L, of course, thinks she doesn’t look good here. If this is “not looking good,” I don’t think I could deal with good looking. I mean, really. WTF?

I can’t believe that a year ago at this time, you were head down and bottom up in my belly–kicking and kicking and ready to go! Now, all these months later, you’re still ready go, everywhere you can! You started walking for real last Thursday, just a few weeks before your first birthday, and it’s almost as though you waited until you really knew what you were doing before taking off. You’ve spent the last three days teetering all around the house like a drunken sailor, grinning immensely at your own accomplishment.

You LOVE it when we help you walk up and down the stairs, and you would do it all day long, if we let you. In fact, yesterday, we bought a sturdier baby gate in order to thwart your proud ascents, and you rattled the gate with a look of such dismay and disgust that it was hard not to laugh at you.

Speaking of laughing, you spend a lot of time engaged in that very activity, especially when your big sister is around, hamming it up for “baby brudder, Charles.” Aunt Rachel once said that your laugh sounds like a cute little honking goose, and although I would never compare you to fowl, I would agree that your laughter is infectious–and sweet enough to bottle. I love it that you’re so easily amused and entertained by the world. In fact, you offer up several impromptu claps each day, just to demonstrate how well entertained you are, and when we took you to your sister’s first dance recital this weekend, you stood on my lap clapping and bouncing to the music with delight. It made me feel like clapping, too.

All this activity has helped you work up an appetite for nourishment other than just mama’s milk (though you STILL wake up to nurse at least two times a night), and you particularly love Grandpa Chuck’s lasagna, G.G.’s chicken-noodle soup, macaroni and cheese, string cheese, bagels with cream cheese, avocado, blueberries, kiwi, and banana. Last night, you quickly and methodically popped one-quarter of a container of blueberries into your mouth.

On the subject of mouths, you don’t say a whole lot of words yet, but you’ve mastered “uh oh,” “mama,” dada,” and a loudly exclaimed “uhhh” for “Ava.” Much to my dismay, you show absolutely no interest in books, preferring to eat them than to read them. Unlike your sister, who would quietly listen to books from the minute she was born, you disdain all things Boynton and Carle. But I’ll keep trying!

You are a beautiful soul with an amazing awareness of the natural world. When you were just an infant, your daddy would take you out in our yard and hold you beneath the tree next to our porch, letting you gaze at the fascinating patterns of leaves against sky. Even now, whenever we walk anywhere, the leaves captivate you. With your face upturned in wonder, you reach for them with both hands, and I always tell you that trees are amazing: They give us flowers in the spring, shade in the summer, glorious color in the fall, and stark silhouettes in the winter.

Love you,
Mama