One year old!

Our Baby Girl is turning one year old today. It seems like yesterday that she was a tiny little baby and we brought her home from the hospital. But has she grown and changed since!

She is quite the personality!

Very determined and opinionated. And very cute and funny. It's like she tries to be especially cute if she knows she is doing something she isn't supposed to, like climbing up the stairs, or playing with the phones, or unloading cabinets, or picking Mamas flowers, or eating food off the ground, or climbing furniture, or playing with the phones... We can tell by the big smily grin on her face that she is about to do something she isn't supposed too. And a lot of times she'll shake her head like telling herself no while she is doing it.

I can't decide if that's fortunate or unfortunate but she is a very good climber with very good balance, so at least she seldom falls off any of the things she manages to climb on. The unfortunate part would be that she is already able to climb on all those things she really isn't supposed to.

Oh, and she is a great eater. The only thing she won't eat is Baby Food. She want's what everyone else is eating and lots of it. She thinks our plates are the menu and she just needs to order. She'll start pointing at someones plate and as we start pointing out different food on it to her she shakes her head until we get to the desired food and she starts nodding. She literally eats anything. She has favorites but only if there is a selection. She prefers strong flavors very unlike her sister. She loves to suck lemons. Weird! Lily is not only a good eater she is also good at eating. We've been giving her a real plate ever since she started tablefoods and she hasn't dropped one, she also drinks out of a real glass and is doing good eating "sticky" things like yogurt with a spoon by herself.

This nodding/shaking her head really works out well for our "conversations" with her. She can answer simple questions like "Do you want to nurse?", "Are you hungry/thirsty?", "Is it time for a nap?", "Do you need your pacifier?". She understands a lot, but her spoken vocabulary really only includes "Mama", "Papa", "Nein" (German for no) and some animal sounds.

And she loves books. She has two favorite books about farm animals and she stalks us with them in her hands until we sit down and read them to her.

She loves her big sister and wants to play with her ( and her stuff) all the time. Much to Emmi's dismay sometimes. There is already lots of fighting going between the two of them with Lily being very vocal about her opinion too. But there are also all those sisterly moments of laughing and playing together that we love watching. Emmi is about the only person that can make Lily laugh out loud without having to pin her down and tickle her.

Her sleeping habits aren't really great. She isn't anywhere close to sleeping through the night yet. I have started night weaning her, only nursing her once around midnight whenever she wakes up and we bring her into our bed with us. (Yes, we still co-sleep) She doesn't mind to much not getting to nurse several times at night anymore like she used to, but it also didn't make her sleep any better as I was hoping. She still wakes up several times. Sometimes she goes right back to sleep, sometimes she is awake for up to an hour. No pattern. She does take two consistent naps during the day though. Not very long naps but at least naps I can plan on. And I can't really expect her to sleep through the night since her sister just now started to sleep through the night most nights (in her own bed!). I do hope it doesn't take Lily quite as long to do so.

I could sit here all night thinking about all the little things Lily does. It's so much fun watching her explore, learn and grow. How much she likes animals and gets so excited when she sees one, how she plays with her baby dolls kissing and rocking them and putting them in the play stoller, how she imitates her sister cooking in the playkitchen, how she stares strangers down until they smile at her, how she gets excited about taking a bath, how much she loves the water, how she rolls around in the bed in the morning trying to get as many snuggles as she can, ... And everyday I think how I just want to stop time for a little bit so she wouldn't change so fast, grow up so fast, how I want her to stay just like she is just a little bit longer. But everyday she learns something new gets a little bit older and I get excited how she can do more things, tries new things. So I guess there would never be a good moment to stop time, so I'll just have to try to soak in as much of my baby as I can and try to remember. I feel so fortunate to be able to stay home with my babies and watch them grow. There is nothing I'd rather do in the world.

I love you Lily! Happy 1st Birthday Baby Girl!