Twelve months

Twelve months.  One year.  A whole year of being Nory's Mama.  Wow.

She's gained a little over ten pounds and grown a little under ten inches.  She's still the same baby I held in my arms and smiled at thru my tears a year ago.  But she's a completely different baby at the same time.  She's amazing like that.

She's so very close to trusting herself enough to stand on her own.  Very, very close.  Sometimes, if she's playing with something, she doesn't realize that she isn't holding on to something stable.  She really is Daddy's Little Duplicate some times.  She is loving holding our hands and walking everywhere.  But for now, she still prefers crawling...then she can explore on her own and get where she wants to go quicker.  We still ordered some soft soled shoes for her.  Gotta protect those sweet little toes!

She has five teeth, with two more *just* below the surface.  In fact, one of them may have come thru today, but she wouldn't let me check.  She has a third tooth that is getting close to cutting, but that one may take another week or two.  I love how with each tooth she seems so much bigger, and she seems so different, but it never looks out of place.  She always just looks like Nory.

Those teeth are coming in really handy with all the food she's eating these days.  We thought she might have a dairy allergy, but now we think it was just a poorly timed heat rash.  She has been devouring cheese for days with no ill effects...I just have to watch and make sure she doesn't eat too much!  She even ate apples the other day...I mixed the pieces up with pear pieces, so I don't think she really noticed.  Maybe we've gotten past the "no apples" thing!  We tried tomato tonight...she chewed it just long enough for Ben to say "Yay!" before she spit it out.  Apparently, tomatoes just aren't very popular.  See?  Every once in a while, she acts like my kid.  

She is getting really good at waving (especially when I hold her arm for her - she's so funny) and she's starting to blow kisses to Mirror Baby.  Now we just have to work on blowing kisses to loved ones who don't live in the mirror!  I think she's starting to recognize some of the signs we (sporadically) use with her.  Every once in a while, I will sign "all done" after a meal and she'll either clap or nod her head.  She cracks me up when she nods...there really doesn't seem to be any reason for her to be nodding, but she does it any way.  Often while "telling" me something with a very insistent look on her face.  I don't know what she's saying, but she knows it's very important.

I'm really having trouble wrapping my head around this.  I know she's a year old.  I know she's going to keep growing and changing and hitting milestones.  I just don't think I knew just how bittersweet every single one of those were until now.  She's never again going to be that tiny little 7 pound, 5 ounce baby I met a year ago.  But she's always going to be my baby.