Vivi: Forty-Five and Forty-Six Weeks

Well, if you read my last post, you know that Vivi is allergic to milk, peanuts, and eggs.  Boo.

Her belly was a mess this week too.  I always know big poop drama is on the way when she stops sleeping well and rejects all solids.  Last week, when things going well, we tried going without laxatives for a few days.  Mistake.   She clearly still needs them to function properly.  

She's sixteen pounds now.  That means she only gained one pound in the past two months and is in the fifth percentile.  We meet with GI soon, and I'm curious to see what he'll think of her.  I suspect we'll be changing formula.  

I need to pack some calories on this girl, but without dairy, it's hard.  Plus, Vivi is a picky eater.  She likes bluberries, black beans, and peaches.  Everything else she just tolerates or spits out.  Carrots are not her friend.  She doesn't like prunes anymore either...not that I can blame her.  

She loves bite-sized food and feeding herself.  I have a hard time getting her to eat purées.  

We haven't fed her meat yet.  I'm worried about what that will do to her digestive system.  

She still only has one tiny sliver of a tooth.  It's quite sharp, and she does a good job mashing things with her gums.  

Vivi is very happy and active in spite of her troubles.  She continues to get into everything.  She zooms around the house on all fours.  

Yesterday I watched her go from a crouch to standing without holding on to anything.  She was able to stand for several seconds before she lowered herself back to the floor.  

She likes to climb.  She used Eric as a step-stool and climbed on top of the ottoman the other afternoon.  She is obsessed with the stairs.  Good thing we can block them off.  

She's constantly banging her head on things.  It drives me insane.  I don't remember having this problem with Maddie, but Vivi is a more active baby.  

Her personality is shining.  She's a mixture of sweet and rascal with a flair for 

the dramatic.  She had a runny nose earlier in the week and you'd think she was dying at night by the way she howled and whined.  If conditions are not to her liking, she lets everyone know it.  

Madeline had her shots last week.  The nurses wanted me to hold Maddie, so one of them held Vivienne.  Well, Maddie didn't let out a yelp or a whimper.  Vivi, on the other hand, screamed for thirty minutes.  The wrong child was crying!  

Vivi loves playing with Madeline.  Poor Maddie Bear can't get away from her.  She likes to grab the same guys Maddie is using, and she's very persistent.   Can't distract this baby with anything.  

She loves music.  She dances to everything from commercials, to Maddie singing, to Eric drumming his hands on the table.  She grooves.  

She's "talking" up a storm.  Her babbles sound just like a conversation.  She says dada as clear as a bell, and she's working on mumma.  When I get her from her crib in the morning, she says, "Umm-ma! Umm-ma!"  

We weren't sure how she'd handle Halloween, but she was great.  She sat wide-eyed in her stroller and didn't make a peep the entire time we trick-or-treated.

We love our little bean sprout.  I can't believe she's nearly a year old.