Nova Joelle Stickley - One Year Old

We can't believe it's been a whole year since our little baby Nova was born. Click Here to re-read about the awesome day.

Here is a collage i made with a picture for each month from the day she was born until she turned one.

I have officially been a mom for one full year. Our lives have changed in unbelievable ways since May 2008. There are certainly challenges with being a mom (like the fact that it has been one full year since i slept past 6 a.m.) However, It is impossible to describe how amazing this year has been. We are so blessed to get to be parents to little miss NovaJo. I want to try write down as much as I can about her so we can look back in the upcoming years to see what she was like at one year old.

Personality:

Nova is notoriously a sweetie pie. She has had this reputation since pretty much the day she was born. She adores mommy and daddy. and her face lights up the second we walk into the room. She loves Juneau, and gets her feelings hurt so easily if Juneau isn't being appropriately "sweet" to her. In the last couple of months she has started to develop a little spunkiness. She now knows what she wants, and if the sweet thing doesn't seem to be working, she will try the spunk.

Motor:

Nova took her first step just before she turned 10 months. She officially started walking just before she turned 11 months. She has been climbing on her Kangaroo climber since about 7 months. She watches Juneau's every move, and I think this is what has helped her motor development so much.

Verbal:

Nova is a little chatterbox. She spends the whole day making baby sounds and singing. She has several words the she says consistently "mama" "dada" "one more" "please" "dog" "bubbles" "flower" "bott-bott (bottle)" "thank you" "ice (for ice cream)". she knows what sound a dog makes, and what sound a chicken makes. She knows where her head and her tummy are, although she can't yet say "tummy". Other than mama and dada i think her first word was probably "flower". She is obsessed with flowers, and we can hardly walk down the street without stopping every few feet to look at the flowers.

Eating

Nova is certainly not a big eater. Until about a week ago she really didn't like to have anything with flavor in her mouth. She has started to like cheese pizza, and she really likes to eat a banana. The one thing she goes CRAZY for is Ice Cream. Overall she pretty much is still getting the majority of her nutrition from her bottle, but she is down to a 3 bottle/day schedule. We haven't really tried her on regular milk yet, as she still refuses to drink anything cold, or even room temperature. I know it is crazy, but we still carry around a thermos of hot water to make her bottles with when we are away from home.

Sleeping:

Nova has officially slept through the night for about 10 NIGHTS IN A ROW! We are in sleep heaven (At least as far as Nova is concerned, Juneau is a whole other story)

Favorite things:

*Cuddle blankets - Since the day she was born nova has been comforted by soft fleece blankets. any time she comes across a soft blanket she stops what she is doing, and rubs her face on the blanket. it is hilarious! She has to have a cuddle blanket to sleep with. We also have several "bitty cuddles" that we keep in the diaper bag and the car for emergencies

*Pacifiers - she only gets a paci for nap and bed, but she adores her paci

*Flowers

*Sherpa - nova LOVES kisses from sherpa, they crack her up!

*Peek-a-boo - playing peekaboo with nova induces the loudest, cutest belly laugh. she can be entertained even in the rottenest of moods by a quick game of peek-a-boo

*carrying and pushing heavy items - this is soooooo funny. Nothing makes nova happier than carrying around heavy items. Examples: 2 Liter bottles of pop/water; an entire sleeve of diapers (at least 48 diapers in the sleeve); several cans of pop at a time. She can push a completely full basket of laundry all the way across the living room. We need to talk to cousin Hope about maybe borrowing "heavy baby" (one of Hopie's favorite baby dolls who also happens to be quite heavy, hence the endearing name "heavy baby")

*pushing her little walking cart - this is a funny little toy someone gave us as a hand me down. Betsy tried for months to get Juneau to use it when she was learning to walk, but Juneau didn't want anything to do with it. Nova goes INSANE whenever she sees that little thing, and loves to push it up and down the driveway.

Here are a few of the photos we had taken last month for Nova's First Birthday.

Nova Jo,

Thank you for making our lives a million times better than they were one year ago. We hope we can always be the mama and dada you need to help you grow into the amazing little girl you are already becoming. You have changed our lives forever, and we have loved every second of it. Stay sweet forever, little girl. We love you!