One Year Ago Today

Baths were not her thing for a long time, as is evidenced here

 We had a baby girl. We now have a toddler, who is officially walking. She is also starting to repeat sounds and it is great fun to listen to her and Chris "talk" when he gives her a bath. She is also normally fairly vocal about what she wants and doesn't want, she just doesn't always use words. Today went fairly well, though no one came to the library for reading time except us. I ended up talking with the librarians while she played with the trains and legos. She doesn't seem to like the dolls they have at the library or the house they go in. She also likes climbing in the chairs and sitting at an A sized table. She is starting to color, but not really. We went for a run and a lady passing the other direction said, "You can't see how happy of a baby you have in there," which was quite nice of her. A really likes her stroller and just babbles as I run most days. She also learned how to get things out of the side pockets today, so she got to play with keys and her sippy cup.  After we ran we went to the park and played. She walked around the equipment and did some swinging. She seemed to have a lot of fun, and when she started pulling at my shirt (have I mentioned that she no longer cries when she wants to nurse if she is in range of me, she'll just walk over and attempt to help herself?) so we left. She was asleep before we got out of the parking lot. We made a good dinner and she "helped" by getting into the cabinets and making sure all the lids were on the pots. We also had all of her favorite foods today: peas, cheerios, butternut squash with black beans, green beans, pork, focaccia bread. The big one we missed was avocado. We have trouble finding good avocados here. Hopefully this weekend we will remedy that as we are going to Cost-co. Here are a few pictures from last year, and a couple from tonight when we opened presents. My mom skyped with us, so she got to see A opening all her presents and it was pretty entertaining. A kissed the screen several times and even blew a couple of kisses. She just didn't always open her presents...

She got alphabet ducks, as she is a duck monster, these were probably her favorite.

reaching for mom with one hand still on her spoon.

A couple of other fun things that have happened recently...

1) She demands to feed herself. She wants to take the spoon and put it in her mouth herself, thank you very much. She very well may not eat if you are trying to feed her these days.
2) She will allow bows in her hair since it is long enough and she wants it out of her eyes.
3) She is shaking her head a lot. One day last week as I was leaving for a bit I asked her if she was going to be a good girl for daddy. She emphatically shook her head no. I came home to a screaming baby girl...
4) She will tell you yes or no to a lot of things and seems to know when it is comical to "say" the wrong thing.
5) She likes ducks. A Lot. She also has a lion hooded towel and will "roar like a lion" when Chris prompts her.
6) She is also starting to "tackle" us when she wants something.
7) She LOVES to push the cart. When we go to the store if we get a cart she does not want to be in the seat, she wants to push. She will have a cow and wiggle wiggle wiggle until she is let down to push the cart. We get a ton of "How cute" after people realize that I'm not actually talking to myself when I give directions like, "Go left here" and such.