Dear Anna,
Today you are a whole year old. It’s hard to believe how quickly this year has gone, but at the same time you really seem like you’ve been part of this family forever.
I can’t think of one new thing you’ve tried this month besides chocolate. (And truth be told, you’ve had a bit of that before. But officially, you first had chocolate in your birthday cupcake yesterday.) It’s only because we ran out of new foods for you to try a long time ago. You are one adventurous eater, and all you have left to try at this point are nuts and shellfish.
You don’t have any more real words yet, but you have several “proto-words”. For example, you say “da!” a lot, but generally in a context where you could mean “dog” or “duck” or “daddy”. Signing is hit or miss. You can sign things like “milk”, “more”, “water” and “all done”, but you frequently prefer to just yell at me in the hopes that I’ll figure out what you want instead. Maybe that’s less work? I don’t know…it’s certainly frustrating for both of us!
You do a lot of standing now, just standing without holding onto anything, so you can use both hands to play with things. I’m thinking it won’t be too long before you decide walking is much better than crawling because you don’t have to put the toys in your hands down before you can go somewhere. But I’m not exactly in a hurry, because you get into everything you possibly can as it is. I’m ashamed to admit this, but if it looks like you have something in your mouth, I can say “Anna, what have you got??” and you crawl over to me and open your mouth to let me pull it out. Clearly this happens far too many times a day since you are so well trained!
You’ve also started bopping to the beat. Even though you don’t walk yet, you love to dance while you’re holding onto a table or a couch or someone’s hands. You’ve always loved music – when I sing to you at night you giggle at me sleepily and try to grab my mouth, like you’re trying to figure out where the music is coming from.
Today was a pleasant day. We spent the day with Nana and Poppy. Daddy made you french toast for breakfast, and then we just sort of hung out for most of the day. You were wearing a handknit dress made by one of my friends and I took a ton of pictures of you for the day. We gave you your very first doll (and like your big sister, you essentially ignored it – but she grew out of that pretty quickly and I bet you will too). And then we went to Great-Grandma’s house for dinner. Did you know that the two of you share a birthday? That’s where you got your middle name! So you blew out the candles on her cake together, and then we came home and put you to bed.
This past year was full of sweet baby snuggles and squishy, kissable cheeks. I am so looking forward to seeing how you grow and change over this next year – what you have to say when you find your words and where those chubby little baby legs take you. It’s been a grand adventure so far, and I’m ready for the next chapter. I love you!
Love, Mommy