12 months

I really want to start this post with something like "It's so hard to believe" or "time has flown!"  But that would be cliché.  Really, it is hard to believe that she is one year old, but it also feels like she has been a part of our lives forever.  Just the other day Van and I had a Saturday morning to ourselves.  We got so much done in two hours joking the whole time that less than a year ago that was normal life.  It is hard to imagine what we did with ourselves before our Kare girl.

A little about our one year old...

She screams talks all of the time.  It seems as though she is practicing a new sound every day.  Today it was "hi."  I honestly think that she may have been saying it on purpose.  We took an early morning trip to the grocery store and every time we passed by someone (which at 8:30 am isn't very frequently, I'm thinking of making it my normal shopping time) she flashed a big grin and very clearly said, "Hi!" Now, I can't be sure that she knew what she was doing because that was the sound she was practicing for the greater part of the day, but I prefer to believe that she is a genius.  She also knows (and appropriately uses, most of the time; in order of frequency) uh oh, dada, and mama.  Yep, I come in dead last.  At least she isn't saying Boofer yet.  She also says something similar to "bye, nana, baba, and yeah" that she sometimes appropriately uses but not often enough for me to think she knows them.  And yes, when she practices her words it is very, very loudly.

While on the topic of volume, she has begun throwing fits.  All out, throw myself to the floor, scream at the top of my lungs, fits.  It started a few months ago, but the intensity has grown recently.  This can come in response to anything: not being able to eat the strawberries in the grocery cart, not being able to hold the keys, being told no, and even having a desire that I can't interpret so it isn't being met.  This is incredibly frustrating to me; especially in public, but I refuse to reinforce the behavior with much more than a stern no.  Parenting decisions are hard! I have all of the child psychology that I learned in college floating around in my head, but it is so different when it is YOUR child whom you love, want the best for and desperately don't want to mess up!  Not to mention it is embarrassing when she's thrashing around.

She crawls all over the place with incredible speed.  And thanks to the uneven thresholds in our house can easily manipulate steps.  She cruises and walks behind toys on wheels or while holding our hands.  I've caught her standing on her own a few times, but as soon as she realizes what she is doing, she plops down on her butt.

She dances every time there is any sort of music.  It is adorable.  She already has better rhythm than Van (don't tell him that though).  She loves to swing.  Being taken out of the swing, no matter how long she has been in it, produces a fit.

She recently got a top tooth.  The other should be coming in any day now.

She blows kisses, and kisses her baby doll.

We flipped her car seat around, which I love.  I can see her dancing and singing now.  It is adorable!

She loves to clap and yell Yay!! When she likes something.  She also claps and says yay when she is told no and stops whatever she was doing.  I've been using positive reinforcement and apparently she gets it, however, it can turn the 'no' into a game.

She loves to read books with animals in them because I will do animal sounds with her.  She tries to make them after me.  It is quite adorable.

Her current favorite food is strawberries.  She now refuses to eat anything green.  We are in the process of transitioning from the bottle to milk in a sippy cup.  So far she won't drink milk out of the cup, but we shall see.  It has only been a few days.

When we went to the dr. her percentages were all in the 70ish percentile, so she is perfectly proportioned.

The big news is that her feet have finally started to grow.  She has worn the same size shoe since at least September if not before (I didn't really put shoes on her before then, so I don't actually know), but even now she still wears a 3 (sometimes a 2, never a 4) which is subtitled 3-6 months for a little perspective.  So funny!

I'm sure that I could go on and on, but there are a few little glimpses into the life of our one-year-old firecracker!  I absolutely love being the mom to an active little girl.  I miss the infant stage because I'll never get it back, but I adore the energy, excitement over little things, and personality that I'm getting to see now.  It is SO much fun!