What A Year

Briana will turn a year old in a few weeks.  This seemed like a good opportunity to pause and reflect on what a wonderful and eventful year it’s been.

The biggest change has probably been her mobility.  We’ve really come a long way since those first few days when the only thing she could do was some uncoordinated arm and leg movements.  She started to roll this way, roll that way, sit up, scoot, and crawl.  Now she can pull herself up to stand and take a few tentative, supported steps.  I think walking is in our very near future and I’ve been told that is when the real fun begins.  She’s also started to dance a little when she sits sometimes.

Another big difference is her ability to communicate.  At first, we only had crying, which sounded the same no matter what the problem was.  Now the crying is much less frequent, and it’s pretty easy to tell the difference between a hungry cry and a tired cry.  She can also laugh, scream with delight, and make lots of different babbling sounds.  Besides the sounds she can make, she can also understand some of what we say.  If she hears “Daddy’s home” she will look at the door, and when we say “tree” she’ll look outside.

There have been so many other fun developments.  She has her own little sense of humor.  She eats lots of real foods, and especially loves bananas, cheerios, and peanut butter.  Her sleep has gotten much more consistent, even if she is consistently waking up a little earlier than we’d like in the morning.  She claps and waves and likes to play catch by throwing a felt ball back and forth with me.  She loves books and can spend quite a while quietly turning through the pages on her own.

It’s been the most amazing year of my life, and I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store for us.

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