Vivi: One Year

Today is baby girl's first birthday! One whole trip around the sun. Boy, is she a well-traveled baby.

Vivi still seems so baby-ish to me that I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea of her being one. Maybe it's hindsight, or maybe it's a second child thing, but Madeline seemed a lot older to me at her first birthday. I mean, as old a one-year-old baby can be... But that's okay. I'm in no rush for Vivi to grow up.
In fact, maybe I'm just in a state of denial. Sob! Mah baby! She can't be getting so big already!
The memory of her birth is still so vivid. I remember the epidural not working right and gripping the sheets on the bed. I remember how fast it all happened. I remember looking at Eric a moment before she arrived and laughing giddy with excitement. I remember how she cried and cried and cried as if her heart was breaking when they handed her to me. She wasn't thrilled about being ejected into the cold world.
And here we are a year later...Our Vivienne is the best and the brightest baby in the world. How did we ever make do without her?
And at one year, here's what she's up to:
Vivi isn't walking yet. She is getting braver about standing, but she'll only attempt it if she has something nearby to lean on just in case.
On the other hand, our girl has become an accomplished climber. She can climb the stairs, and she is obsessed. She can climb onto the ottoman. She tries to climb into chairs and out of her crib and over her baby gates. She's a practicing escape artist.

She can be quite driven if she wants something. It's hard to distract her from her goals. She also digs her heels in if we try to get her to do something she's not interested in. There's no negotiating with this nugget.
Homeslice has a temper. Today she really wanted to get her hands on one of Madeline's Christmas art projects. I tried handing her various toys to appease her. Each one was greeted with a terrible whine/screech and then thrown across the room. Well then...

Vivi doesn't say much yet either. She has said Mumma and Dada, but they've come so far and few between that I'm starting to think I imagined it. Mostly she just points and says, "Dat. Dat," till we name everything in the room for her.
She's very good at expressing herself through the art of baby dance, however. She loves music. The moment she hears a beat, she starts bopping her head. It's probably my favorite thing she does.

Vivi is quieter than Maddie was at this age, but just as silly. She's a little more sly....a little more rascally. I catch her wrinkling her nose misciviously at me all the time. She lets out an evil giggle when I catch her doing something rotten. She knows what trouble is, and she's not afraid of it.
But she's also very sweet. She loves being cuddled and kissed. She spends probably eighty percent of her waking hours cuddling. It's her favorite.
She still is a total Mumma's girl. It's the best thing ever seeing her face light up when I walk in the room. I feel like a Beatle. She cries when I leave the room to make dinner every night. But mostly, it's pretty awesome. Zw
She loves her Dada too of course. Although she sometimes protests when he takes her from me, she seems to find him comforting. He can get her to sleep faster and deeper than I can. She loves snuggling up on his chest for a snooze.

As for her relationship with Madeline...It's obvious that she wants to do whatever her sister does. She thinks everything Maddie does is hilarious and wonderful. There's a bit of competition between them at times. Vivi still doesn't like it when I cuddle Madeline, and she wedges herself between us during story time.
She's not sleeping through the night as much as I would like, but it's getting better. She's still having tummy troubles, but that's getting better too. Baby steps.
She has her two bottom teeth, and the two on top just broke the surface this week.

She eats pretty much everything we give her. Blueberries are her favorite. Most of her clothes are stained blue around the collar.
Her hair is still red and still scarce. It sticks up in all directions. Her eyes are still blue but growing darker. Today they looked quite brown at times.
She is beautiful, sweet, healthy, and smart. We are very lucky.
We love you, angel. Happy Birthday.