One Year of Violet

One year ago today I went to the hospital early in the morning having a few contractions, and a few hours later I was here, holding a tiny minutes-old Violet. She has been here out in the world for a whole year, a whole set of seasons, one whole trip around the Sun. I feel bowled over with love for the tiny floppy creature in our video who moved her little hands like she was still living underwater, but then I look down at the floor by my chair right now and I see this sociable, laughing baby girl with her wide-open chocolate eyes and round pink cheeks and hair just getting long enough to curl and I feel so happy for me-in-the-video because I get to know and mother this new person we have just met.

This year has gone blindingly fast in many ways, much faster than Grace's first year, but it has been a beautiful, amazing year as we've watched Violet emerge from the insularity of newborn life into the crawling, playing, laughing one-year-old she is today. She loves cheese and remotes and climbing up stairs and picking up microscopic bits of detritus from the floor, and she dislikes having her diaper changed and riding in the car and bonking her head. She loves new physical objects she's never seen before and enjoys emptying bins of toys. She thinks riding in the grocery cart is one of the super funniest things ever, although she doesn't do it too often, usually napping in the sling or Ergo while Grace rides around. Drinking from a cup is also highly entertaining, although more for recreational than thirst-quenching purposes. She is such a busy baby, with such engrossing things to do, and she crawls and climbs expertly (and quickly). She finally seems like she is able to handle Grace's overenthusiastic affection with a bit more equanimity; she is now only infrequently terrified and even sometimes thinks she is hilarious. She says "mama" and "uh oh", but also has a whole repertoire of funny closed-mouth vocalizing where she mimics the rhythms of conversation without actually talking. When she nurses, she likes to reach up and tangle her little chubby fingers into my hair. Rob and I have commented how just in the past few weeks, she has blossomed into new levels of cheery, plump gorgeousness and smiles-- oh, the smiles...

Happy birthday, beautiful.