One Year Old

She's one.  My baby.  My little girl.  That was really fast.

She's mastering the art of communication.  Mimi and Papa came to town on her birthday, and when Mimi walked in the door, Elaina pounded her chest with her open palm, pointed to Mimi, and reached towards her.  Meaning, "will Mimi please hold me?" 

Her vocabulary is taking off.  The words I'm aware of are: Daddy, Mama, Uh-oh, Amen: "aaaa-meh!" tickle: "gee-gow," thank you: "gay-goo," balloon: "bwoo," happy: "ap-ee."  She also says "ta-da!" in a really cute little high-pitched voice. When she says "hi," she waves, but when she says hello ("oh?"), so presses the palm of her hand against her ear like she's answering a telephone.  When she cries, she wails a quite discernable "ow-ieeee" which is really quite pathetic.  When she's hungry or wants food, she's started saying "ah-me," and usually points to the cupboards of fridge.  I can't figure out if she's trying to say yummy or hungry, but either way, she gets her point across pretty well. 


She's been asking about her daddy frequently.  It's really adorable.

As cute as her talking is, I think she communicates her displeasure or disaproval more than anything.  Meaning, she fusses a lot.  Usually it's because I can't hold her every second of every day.  I'm pretty good at doing some things with her on my hip, but it's tricky to say, cut up raw chicken while holding a baby.  The poor little thing must think her world is ending when I have to put her down.  She makes quite the heart-breaking sobs, and recently started using her chubby little hand to cover her mouth while she cries.  It is so dramatic!  And slightly adorable.  Although really just mostly heart-breaking. 

We've been using "shhh," while putting our finger to our lips.  Last week during church, Elaina seemed to think it was a fun game.  We would stick the tip of her index finger into her nose, purse her lips, and inhale as loudly as possible through her nose.  I had a difficult time not laughing out loud in the middle of the sermon.

Speaking of laughing, she has a great fake laugh.  If everyone starts laughing at something, she doesn't want to be left out, so she'll pipe up with her hilarious little fake laugh.

She likes doing anything that she sees us doing.  Reading books (and making sure they aren't upside down), singing and dancing, and playing with her new hinged puzzle from Grams.

Riding the rocking moose (with or without accompaniment) is a favorite activity.

More than anything in the world, I think, she loves stairs.  This was her third of fourth scaling in as many minutes, so some of the excitement had worn off.  If it's been a few hours, and I ask if she wants to go downstairs, she speed crawls for the basement door as fast as her chubby arms and legs will take her, half shrieking, half laughing, practically hysterical with excitement.

She's surprisingly good at going up or down the stairs.  Of course we still leave all the doors to our staircases closed, lest she spend all day long climbing stairs.

Apparently she's noticed when people take little sips of a drink, and then let out a sigh of "aaaah."  Because she started doing it.  She's kind of a picky eater, but I guess that isn't totally unexpected.  She loves good bread, and she's been eating souvlaki meat every day this week.  Now if we could just get her to eat more vegetables.  She likes to gnaw on veggies, but she doesn't really want to eat them.  In fact, at her birthday party last week, she preferred to chew on a stick of celery rather than eat the pink cake that was in front of her.  Strange little kid.

Unimpressed with the man-shaped pancakes I made the morning of her birthday.  You win some, you lose some, I guess.

She likes putting things on her head.  As in, just taking any random thing, and setting on top of her head.  Toys, socks, food, you name it.  The toys and socks aren't that bad, but the food can get messy.  So we're trying to discourage the food, but everything else is fair game.  Want to put sister's napkin on your head?  Go for it.  I should have grabbed my camera last week, because she spent most of dinner with a corn chip sitting neatly on her head.  What a funny little kid.

When the day is done, she's still my cute little cuddly baby.  Especially if she has a corner of material to rub.  Like the corner of a blanket or pillowcase.  She'll just grab it and stroke the tip of the corner with her little index finger.  Sometimes, she prefers to snuggle with her daddy, because he wears shirts with collars... which have corners for her to rub!  I've heard of other children having a corner-rubbing fetish, but it really is pretty funny.  If we're snuggling somewhere, she'll likely squirm around until she finds a corner of a pillowcase or something to rub.  It's strange.  But it reminds me a little bit of her older sister's thumb-rubbing tendencies.

And so, we have dubbed her "little girl," and no longer "baby."