J squared + 1: April 2012

One year ago today I was debating when to wake Jeremy up to tell him I had been in labor all night. Six hours later I was having to convince myself that the wailing baby on my chest was, in fact, the creature that had been living in my belly for almost ten months. I can't believe it's been a year. It's a bittersweet day for me. Every day is more fun with Eliza, she's learning so much so fast but good gracious it's going too fast!

The changes over the past month have been astounding. Eliza started signing, which is stinking adorable. She can wave hi and bye, sign "doggie" (which she also uses for cats), "more", "eat" and - her favorite - "all done!" She will walk if you hold her hands - I'm sure she could do it on her own if she wanted, but she finds crawling to be much more efficient. Her favorite place to crawl is up and down the stairs which is more than a little nerve-wracking. She babbles constantly, and mimics anyone who coughs, sneezes or yawns. She sniffs flowers and plays "night night" by laying down if you say it. She gives huge slobbery open-mouthed kisses and sweet hugs. She loves her pets and gets SUPER excited when she hears the dogs coming. We go swimming once a week and she really digs it - recently she's started kicking on her own and no longer screams bloody murder when I put her under the water. She absolutely LOVES books. If it were up to her I think I would spend all day reading to her. Her favorite pastime is to pull ALL her books off the shelves and systematically bring them to me one-by-one to read.

Sleeping has improved somewhat - she can now put herself to sleep and doesn't have to be rocked, however in the past week or so she has gone from waking up twice to three or four times. I'm hoping it's a tooth and we'll be back to normal soon. When I start to get sad about her turning one already, I just remind myself - I'm one year closer to a full night's sleep!

We are having a big old birthday bash at the Inn this weekend and cousin Erin is going to do a cake smash photoshoot, so I promise I will get pictures up soon.

And now, as per usual, a zillion pictures from the past month!