The la la la la la lovely Livie is one today!! It has been a crazy, busy year, but it has also been an amazingly fun year with this little girl, and it just gets better and better all the time.
She is becoming such a babbler, and I love it. Just the other day Marc said how much he loved all the little sounds she makes; these sounds are so incredibly girly, and it’s so adorable. Her favorite word is still “gup,” but it also sounds like she’s asking to “touch” things all the time. She can mimic a lot of sounds, so I think we’re pretty close to her saying some real words fairly soon. When I was reading with her and Roman the other day, it really sounded like she said “truck,” “dog,” and “ba” (when she was pointing at a sheep). I had read somewhere when Rome was a baby that children are really only capable of perfecting gross motor skills like crawling, standing, and walking OR perfecting language skills. It’s just too much for their little brains to focus on both at the same time. So, usually, you either get an early walker or an early talker, but rarely is a kid both. Well, it seems like we have another nerdy, language learner in our house, which is just fine with me, but I am hoping that Livie will learn to walk a little more quickly than Roman, but that seems unlikely.
This little girl LOVES to be outside playing. Her favorite thing is to be on the swings; she can be swinging for a good 15 minutes and still get upset if I try to get her to move on to something else. But she is still not too sure about the sand at a lot of the parks we go to. If she’s sitting down she tries to hold her feet up out of the sand, and it looks pretty funny. She was doing it for a while we were at the beach this morning to take our family pictures, but then she seemed to figure it out. We’ll see how she does next time.
And I think that Livia is going to be a climber, which should be interesting because Roman was most definitely not a climber, so I am not sure I am prepared for it. While we were in the bay area, all she wanted to do at Erica’s house was go up and down the stairs. Up, she totally had; down, well that was a different story. Liv is a bit of a daredevil and likes to throw herself backwards off things, like beds and couches and stairs… I am sure you can see where this is going. In fact, one night Bill and Peggy were watching the kids for me, and Liv threw herself (again, backwards) off their bed, landed on her back, and laughed and laughed. I told Marc that I wouldn’t be surprised if Liv ends up being a better race car driver than Roman because I think she is going be more daring. Oh yeah, didn’t you know that both the kids are going to be drivers? Of course you did. We are already checking out this drift cart made for kids. True story.
Anyhoo, back to Livia. Even though she makes it known that she is not happy to be left alone for an extended period of time, she is a really easy going baby, which is great, because most of the time it’s just me and the kids, and both of the kids are far more patient with me than most little kids are, I am sure. And it’s nice to know that she knows what she wants; that makes life easier, too. Just the other day she started stealing food off my plate while we were at lunch. Apparently, her lunch was not as good, so she just helped herself. When I asked her what she thought she was doing, she gave me her litte scrunch-face smirk, and proceeded to grab another fry from my plate and eat it quietly. A fry for each hand. That’s my girl.
Our big-girl, one-year-old Livia: still sleeps with her Ruby every nap and every night; has decided on her own to switch to one nap a day; can crawl incredibly fast; is so, so close to walking; can mimic many sounds; can roar like a lion; absolutely loves cheese; isn’t really a fan of sweets; thinks the dogs are a riot; refuses to be left alone or be ignored; still shrieks like a pterodactyl; is super ticklish; always wants to give you kisses; loves to be on the swings; wants to do everything that her big brother is doing (much to the irritation of Roman); loves to “read” books; shakes her little behind every time she hears music; is very interested in other people; loves jumping in her crib; points at everything and seems to ask “touch” or “that”; is finally getting some hair; has eight teeth (four on top/four on bottom, and her molars are coming in); can shake her head “no” and thinks it’s really fun to do so; is trying to stand up on her own, but for now it just looks like she’s doing baby yoga; bounces on her bum all the time; can climb up the backs of the couches; is a total cuddle-bug; loves to play pat-a-cake; is super happy and awesome, and we all love her (even Roman).
Happy Birthday, Monster Girl! We are all so lucky to have such a funny, smart, adorable, happy baby in our family.
