It's been one year...

At this moment, it has been one year since I went into labor with Charlotte Grace. It was a very sudden and short labor. I remember being so surprised by it that I was frustrated with my dad when he was trying to get me into the car to leave. I was in my room doing something very important, I'm sure. He was laughing the laugh of a man married to a woman who had her third child in the car, when they only lived 15 minutes from the hospital. I was so sure that I had plenty of time to take care of details, and I'm sure that he didn't really think that finding matching flip-flops was important! Remembering this makes me miss him almost more than anything else has. It feels so real. Anyway, back to the star of the show!

What an amazing year! Charlotte is absolutely the most amazing 'life force' I have ever encountered. She is so full of life and amazing. She is little bits of everyone. She watches everything just like my dad and Danielle always have. She engages just like my mom and Laura. She has peaceful moments just like her dad, but she also has wild moments where she is so much like Leah that I just watch her...amazed! She makes great faces just like her GiGi. Every once in a great while, she looks like her hair might have the slightest hint of reddish (not real red...darn it!) and in those moments, she reminds me that she is related to Patrick and Havah! But, most of all, she watches and tries to be just like her big sister and hero, Ava. If you've seen her eat, you know that it deserves mention, but I don't know anyone else who eats like that...except Sahja!!

Her favorite thing to do is blow raspberries on me, and she always gives open mouth 'soap opera kisses' with the biggest mouth you've ever seen. She loves to eat everything except yellow squash, Gerber baby vienna sausages and anything you would have to feed to her. She's a lightweight, but when I asked her doctor about her appetite, Dr. S said, "feed her until she stops eating". My response was, "Dr. S, she's never stopped!" She climbed all of the way up and part of the way down the steps yesterday. She makes a 'dog' sound about dogs and today when I told Sahja to sit down, Charlie said her 'down' sound several times, looking at our little pup. She is confused about 'bye-bye', because we tell Dada 'bye-bye' every morning. She says 'Dada' while she waves. This tells me that I need to leave her more often!!! And, most hilarious of all, she learned how to throw a fit...and she throws a good one. Hold on to her tightly and watch out for her head! If she is on the floor throwing her fit, she curves her little legs around and spins a little on the floor! It is so funny, but if you laugh, I'll give you that 'don't laugh at my kid while she does something bad or I'll deck you' look...you know the one...

So here are some pictures and a video to celebrate the first anniversary of the life of Charlotte.

Happy Birthday little girl!

She has this darling little stuffed doggie that she loves. She will crawl across the room toward Dreyfus with her mouth open wide and such intense love in her eye!She grabs him and snuggles him in a way that makes the Sahjinator stay far, far away! Below, she is wallowing on that stuffed dog, Dreyfus.