Jan 31

This week Jane learned how to put her arms in her jacket by herself. She still needs someone to hold it up for her, but she knows what to do with her arms. So helpful!

366 days old

Congrats, honey!

First Birthday!

These are some photos that didn't make it onto her official birthday post (on our family blog), but I still like them.  Happy Birthday, Jane!

Last day of her first year

Writing this post is making me very sad. It's hard to believe it's really true. In less than an hour, at 12:04am, Jane will be one whole year old. In some ways I can't believe it's here already, and in other ways it feels like it's been forever, and that so much has happened. My mom always pushed down on my head when I was growing up and she'd say, "stop growing!" I've been thinking about that a lot in the past couple of weeks. I understand it so much better now. This girl is growing like a weed, and while I love every new thing she can do and every new day with her, some part of me is sad that I no longer have the snuggly lump of sleepiness, or the baby that would reach up gingerly and bat at her toys. It's almost like every few months she is a whole new person, and it's kind of sad that I won't ever hold or see Jane that way again.

But times, they are a-changing!  And even though the list of things she can do grows longer and longer every day, there are still some things that remain consistent:
Jane is a positive, happy, joker of a girl! She loves to giggle and make jokes, and she wants to explore new places and be with people.  She loves children, has always loved to stare into their faces and have them talk to her, and she loves looking at babies as well.  If Michael or I am sad, she'll come and look up into our faces as if to say, "Hey, don't feel bad.  There's a whole world out there and we can go play in it!  Let's go!"  It's hard to not be happy when you're with Jane.  It makes me think of that song from Mary Poppins, but I have to put Jane's name in instead:

Oh, it's a jolly holiday with Janie!

Janie makes your heart so light

when the day is gray and ordinary

Janie makes the sun shine bright!

Oh, happiness is blooming all around her,

the daffodils are smiling at the doves...

Oh it's a jolly holiday with Janie, 

no wonder that it's Janie that we love!

Love you, baby.
-Mommy

A girl of many talents

Today Jane dropped a toy and walked over to get it.  She went just a little too far past it, and it was between her feet, so when she bent over to pick it up her forehead bonked the floor.  Whoops!  She didn't mind, though, and still managed to grab it, propped up by her forehead on the floor and her tush up in the air.  It was so darn cute!

Remember how I said Jane could do the ring-thing?  You know, put the rings on the stick-thingy?  What do you mean you don't know what I'm talking about?  Well, a video is worth a million words:

Also, did I ever tell you how Jane dances, bobbing up and down?  Well, she does.  Back in November I picked up a Christmas-themed Baby Einstein video for Jane to watch for the holidays.  She fell in LOVE with it.  I mean forever, taking-it-to-college kind of love.  So the Christmas video has made it past the holiday season and is still getting lots of use each week and Jane still LOVES it.  I started singing along to "Jingle Bells" today and when Jane started dancing I just happened to have the camera nearby.

And yes, I think that my singing sounds like crap here.  But I will publicly humiliate myself because Jane is just so cute and I already tried it without the sound and it just looks weird.  Oh well!

Recycle in style

I've noticed lately that Jane will put things (like my scarves) on top of her head and then pull them down slowly so that they drape across the back of her neck.  The bag you see in this photo I have put in the trash can about 10 times, and she keeps pulling it out when I'm looking the other way.  She kept playing with it and putting it on top of her head so many times that at one point it actually stuck on there like a hat.

By the way, it's not the yucky kitchen trash that she's pulling it out of.  It's the one in the front room that only has dry papers and plastics, so at least nothing sticky and gross is on her head.  

Tricky

Today Jane and I are both in full-swing sickness mode. We laid together on the couch and watched cartoons for most of the morning. People say misery loves company, and it must be true because having Jane as my little drippy-nosed sneezing coughing partner is oddly comforting.

She does have her moments, though, like today when I was trying to feed her and she kept pulling off her bib. Around the 15th time I started getting really frustrated, and I think she could tell, because she grabbed the bib but instead of pulling it right off, she pulled it up so it covered her face. Right when I thought, "What is she doing?" she pulled it down slooowly and looked over the top of it at me. Then she pulled it all the way down and smiled, peek-a-boo! She did it a few more times, and it was so hard to stay mad at her when her cute little playful eyes were peeping at me from over that bib. 

I tell myself that she has Daddy wrapped around her finger, but I think she might have a trick or two for me up her sleeve, too.

Silly baby, tricks are for kids

Today Jane crawled around to the other side of the ball pit and stood up and looked straight at me. So I looked over at her and she raised her eyebrows like, "Are you ready?!" And then she threw both hands up into the air and then she dove into the ball pit head first! Amazingly she didn't hurt herself, she just coasted on top of the balls and then looked up at me like, "Ta daaa!"

I laughed so hard!

News

This morning Michael and I were eating cheerios at the same time, and Jane would walk back and forth between us, eating a cheerio from me and then going to Dad for one and then coming back, until we ran out.

Jane started using a new car seat today.  Now she can see out the front window!  But after all the rigging and hitching and pushing and clipping I did to get that seat in there, it's never coming out again.  She'll just have to use it until she goes to college.

I noticed Jane has a 7th tooth today!  On the bottom left.  I don't think her cold is related, unless symptoms of teething weakened her system enough for her to get the cold.  But the cold is for realz.

