One Year
I'm in awe of how many changes occur in the first year of life. It's really astounding to watch the little person she's becoming. A year ago, we were trying to adjust to life with a newborn, which, is quite an adjustment. She ate, slept, cried and pooped. And cried. I cried too, as hormones raged through my body and I tried to recover from the birth (which I was totally unprepared for - I felt like I'd been run over by a truck).
Now I cry again. I feel extremely emotional at this milestone which, in a way, marks the end of her babyhood and the beginning of toddlerhood. But I'm also at peace with this and I look forward to seeing her develop more and more. And I'm so happy I've been able to spend so much time with my baby, soaking up all this precious little baby time: feeding her (we're still breastfeeding), snuggling with her, playing with her and just being with her.
She's really a sweet and funny little girl and generally very good natured. She isn't walking yet, but she's pretty close. She cruises all over and can walk along with an adult holding on with only one hand. She can stand up without grabbing onto a stationary object or person and can squat down and stand back up without holding on to anything. My dad and step-mom were here over the weekend and they think she can walk alone, but just doesn't know she can yet so she hasn't done it.
She claps, waves bye bye, points at objects and holds her arms up to be picked up. She also says da da to Roger (instead of just dadadadada randomly) and possibly ma ma. She also says kitty ("diddy!"). She also recently starting putting objects into a receptacle as opposed to just pulling them out.
We had a party on Saturday and a good time was had by all. Emmaline wasn't particularly interested in the cake so there wasn't much joyous, messy cake mashing fun. Then I think it didn't sit well and she threw up a little bit later. (But she filled her tummy with breastmilk and all was well after that.) I made her cake, dress and little crown, which everyone complimented so that was nice. She received many wonderful gifts and had a grant time playing with them and all the other kids/babies that were there. All the pics are on Flickr here. All in all, her first birthday was a wonderful, but tiring, day!