Liesl is ONE! / Watch Liesl Grow

This news is a few weeks old, but I wanted to share here that our little girl is somehow a whole year old!  How has she been on this earth for more than 365 days??

It's hard to believe that a year ago today we were trying to figure out how to share our home with and care for a newborn.  Our life involved a lot of marathon nursing sessions, babywearing, and spit up.  But who am I kidding?  We're still trying to figure things out!  Except now we're dealing with flying food, injury prevention, and a living room that seems to always be covered in toys.  I loved the newborn stage, but I'm REALLY enjoying this moment.  This babe has so much personality and love for life.  I know some moms say that the days drag on, but most of the time my days are pure joy (check back with me on that after we've added a couple more kids to our collection :] ).

We left off on 19 weeks on my last Watch Liesl Grow post...

Liesl loves -

• Bananas, juice, yogurt, cinnamon raisin bread, and peas (and feeding herself - she's over being fed.)
• Books!
• Stuffed animals
• Climbing
• Walking and running (away!)
• Rocks
• Music of all kinds and dancing along
• Bath time (and blowing bubbles underwater!)
• Dogs!
• Dave and Ava (an iPhone video app)
• Making animal noises
• Being outside
• Putting things in and taking things out of containers and bowls
• Peek-a-boo
• Facetiming
• Emptying cupboards and drawers (and occasionally putting things back)
• Sitting on everything that's the right height
• Pointing to her own head and hair, and other peoples' noses and eyes
• Hair bows (but she doesn't want to keep them in her hair)

Liesl does not like -

• Being buckled into anything (highchair, stroller, car seat, Ergo)
• Being held when she could be adventuring
• Having her face wiped, teeth brushed, lotion applied, etc.
• Sitting still
• When Mama leaves the room
• Having her diaper changed

We're mostly sleeping through the night now, thank goodness.  We bought a Munchkin projector that's made a big difference in her ability to self-soothe, and I've been doing better about making sure she falls asleep in her room (so she won't be confused when she wakes up somewhere different than where she fell asleep).  Her bedtime is usually somewhere between 8-9 pm and she sleeps till 6-8 am.  Better sleep has been lovely for everyone!

Her hair is auburn in the sunlight but brown otherwise, and her eyes are mostly blue with a touch of green in the ring around her iris.  She seems pretty fair-skinned, but she hasn't been out in direct sunlight much without sunscreen.

She is an expert communicator, finding ways to point and yell until we figure out what she is trying to tell us.  We're working on pleases and thank yous, because she can be a bit pushy : ).  She's strong-willed, but she comes by it naturally.  I love her personality.  She gives me scrunchy-nosed, slobbery kisses all day.  We dance and read and laugh.  A lot of my time is spent doing damage control and trying to find ways to make "no's" stick... She has been climbing on everything this week and it's a little scary.  Now that it's getting warmer, I take her outside whenever I can so she can be free to run and jump and play and climb on playgrounds (which are safer than coffee tables).  When we're out and about shopping and such, she insists on walking, and it's all I can do to keep her little hand in mine.  We had our first busted lip/mouth experience this week when she fell face-forward on pavement.  She does everything HARD (she also comes by that honestly) and there will probably be a lot of bumps and bruises in our future.

She'll copy most anything, but some of the words that have stuck so far are: "Mama," "Dada," "Shooz" (Juice and Shoes), "Nana" (Banana), "Dah" (Dog),  "Nahya" (Nala from the Lion King), "Bah" (Ball), "Baw Baw" (Paw Paw), "No" (No and Nose), and lots of animal noises.  I'm sure there are more but those are all I can think of off the top of my head.

I can already tell that she's stubborn, generous (she loves to share), and generally very happy.  Even when she's frustrated and so mad she's in tears, we can make her smile again in just a few seconds. And people always comment on how "smiley" she is when we're out and about.  We can't wait to see more and more of her personality as she grows and learns.

Happy belated birthday, sweet Liesl Bird!