Eleven Months

Our sweet girl,
   You are almost a year old and what a sweet blessing to have known you this long!  As the grass begins to turn green and buds open up on trees I remember waiting expectantly for your arrival last spring. Here we are now. God is good.  You are 17 pounds and have gotten really long.  You want to walk so badly but speed crawl after Emmeline as fast as your wee legs will take you.  You are hungry! You continue to amaze us with the variety of foods you eat and you eat an adult portion at almost every meal.  You must have a fast metabolism.  You are a talker and have quite the vocabulary already:  no no, bye bye, round and round, thank you, baa baa, peek a boo, cat, ball, Momma, Papa, baby, swish, night night, stinky.  You copy everything Miss E does. If she pulls her bib off, then you want yours off too. If she laughs, you laugh.  This month you were finally diagnosed with hip dysplasia of both hips and have to sleep in a brace.  You are such a good sport about it, but secretly you are trying to learn how to take it off.  It doesn't stop you from standing in your crib and now when you see it you start sucking your fingers as if you know it is time for night night. We pray it helps you heal and grow and we're thankful for a good doctor who helped us figure it out.  You're in physical therapy once a week for your hip. You and Emmie love your PT lady and she marvels at your determination, your courage and vocabulary.  You seem to us to be so social, chatty and gregarious. You don't like being alone (like Emmie does sometimes) and you thrive on stimulation and activities.  You love songs and sing along with the hymns and doxology at church, adding a little dance move.  You shake your head when you are being silly and have no fear of anything. You love dogs, vacuums, blenders, loud sounds.  If only we'd known that in those early sleepless nights.  Ha ha!  Darling baby, your eyes are still a pool of green, blue, hazel, and grey.  You have a bit more hair that seems to be light brown. You are smart, loving, musical, gentle and beautiful. You and your sister are gifts from God!