Exciting news: Baby Girl turned one last month! And what, might you ask, is this big little baby mischief maker up to these days? Well, I’m glad you asked. Oca-doo loves to read her stories. I was trying to clean the floor but with little messer-heels following me around, I wasn’t progressing much. I plopped her down on a chair with an armful of books, and she happily read out loud (ooohh beep bo do wa looo wa noo) for a half hour. (Do I need to increase the monthly amount we put away to her college fund after all?). Eole loves to help in the garden. She’s really good at making sure the hose works properly. She is a mean-green-baby-machine who loves to help her mommy sort the recycling. Eole is also particularly fond of “peek-a-boo,” as the video will attest to. (The video will also attest to the fact that I don’t know how to rotate these darned videos to be upright!). And that’s our Baby Girl at one year.

and now presenting...

It's time for baby tricks! I'm sure no one will be as amused by these new tricks as I am, but I figured it had been a while since I posted videos. Eole has come up with two tricks this week. I noticed while listening to NPR that Eole would be busy with her toys until a music interlude played. Then she'd get a big smile and start dancing along. My attempts to recreate this are not nearly as darling as the spontaneous results. And for her newest baby trick, may we present the clapping monkey! I'm sure this will be her new favorite for sacrament meeting.

look at me.....

I agree with those few of you who haven't succumbed to the blog world that blogs have a tendency to be a little too self-centered. I completely agree. And now, I'm going to be self-centered and brag about my latest project...or at least show off my latest project. Recently, my mom gave me some fabric and old pillowcases embroidered by both of my grandmothers. I decided to awaken my long-dormant sewing skills. Here are some of my creations for Baby Girl. She's not crazy about these dresses as they greatly inhibit her cruising ability. She has even figured out how to untie the dresses and squirm out of her fabric prison.

the lies we tell ourselves

I am a clean person: therefore, I only need to clean my bathroom once a month. I am a clean person: therefore, I only need to sweep my floor once a week. I am a clean person, I never need to clean my oven. I have lived quite well with this philosophy for the past six years. But children-- especially babies-- have ways of seeing through your lies. You can tell yourself that your bathroom is clean but then Baby will crawl behind the toilet and reemerge with old toilet paper in her mouth as if to say, "Aha! Explain this if you will, "clean" Mom!" And you don't notice the pink rings around your bathtub until Baby starts emerging from bathtime with strange rashes on her body. You believe that your floor is perfectly clean, or at least clean enough, until you notice Baby sucking on a-- what is that....OH MY GOSH! WHERE DID SHE GET THAT SHARP SCREW? Or better yet, what happened earlier this week when I had finished changing Baby and came back to find her chewing on a little blueberry. But wait, we don't have any blueberries....is that chocolate...NO! THAT'S NOT CHOCOLATE! THAT'S POOP! And once again, I find myself asking how any baby survives to adulthood.

With Grandma Janet and Grandpa Ed, Eole proved to be her daddy’s girl by showing a love for the dog that only he can match. Chickens and cows were OK, but “Puppy” merited the loudest and longest squeals (comforting to know she wasn’t permanently scarred by the London dog experience after all). She also enjoyed gumming all the pea pods and picking strawberries. Eole was thrilled to finally meet her Uncle Stew. As many of you may know, Stew is so highly regarded in our family that we considered naming our baby Stewartina. But then we thought she might follow in his footsteps and settle for the inferior Ivy school: Harvard. It was so fun to play with all the cousins. Eole especially loved being fussed over by Elizabeth, Russell, and she even got some curious glances from James.

Zion and Moab

We had a wonderful time with Nana Anne and Papa Dave down in Zion’s National Park and Moab. Eole proved once again that she is more Dan’s family than mine with her refined and adventurous taste in food. She fell in love with pickles at Zion’s, and was furious, absolutely furious, when we had to leave the flaccid remains of pickle behind. At Moab Nana Anne fed her small crumbs of ginger pancake. But this was not enough for our dainty little girl as she reached her baby hand out and grabbed a large fistful of pancake to stuff in her mouth. She loved being outdoors and squealed with delight at any morbidly obese squirrels who waddled after us. And of course, she particularly relished tasting the Southern Utah red dirt.

lewis and clark

Never mind that it has been a few months since my last post. I figured you would all rather see us than read about us, and we had a lovely time seeing many of you on our Utah trip. So much has happened for Eole in the meantime, and I’m glad many of you got to witness it. I felt like Eole really leaped forward (and not just with that worm crawl) in her progress while in Utah. Here are some highlights: As far as her motor skills, little Oca mastered what it has taken mommy 30 years to master: yoga plank position and down-ward dog. This was a really big step in what I hope (only sorta because I don’t own any baby gates yet) will be real crawling. Papa Dave taught Eole how to waive within a day of our arrival. Eole also daily demonstrated her pincher (pointer finger and thumb grasp) abilities. We saw so much of these little exploratory digits going out for adventures that Nana Anne named them Lewis and Clark.