adriana was born at such a perfect time.  I am amazed at all she has learned to do this summer, and I'm so happy that I've been home to see it all.  Lately, I've been amazed at her ability to communicate.  She has learned to ask for milk by tapping me on the chest.  She helps me water our plants, and she makes a sniffing noise to show me that she knows she is looking at flowers.  She has started to imitate singing.  She carries a tune about as well as her mother, but she's trying.  I just can't believe how much she has grown this summer!

Here's the latest picture to show how much she has grown:

Look!  She smiled for me!

Measure Up Monday - 46 Weeks

I have no good excuse for being late this week.  I've had the picture, I just never had a chance to get back to the computer.  (Side note:  Adriana and I are in Columbia City, which has contributed to the lateness, but Mom says I'm not allowed to blame her.)

Here she is...



She was VERY smiley...until I pulled out the camera.
Then she just got mad because I wouldn't let her hold the camera.



She loves to hug!