The most significant milestone so far is there: Lavinia has turned one! I would say that I can’t believe that, but it’s no true! What a ride has been so far 🙂
So many achievements
Lavinia has put her fifth gear as far as discoveries and skills are concerned. In a few days, she has fine-tuned her walking and stacking objects skills; her fine and gross motors have improved dramatically, as well as her social skills.
The list of the things she’s learned and has improved is very long (and maybe dull for you all!), so I’ll skip it. Trust me when I say that her transformation into a funny, talkative and sweet toddler is completed.
Food and personality
Lavinia’s personality is sweet and pleasant. She’s always smiling, also when she’s up on some mischief. It’s nice being around her: if she’s fussy or unhappy, she must have an excellent reason for this.
She’s almost wholly independent when it’s meal time. She still troubles a little managing cutleries, but she is trying hard at every meal. Her appetite is always massive (she ate lots also when she had the post-vaccine fever!), and seeing her eating is quite an entertaining activity.
While she doesn’t take the bottle with the teat anymore, she’s still very much engaged and interested in my breast. She has skipped a nursing session here and there, but sporadically, and nothing that makes me feel she’s ready to wean. I am nudging her to wean herself out of the breast without pushing too much: she knows when it’s time to ditch my milk for cow and soy milk. She’s been having soya milk since she was five months old, however she hasn’t tried cow milk yet — but she already has lots of dairy food.
That’s probably the last time she had a bottle! 
Play play play play play
I enjoy playing with Lavinia. She’s brilliant and intelligent in whatever she tries to do, and I like following her lead. She has a generous soul, as she always shares all her toys with me (I am sure she’ll go into the opposite phase at some point, but until that time we YOLO).
She also likes dancing and signing! Most of the times, she wants some music in the background when playing. It’s funny as I didn’t think a child so little would have such needs when it’s playtime, and such natural inclination to dancing.
Family time
We spend a lot of time together, not only because November marked another round of 4 weeks of lockdown due to this never-ending pandemic. Our lives rotate around Lavinia, and this is not as tough or heavy as I was afraid it’d be.
For sure we can’t nurture our hobbies (music and writing, to saying two), as we used to do, but that’s a phase. She’s growing so fast and is getting more independent as the days go. We’re going to look at these days with lots of melancholy, so we’re taking the very best of them.
Happy birthday, little Scimmiuz
We had so many plans for Lavinia’s birthday. None of them were big, but we planned to have our families flaying here from Italy to celebrate.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit again, and our families had to cancel their flights and stay at home. We ended up having a Zoom call with our families and our closest friends.
She received many presents from our extended families, friends and also from our lovely childminder. Her gang also set up a little celebration time for Lavinia at daycare, doing what she likes the most: eating.
Despite the pandemic, we felt the love coming from all over the place, surrounding her. She won’t remember any of this, but the memories we froze through pics and videos are surely sweet.
Her birthday wasn’t that bad at the end of the day; I can’t hide some bitter sadness, though. I prepared a gazillion of Lavinia-friendly muffins, so she could enjoy and eat them independently — as opposed to deal with a massive cake. She ended up having mostly all of the muffins! Franz and I tasted them, and they were delicious 🙂
We also celebrated Franz’s birthday on Nov 1; while I was getting fresh pancakes we enjoyed all together, she was in charge of the birthday card.
The horrible 1yo vaccines
I was told that the 1-year-old vaccine would be terrible. It was indeed awful. Well, I heard way worse horror stories, to be honest, but Lavinia didn’t have a nice couple of days after her 4 (four!) shots.
While she didn’t cry much during the actual vaccinations, she had fever and discomfort for two days. At some point, she also had a high fever, and it was a bit scary. She never lost her appetite, though, which was reassuring.
I am Lavinia Olympia 
She is growing into a real sweetheart
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