Dear Sabine: Month 12

Dear Sabine,

You turned the big 1 on Monday. We celebrated with a party on Saturday where we had close friends and family over. The weather was hot and muggy, then turned to rain. I said no way were you having cake because you hadn't earned it, with your little nibbles of baby cereal and Cheerios. No way was I going to give you a taste of sugar before you'd even developed a taste for the healthy things. But I let you have your first strawberry, and boy did you love it.

The real party happened in Daddy's office on your actual birthday. We had to get an oil change on the van so I'd dropped Daddy off at work and then later we'd gone in to pick him up. The day before Stella had brought over a small cake (presumably left over from her church that morning) and I instantly told Daddy to get it out of the house so I wouldn't eat it. Well Jacob remembered that cake and did a little snooping in Daddy's office. He found it and none of us could resist. We sat there in Daddy's office and shared one plastic fork dug from the back of a drawer and ate the entire thing - all four of us, including you! When we were done there was frosting smeared all over his desk and chocolate crumbs dug into his carpet. I thought to myself, now that's a birthday celebration worthy of our family. Nothing we ever do is within the realm of 'normal'.

For your birthday party, the 'formal' one where we had guests and such, you wore a frilly dress with pink flowers. Everyone was aghast that I would dress you in such an outfit, knowing full-well that I despise dressing you like an actual girl. But that was a special dress. I bought that dress two years ago in Colorado Springs when we were on our cross country trip. I spent more money on it than I would spend on a pair of shoes for myself, but when I saw it I knew that it was Sabine's dress. I wasn't even pregnant yet, but I knew a little girl with little brown curls was coming my way and so I bought that dress in size 12 months. And then I waited for you.

Boy were you worth the wait. You are so much fun, you're at the age where you're learning something new every day. Recently it's been high fives, your nose discovery(which you like to grab and squeeze, then crack up), a couple weeks ago you found your belly button and figured to dig your little finger in it. You love to wave "Bye-bye", give kisses, and hide stuff under the couch and bed. Seriously, something will be missing for a week or two and then one day we'll discover it tucked away behind the bed skirt.

And guess what...you took four tiny steps a month ago, and then not again until the other day. Your birthday actually. I couldn't call it walking though. Not until Wednesday, two days after your birthday, did you decide to use your new-found skill as an actual form of locomotion. And now you just love walking, can't get enough of it. This is different than it was with Jacob; I remember everything with him being more gradual. There wasn't any one day I could identify as him doing x, y, z for the first time, I couldn't pin point his exact first word. But with you it's clear you have definite opinions about yourself. That's not to say Jacob isn't opinionated - he very much has a mind of his own.

Speaking of words, you have many, most of which are the kind a parent needs to translate, but they fit the definition of a word. Water (which you love drinking!), light, doggie, Ginger, Daddy, rabbit, touch it, gentle, Na-na (which is me, we're working on making it Mama). You use several ASL signs and a few I made up. Infact, there is a sign you use most often and it is one you made up yourself. Instead of the more sign you adapted it and use it, as best we can tell, to mean 'want'. You do your little "uh-uh" chimp noise to get our attention and then point to something and do your want sign. You do this over and over, sometimes loudly if you're really excited. It's really freaking cute.

Also right around your birthday you started eating some actual food. You still only have two little teensy teeth but I guess you just decided it was time. You have no idea have this has improved my daily living. It's opened up different wardrobe choices for me, and it means other people can feed you for a chance. It means you can be bribed and coaxed by little bits of crackers and such. You're still nursing like a maniac, but it's been nice to have you eating some food. I actually don't know your weight because your birthday came and went without me even making an appointment for you 12 month visit. We're going next week though and I don't expect you to be over 17lbs.

Other things have gotten easier with you as well. Diaper changes are not always a traumatic event, but you're still not crazy about them. The same goes for getting you dressed. The carseat is not the torture device it used to be. Infact, we even made it home from Camp in four hours a couple weeks ago because you stayed happy while awake in your carseat for over an hour. Not as much stuff is going in your mouth these days, and when you do have something inappropriate in your mouth, you're more likely to turn it over to the autorities willingly.

Ride-on toys and the water remain among your favorite things. A few weeks ago you actually tried to ride the canister part of the vacuum cleaner while I was vacuuming. You wiped out and then proceeded to do an instant replay showing me what happened when you fell off. Your little horsey is a favorite ride-on here at the house. You just push that things all over the house, going in circles and steering like a pro.

And I can say that you are a bonafide water lover. You love being in the water, playing around and getting wet. You love drinking water from a cup and cry when I say you've had to much. Yesterday you actually threw up in the car because you'd had the water bottle unsupervised and drank too much. And always with the climbing. Everyday it is a new thing you've climbed, a new danger, a few inches higher that I have to move the breakables. At Jacob's gymnastics recital you were doing flips on the bars (with Daddy's assistance) and hanging from them (with no assistance). I expect next year it will be impossible to keep you off the equipment.

Well Sabine, if your first year is any indicator of the kind of person you're going to become, I think you're going to grab life by the horns, drink it in with gusto, and then puke it back up just to make room for the next adventure. I'll gladly join you for the ride.

Love,

Mommy