12 Months

Dear Elle,

Yesterday you turned one year old. You are certainly growing up fast but when I think back to all the things you have accomplished in one year, it's been an amazing and very full year. Last weekend we moved over to the house on the lake and what a day that was. You learned to walk in almost the exact moment that Daddy threw out his back and couldn't get off the floor. For two days he laid on his back while we moved around him and while you walked and walked and stepped over him and kept walking because you weren't about to let him get in your way. A few days before that you started taking a few steps at a time and then you would fall or grab onto the couch or coffee table or our bench seat at our old house. And within 2 days you were fully walking, taking 15 or more steps at a time, and shortly after that you adding clapping and talking while you walk and then just yesterday you were looking at pictures on my Iphone while you were walking around. World, lookout.

On your birthday we had a huge birthday pizza party for you at a restaurant and all your little friends and family were there. Nana and Papa made the trip down from NY just for your special day and it was a pretty big deal. Grandma played some songs for you and your friends on her guitar and Uncle Paul and Auntie Traci put on a little show with puppets and helped to make a band by handing out some tambourines and drums to all the little kids. You thought it was pretty fun to see your very own Grandma up there singing songs just for you guys. I heard you telling Amanda and Jilly in your own baby talk, 'Yeah, I totally know her.' Amanda was into shaking her sillies out at the time but she smiled and nodded letting you have your moment of glory, I mean, it was your birthday and everything.

We got you some big balloons (which you love, by the way, and the other day we were out shopping and i let you hold a giant bunch of them which you promptly let go up to the ceiling of the store while yelling woooooooo and then we just nonchalantly pushed our cart away, fleeing from the scene while we giggled but then you realized that you lost your purple balloons so you were kinda mad so i got you some for your birthday.) Yesterday at your birthday party you had your very first cupcake and you really didn't love it like I thought you would. Apparently I don't know everything. I had imagined you would go face first into the hot pink frosting, eating up all the sugary goodness and squealing about this fantastic baked masterpiece but you just rolled the cupcake from hand to hand examining all the different surfaces of this strange little ball of cake with the very sticky top and then I thought I would help you by cutting it into a few pieces so you could taste it, but Noooooo, that was the very wrong thing to do and you let me and everyone know by screaming and screaming at the fact that I broke your very special cupcake. World, lookout.

You are saying a few words pretty clearly now, like Dada and Night Night and socks. I think you say ball and sometimes you say something that sounds like ut-oh. You don't say mama yet but that's okay. I'm waiting for it.

The other day you were saying goodbye to Grandpa and I told you to blow him a kiss and you did for the first time and he almost fell down and let his heart pour out like maple syrup onto the sidewalk. He was so happy, i could see in his face that he loves you so much and his heart had just melted and was all gooey inside his chest.

You have brought so much love into our lives and into our hearts in a way that I could never imagined before I met you. Every time you reach out to me for a hug or take my finger to take me on a walk or giggle because I said something silly that you think is funny I know you were meant just for us and I was meant to be your mommy. We didn't realized how much we were missing, until we had you.

Happy First Birthday, Elle!
Love,
Mommy

Vacation

Dear Helena,
Today you are almost 14 weeks old. Today is also Mommy's birthday and we are having a great day together, just you and me. We have been playing and you have been telling me stories in your baby talk which I think are about shoe shopping but I can't be sure. For the last week we were on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, you, dad and me. It was a trip of firsts for you, first vacation, first sleepover away from home, first time to the ocean. Dad hung your tiny legs just over the water and dipped in your big toe and you pulled your legs right up into your chest, and looked at dad with your "are you crazy?" face. maybe it was a little too cold for you. So, instead of swimming you both took a long nap in our beach tent.

Grandpa and Grandma came to join us for a few days and they couldn't stop talking about you. Look, she's blowing spit bubbles! Look, she blinked her eyes at me! Look and how she holds onto my finger and tries to eat it! To them, you are about the coolest thing since VCRs. (Grandma still uses VCRs, she is not really interested in DVDs or the internet if you can believe that. Maybe I can take you to a museum when you are older and we can look at all the VCRs and answering machines and you will be able to tell your friends all about them because you see them all the time at Grandma's house.)

Grandpa taught you a little trick he was calling "the flying cork". Your binky is on a pink ribbon so we can clip it to your clothes and he was hanging the binky right in front of your mouth and you would open your mouth really wide, as wide as i have ever seen anyone open their mouth, and he would try to get the binky into your mouth, like he was fishing for a baby with binky bait. You played this game with him for a while, and you were making him laugh so much that he almost fell out of his chair. And when he would laugh, you would laugh and we all would laugh, because your laugh is infectious.

Over the last few weeks you have grown so much, you are wearing 6 month old clothes like a big girl and have outgrown two bathing suits this summer! Funny that you wear bathing suits, considering that you don't swim, but we like to put you in them so you don't feel left out. You have found your hands and like to stare at them while you wiggle your fingers and then shove your entire fist into your mouth. You have started laughing, long hearty laughs when something strikes you as funny and when we try to do the thing that made you laugh again, you just stare as us, because you are over it, you've moved on.
Love,
Mommy