I Love Her

We have this beautiful daughter
that I just love love love
and I decided that for her 13 month BirthTay
(which flew by over the busy weekend)
I would list things that I
love love love
about her in this stage!

I love her giggle.
She often hums right before breaking into laughter.
And she most often laughs
when we come out from behind things,
or change depth perception to her.
She always giggles when we make funny sound effects,
and she especially giggles if we're both near her
with our full attention devoted to her!

I love her growing independence!
This may turn out to be a heartache
at times as I grieve the baby she is no more...
but most of the time
I am able to just sit back and ponder
how incredible it is that she's already in this stage,
and is so loving being able to do things herself.
And yet, she still grabs for our hands,
as though she wants to be sure
to include us on her "independent" adventure.
I love that she has SO many facial expressions!
She uses her eyes, her nose, her tongue,
her fingers, her lips, her eyebrows...
It's so fun!

I love how she ponders things so seriously.
She so often stares into oblivion,
and then surprises us that she noticed SOMETHING
that we never knew she was trying to learn!
Like she walked up to the door,
with my keys in her hand,
and tried to reach my car key into the doorknob.
Whodda thunk she'd know to do that?
Or she picks up anything that looks electronic
and either sets it to her ear and says, "hi"
or points it at the tv, and jibber-jabbers.
If one of us picks up the tv remote
she doesn't look at it,
she immediately turns her head and looks at the screen.
Really? How does she figure these things out?

I love that she smiles when she sees me at the end of the day.
I walk into Miss Shannon's house,
and she always giggles and smiles to see me,
but then looks at the toy she's playing with,
and it's like I can see the wheels turning
saying, "do I want this... or do I wanna go say hi to mama?"
Usually she chooses me =)
But I also love that she is enjoying walking so much.

I love that she loves the wind.
And she loves the breeze.
Whether it's in the car,
in our little yard/patio,
or on a walk in the park...
she LOVES when the wind hits.

I love that she's growing into a little lady.
In case you didn't notice in the pix above,
she's now wearing (every once in a while) pony tails
although they don't last for very long...
I love that she's SO beautiful!

I love that when she's falling asleep
she flaps her arms on the chair armrests,
and then SUDDENLY snores.

I love that when she's playing with something
she knows she shouldn't be...
she shakes her head "no" and then smiles
and walks away, ha!

I love that when she's super tired
but hasn't yet eaten her last meal
and we're trying to keep her awake a lil' longer
she whines, blinks her eyes, and then tries to keep eating.
Too cute!

I love that she cuddles by hugging our knees!
I love that she likes to pull books off the shelf.
I love that she likes to hold her Eeyore stuffed animal
as she's falling asleep every night.
I love her.