To my wonderful daughter on your 1st birthday!

I am in complete disbelief that Jana is one. What happened to the last year? Where did it go?

At a year old, you:

* Crawl everywhere; you don't sit still anymore.
* Pull yourself up on everything - stead or unsteady.
* Cruise on anything you can get your hands on and are now starting to take bigger risks.
* Love to pull things out of your toy box and then put them back in.
* Want the dog - she is no longer safe anywhere.
* Crawl up all 14 stairs on your own and anytime we don't close the gate - little stinker!

You:
* Love bananas and cheerios.
* Love any food that is pureed, but refuse to put anything else in your mouth, unless it is a banana, cheerio or on a good day pear, apple, or carrot.
* Don't even hesitate to take your formula from a sippy cup.

You:
* Love your blankie and your Tigger in Pooh's costume.
* Love taking baths.
* Love to grab a book and turn the pages by yourself, but hate it if I turn the pages as I read.
* Pull the blanket up over your head to show us you are tired.
* Dance to any song that you hear - Daddy's singing, radio, CD, commercial, it doesn't matter.

You:
* have become a mama's girl - You yell if I leave the room, go upstairs, go to the bathroom alone.
* absolutely light up when you see Dada.
* adore your Grandpa Gary - you have him wrapped around your little finger already.
* love your Grandma Pam - you give her the cutest little smiles.
* love your Grandpa Bill's voice - you love to stare at him when he talks to you.
* love your Grandma Linda - she always rocks you to sleep.
* love to watch your cousin Tyler - the way he runs just fascinates you.
* love to smile - you smile with your whole face - your eyes glow, your cheeks get rosy. Even if you cover your mouth, we can still tell you're smiling.
* love to make people smile - you'll first smile at them. If they don't smile back, you start making faces at them. If they still won't smile, then you start talking to them.
* just started giggling all the time - it is my favorite sound in the world. You will start giggling if we're laughing.

You say:
* "Dada"
* "Mama" when you want something
* "Maiya" occasionally.

You will pant when you see the dog or if we say dog or Maiya (that's the Baby Sign for dog).

Thank you for the most amazing year. You have taught me so much, baby girl! You have shown me what's important in life and shown me a new level of love.

I look forward to the many more experiences we'll get through the next years.

Here are some pics from your first birthday, even though we didn't do a lot because we've been so sick.

The birthday girl - just a little skinnier after being so sick.




Her birthday "cake." It was banana bread in a heart shaped cupcake tin with banana flavored whip cream on top. She put her handin the whip cream and she started screaming. Then she wouldn't have anything to do with it again. Oh well!





Hanging out on Mama's lap. It's hard to scream with a binkie in her mouth! She missed her afternoon nap and she was such a crank pot!




Goofing around and giving a great big, stinkery smile for the camera!




"I see that camera. I want it."

Spoiled by the sun

Can I tell you how much I want it to be Spring?

We've had beautiful, sunny weather, but cold, for a week now and it's wonderful. The only problem that we run into is that since Jana is still crawling, it's very difficult to spend time outside with her. She tries to climb out of her stroller, gets very fussy if she is being held, and just wants to crawl around... that's difficult when it is still so cold out and she'll be crawling on the either frosty or wet ground.

I can't wait to be able to take walks again outside all the time. This last week, we've walked at least once a day, every day. It's been fabulous!

Here are some new pictures.


Hanging out with Aunt Laura and cousin Tyler.




Meeting cousin Justin for the first time.





"No, I'm not posing for the camera! What would ever have given you that idea?"





"My new favorite thing to do is to torment the dog. She's no longer out of reach, hee, hee! See, I even try to get to her when she's outside."





A trip to the park. Notice the car seat toys in her hand that she found when I was putting them into a box for the new baby. Now she won't go anywhere without them.





"I loved the swing! I giggled the whole time. Mama and I were on a swing together for a while, but since her lap is disappearing, it made it difficult. Plus, I got to be a big girl in the big kid swing... (okay, baby swing, but bigger kid than me:) )."




"Mama also took me down the slide. Good thing it was her backside that got frozen and not mine!"