Tonight Jane looked right at Michael and said, "Dada" while smiling real big at him.  She has said versions of "dadadaada" and "mamamamama" before, but she is getting a lot better at it and this was the clearest she's done it so far.  I could count it as her first word, but I think I'm going to wait until she says a word other than dadada or mamama.  She did say "oof" the other day when I asked her what sound a doggie makes. 

It seems like every day has more firsts for Jane and she learns how to do something new.  Today she also walked all the way from the kitchen to the front room without falling down which is another first for her.  It's like she's been on brain crack since New Year's!

Sicky

Jane is sick.  She's pretty congested and had trouble sleeping last night.  Hopefully she will get better soon.
Also, Michael and I may or may not have admitted to each other today that we like the Wiggles' songs.   And that we are both ashamed.

Baby genius?

This morning Jane threw only purple balls out of her ball pit. 
This picture is actually from yesterday but I think that shirt is so cute on her.

Baby Blues

Jan 15

I think Jane looked particularly cute at the store today.

Today she also learned how to put the rings back on the stick thingy instead of just taking them off! Smart girl!

Jan 14

 Today I walked into the front room and didn't see Jane right away until I found this:

 

The end is coming?

When Jane was born my Dad asked for a picture a day, and I thought it was a great idea so I made this blog.  I haven't gotten every day, especially for the last few months when I decided to stop stressing out so much about missing days.  Still, this post is #318, so I haven't been doing too bad.

When Jane was four months old the picture-a-day things was really wearing on me, and I asked, "How long should I keep this up?" thinking that people might say six months.  So when my mom said, "At least a year!" I heaved a sigh and kept taking pictures.  So now we're coming up on Jane's first birthday, and I am fantasizing about stopping the daily pictures, retiring this blog, and putting any new pictures I take on our family blog.

How luxurious, to go through my days and not have to think, "Now, did I take a picture today?"  To only have to look for the camera when Jane is doing something new or particularly cute.  But at the same time, the thought makes me really sad.  When I look at Jane and think, "Where did the days go?  How did she get so big?" I grab the computer and scroll back through this year and I can see each day, how she slowly changed from an itty bitty lump to the lumbering body of chaos that she is today.

While I love having that, the thought of continuing this, everyday, indefinitely, makes me ill.  One other worry is future children.  Are they going to feel cheated if I don't take a picture every day of their first year?  Am I going to have to do the first years of all of my children?

My computer has a program that organizes your photos, and I can see all of the photos I have taken in the last 12 months.  Right now that group is at 4,867 photos... and that's not including the ones I've deleted.  That's around 400 photos a month.  And I've missed 47 days.  So, it's time consuming, not to mention the videos, editing, and writing.

Obviously, it sounds like I want to stop.  But I almost want people to tell me, "No! Keep going!" because I am sick and demented maybe.  Or maybe it's just that the thought of losing even a few days of Jane's childhood to the void makes me so sad.  She lights up my life and I want to remember everything, every giggle and babble and step and smile.  The messes of baby food and splashes in the tub and trips in the car.

What's a mother to do?

Mover and a Shaker

Lately when Jane gets really excited she shakes her head back and forth.  I'm not really sure where she picked it up from, but it sure is cute to watch!

1-11-11

Equal Opportunity Peek-a-boo

Today Jane was playing with the scarf that Michael got me for Christmas. I held it over her eyes and asked, "Where's Jane?" She pulled it off and smiled at me, and then took it in both hands and held it across MY eyes! What a surprise!

After several really dismal days of smog so bad that Utah had 4 of the 5 worst polluted cities in the nation, it finally cleared up and I have been gazing up at the mountains outside of my window and enjoying the sunshine.

Confession

This baby is so beautiful.

And so cute.

But the thing that I am really in love with right now are her legs.

Beautiful, cute, squishy calves and little feet.

 

When she sits on my lap to watch a movie, they stick straight out into the air.

 

And when she crawls across the room the little bottoms of her feet show.

And when I feed her in her highchair, I tickle them because she can't see me coming.

Cute, cute legs and little feet!

One man's trash

Jane loves wet rags.  When I try to wipe her face and hands after a meal, she grabs desperately at the rag, and when I take it away to rinse it out she squeals because I am so mean!  This girl really loves them.  I try to keep a pile of nice clean rags nearby so that I can give her one to play with (aka suck on) when meal time is over.  At least she can appreciate simple pleasures!

January 7

This baby's made for walkin'

Daddy came home from work ready to play with Jane this morning.  Then he went to bed but when he woke up in the afternoon we all went to see Jane's new cousin, Evelyn, in the hospital!  Did Jane ever weigh 8 pounds like that?

Woops

This was the only photo I got today.  Some days you just have to take what you can get!

Walker!

A small demonstration:

Woo!  It was nice to finally get it on video.  We've tried several times over the past few days and by the time we get the camera out Jane isn't interested in walking any more.  I'm sure there is more to come!

Walking girl

Those six steps Jane took on January 1st were the beginning of a trend!  At church the next day Jane walked several times, just a few steps, but it was over and over.  She's been doing it all day today, too.  I think we've created a walking monster!

Happy New Year!

Jane decided to ring in the new year by:

1. Doing the biggest blowout I have ever seen. Seriously, I think some hit the ceiling.
2. Taking six steps for Mommy and Daddy! YAYYY! That's the most yet!
3. Biting my finger so hard that she drew blood.
4. Cuddling with Mommy on the couch and watching the Rose Parade.

If that's any indication of the year to come, we're definitely in for a wild ride.
Happy New Year!