Decompression

I'm sitting down now, for once this week without a pressing agenda. No baby grunting at me from the floor, no television in the background. The only sound I hear is the breathing from my husband, fallen asleep on the couch. Yes, we were up that early. And no, we still aren't getting much sleep around here.

So what's new?

Well, my girlie is officially a one-year-old. After all the build up the actual day was pretty mellow. That evening I started to complain to Nick that we didn't do enough for the actual birthday, when he reminded me of all the fun we did have: sleeping in snuggling and singing to one another, Daddy at home, swimming with the three of us, a day full of reading and smiling and eating and love. Then a happy-hour with some of our best friends at a great little place that is only kid-friendly in that there was an actual high-chair. Cora ate and played and snuggled until she got too tired. She rocked the gorgeous and elaborate headband that seemed to shout "Birthday!"

Thank you, Aunt Teenie for the beautiful headband!

Yes, she is chewing on the cocktail menu.  What?  It's her Birthday!

 

All day long, I kept waiting for the constant question... "How old is she?" For some reason, I am always proud to be able to tell her age, since I know that she looks a bit younger. I couldn't wait to say that "She is ONE TODAY!" So, of course, on that day alone nobody asked. I couldn't help it though... at the pool I told the little girl fawning all over Miss Beanie that it was her birthday.

We couldn't wait to weigh our Little Miss, who was feeling so heavy, and looking so absolutely rounder and fuller. So onto the scale she went,  while we envisioned an 18 pounder, or at the very least, up quite a bit from her 11 month 16 pounds, 10 ounces. But do you want to know how much my big girl weighs? 16 pounds, 12 ounces. Yes folks, she's up a whole 2 ounces! So funny! I admit that I love that she's little. I love that I can still hold her for long periods, and that she still fits in her infant carseat and that she wears size 1 shoes.  Oh, how I wish I could keep her this way longer.

Yet somehow she seems intent on doing some growing up. She's moving around now, although still a bit reluctantly at times. Yes, she'd prefer that I do most things for her, including feeding her, playing with her, and doing all hand gestures. If she had her way, I would move her around, hold her constantly and bring toys to her. So now we're letting her try and maneuver her own little self around. Poor Cora.

And her latest grown-up assertion of her autonomy is her grunting, groaning and yelling. She's a talkative little babbler, and has loved to yell for fun. But now she realizes she can grunt and yell to complain and she's taken to doing it pretty darn often. Especially yesterday. Oh, yesterday! Yeah, yesterday was frustrating. I'm not sure the best way to deal with it, but here's to hoping it's just a phase.

Today was much better. Two separate shopping errands gave us the opportunity for one of my favorite things to do with Cora these days: walk around with her in the shopping cart. She sits and beams huge silly grins at me the whole time, kicking her legs and talking away. I can't do anything without constantly laughing and talking to her. I'm sure it looks pretty silly, but she's been melting hearts all over town with her toothless smiles and sticky-uppy ponytail. Oh, that girl! She makes me just silly with love. And that's not even factoring in the laughter.  You should hear the songs I've been making up as I bounce her around the house just to hear her sweet giggles.

Ok, enough on the gushing about how twitterpated I am with my girl. Think I'll upload a few pics and then head to bed early. (Hey, it's the only way I can even hope to get more than two hours of unbroken sleep!)

Thank you all for the lovely Birthday wishes.