Little One

Helena Jane was born this day, one year ago. For the sake of posterity, I'm going to document a typical day in her life at one year:

7-7:30 am She wakes up and plays in her crib for 20-30 minutes. She lets me know she's ready to eat by making noises slightly louder than a cricket. When I go in to get her, she is grinning widely while jumping up and down holding on to the side of the crib. Every single morning.)
8:00 milk and breakfast (a jar of baby food--usually plums, bananas and rice)
8-9:00 play
9-10:00 morning nap
10-12 Usually we get out--the zoo, a park, or a museum.
12:15 lunch (usually 2 jars of baby food. Favorite combination is sweet potatoes and peas with brown rice)
12:30 milk and down for afternoon nap
3:00 wake up, milk, and play, usually in the backyard if the weather cooperates.
5:30 dinner (usually oatmeal mixed with apples and blueberries and then a jar of baby food vegetables)
6:00 bath, milk, and bed (I zip her into her fleece sleep sack, cuddle her while I sing the first verse of "How Deep the Father's Love For Us," and lay her in the crib. She pops her left index and middle finger into her mouth, rolls onto her side, and plays with the little embroidered daisy on her bumper pad. Every single night.)

I'm not sure how much she weighs--between 16-17 pounds. She is still nursing 4 times a day and I haven't really tried any food other than baby food. Though she has been gnawing on big chunks of apple this week.Her eyes are big and bluish-grey, her hair is light brown and wavy. She got her first tooth, the upper left, a week or so ago. She can stand by herself and has taken a couple of tentative steps. She can say "Dah-Dah" for Daddy and "deh" for toe. She isn't much of a babbler, though I find the noises she does make to be extremely cute and quiet and dainty. She sighs fairly often--of contentment, I hope. She is an accomplished player of Peek-a-boo. She is still somewhat happy to play by herself in her little play yard, but I've been letting her have a little more
freedom to roam about the house, and she finds this intoxicating. She especially seems to love Harper's room, though she smacked herself in the head with one of the baby dolls yesterday and cried with pain, thus ensuring, I am afraid, that yet another of my children will have nothing to do with the poor neglected dolls. Her favorite toys tend to be small (read: choking hazard) things that she can clench in her fist while she crawls around. She also finds her toes an incredible source of ready amusement.

So our lives are richer and sweeter with you here, my dear one. We love you so.