Clara at One Year

Wow! We made it through the first year. You have turned into this funny, happy, curious, climby, adorable kid. Actually, you have always been happy and easy, it's just that you are a kid with a personality and opinions and demands now. But it was a rough year - I'm not gonna lie. Let's just say you have not been the best sleeper which is really my only complaint - it just so happens that lack of sleep bleeds into everything else. But you more than make up for it with the smiles that come from your eyes, your adorable, easy-to-provoke giggle and the way you snuggle right into my neck. I do miss the tiny little baby you, but you are so much fun and make me laugh so hard (and you sleep better now) that I'm so excited to be onto this next phase. And here  you are at one in a nutshell:

1. You finally have teeth! Tooth #1 (right, bottom front) popped through on June 30th. Tooth #2 (left, bottom front) came on July 3rd. I can't believe it took so long for you to get a tooth but I'm glad it did because we finished nursing at about the same time so you never had the chance to bite me. Weaning you was totally bittersweet but it's nice to be done. And you love your "meelk! meelk!" (said while doing the sign vigorously).
2. You have learned to crawl "normally", i.e., on all fours. You still use your foot about half the time and even bounce on your bum once in a while. And you aren't super fast. But you no longer look like a disabled zombie when you are moving around. You can crawl up stairs now too, slowly but surely. 
3. You are working so hard on learning to walk. You are so close! You hardly need any help - you just need one finger from one of us to help keep your balance and other than that you are a champ. You've actually taken a couple of steps by yourself, but they've all been by accident. You want to practice all the time - you sit there and almost snap your fingers at us and say "walk, walk!" You especially love it when we play chase - you giggle and try to run away from Sophie or daddy as fast as your little legs go. You've also been practicing standing by yourself. You'll lean against my tummy when I'm laying down, let go so you are balancing by yourself and throw your hands up like "look at me!" 
4. You have really good fine motor skills. You LOVE to color, and actually can scribble pretty well. And if we give you a juice box, you take about 4 sips then just put the straw in and out and in and out. And you think it's Christmas morning if we give you a bottle with a lid that you can practice putting on and off. 
5. Other than a few notable exceptions, you sleep though the night now and are transitioning to one nap. It's pretty early to do that but we are ALL happier with you on a more predictable, manageable schedule. You are a pretty light sleeper in your crib but you will still sleep on my chest in a sling if we are out an about no matter how noisy it is. Your favorite position in bed is on your tummy, sideways, kind of like a chalk outline. 
6. You have over two dozen words now and another handful of signs. You are really good at pointing to what you want and would rather do that even if you know the sign. You have even put two words together a couple times: "ohno bink!" when you dropped your binky and "get down!" whenever you are (finally) done eating and want to escape your high chair. And you can point to your nose, your head, your hair and vaguely your belly button.
7. You still haven't learned to handle disappointment very well. You have been known to flail your whole body straight back or to drop to the floor and bang your head when you don't get what you want.
8. You think it's really fun to play the "thanks game" with me. It's so simple but you get a kick out of it. You hand me something (anything!). I say, "thanks". I hand it back to you. You make some sort of gutterral sound that possibly has a t or s sound in it and you hand it back to me. Repeat over and over. 
9. Your favorite "toys" are anything you can throw around - sand, bark, rice, chalk, rocks, whatever. It's a mess and occasionally dangerous but it makes you so happy. You would rather sit in the sandbox at the park or play in the mulch at the zoo than go down the slide or see the elephants. You throw, yell, pause, grin and do it again. 
10. Your favorite place to play is on a pile of pillows. If I start throwing couch cushions to the ground, you immediately start bouncing and squealing in my arms. We can set you down in the middle of them and you will entertain yourself for minutes. You climb, roll, faceplant, flop on your back and giggle. It's the cutest thing! A close second is mom and dad's bed where you add bouncing on your bum to your repertoire.