12 months.

oh my sweet emme kay.  what a year it has been little child.  on the eve of your birthday, i tried to remember what life was like last year, waiting for your arrival.  it feels simultaneously like that was yesterday and like there has never been a day when we have not known you and been completely enamored by you.  every moment, from the second i found out i was pregnant, to the moment i went in to labour, to now, has been absolutely incredible.  there have been hard things, and lots of trial and error, and several mini-crises where i felt pretty certain i might be the worst mother of all time, but fundamentally, i can say i am more proud of this whole mothering experience than i have been of anything else in my life.

so, you at 12 months.  you have five teeth - your top bunny teeth, and three on the bottom center.  you say several words - i think you've added ball and more and milk to your vocabulary - and jabber and laugh all the time.  going in to daycare/school has been a tough transition in many ways, but you have taught me again and again how resilient you are.  after little more than a week, you were smiling and waving bye-bye and completely engaged with the work at hand when i dropped you off.  the hardest part for all of us has been the non-stop sick baby situation.  you've had a cough and runny nose and fevers here and there.  nothing serious, thankfully, but it's just rough to see you not at 100%.  your appetite has also not had its usual voracity, but i am thinking it may have something to do with the constant barrage of colds.  who can eat when they can barely breathe?
you love your dogs these days.  when we get home from school, you shriek with delight and laugh and shout "dog!".  you also try to give them snacks off your plate when you're eating, which we're trying to make you realize is a bad idea, but it really quite sweet.  justin and i are also beneficiaries of your sharing - you hold out bites of whatever you're eating for us to try.  it's also kind of gross, since sometimes you have mashed the bite or mixed it with random other stuff on your plate, but we can take one for the team.
you still love books so much.  a particular favorite right now is the old macdonald book jj and kk got your for your birthday.  there are finger puppets that go with it that you also love, but the book itself is a big hit.  perhaps it's because whenever you bring it over to either of us, your dad and i immediately erupt into song... anyway.  you sign for more after each book i read you before bed until you decide you're really tired and then you close the book mid-reading and stick your thumb in your mouth.  i am still amazed at how decisive you are about what's happening when - you've really had your own agenda since day one.
you're not walking yet.  i thought you were getting really close, but school has slowed your progress a little bit, i think.  you are very cautious, which i think is a huge blessing.  you walk well holding our hands in each of yours, but are showing no interest in making your own solitary strides.  no matter to me - justin walked at 15 months (i walked at 11), so i imagine you're planning to split the difference.  i'm happy that you're content to take your own sweet time with things like this...it's good for my insane competitive streak.

anyway...i could go on and on (and on, as usual), but i will just get to the pictures.  your actual birth date this year was the day your dad and i got the evil plague stomach bug, and even though you didn't have what we had, you weren't your usual self for this photo shoot.  so the pictures from this month are not the completion of the set that i had envisioned.  but, i will post too many pictures anyway because that is what i do.