Diana is ONE!

That oh-so-awesome day arrived yesterday: my baby turned one. This was a relatively exciting event for me because this is my first baby and this was her very first birthday. She, of course, didn't understand the significance of the day, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. We had a party for her with all of our family packed into our tuna-can house, and it was a blast! Diana dove RIGHT into her cake and wouldn't stop eating....we actually had to take it away from her because we were afraid she was going to overeat and throw up. It was an ALL CHOCOLATE cake, topped with chocolate chips. Now, you need to understand something....my child loves chocolate. No, not just loves, more like, she can't live without it, she could smell it across the room, it's something I use to calm her when she throws an uncontrollable ADD temper-tantrum because I know it will immediately calm her down, as if I had flipped a switch in her head. Yes, my girl is a chocoholic.

So yes, all in all, it was a wonderful day. And now, I guess, I can't call her my "baby" anymore, because she's a toddler now....now THAT is weird to say!

At one year old, here is a list of her accomplishments from the last 3 months:

*She runs everywhere...of course, she took her first steps at 8 1/2 months old and was walking at 9 months old, and running very shortly after that. Thanks, Mike.

*She has become independent. Yes, she is now longer afraid to leave my side. In fact, if I don't keep a close eye on her, she'll actually run away from me (she's done this almost every Sunday at church for at least the past month and a half).

*She's developed a bashful side....and she's a flirt. Yes, yes, my girl loves boy....especially older ones (uh-oh). She works shamelessly hard to get their attention, and once she gets that attention, cue the bashful side. She lifts her shoulder up and turns her face slightly inward as she brings her cheek to her shoulder and looks up through the very top of her eyes and smiles a great big smile. Now all she needs to do is learn to flutter her eyelashes and she's got that act down pat. I'm a little afraid.

*She's been eating strictly table food since she was 9 months old, and she feeds herself every meal. Now THIS I LOVE!! My child eats slow, and she likes to observe her food, plus she's got a HUUUGE "let-me-do-it" attitude (hmmm, wonder where that comes from...), so I was SO EXCITED for this phase. And, of course, so was she. This was when the independant phase started to set in. We started letting her feed herself one meal a day (of table food, plus snacks) at about 7-8 months and worked it up to all her meals and snacks by the time she was 9 months old. Of course, this was when she was walking too, so she had gained two HUGE areas of freedom, and let me say it made her SO MUCH happier of a person. Her personality came out in a huge way, and I love it!

*She L-O-V-E-S chocolate. This has been previously stated and needs no further explanation. But let me just clarify, I am in no way exaggerating my point, and anyone who has seen her around chocolate can attest to this.

*She LOVES broccoli and other veggies. Oh yes, this part of her STILL baffles my husband. You see, he comes from a family of sugarholics who wouldn't touch a veggie with a 50-foot pole. I, on the other hand, love my veggies, especially peas and broccoli and things like that. Thankfully, she picked up my love of veggies.

*She can say (with purpose, not just babbling): MaMa, DaDa, Buh (bye), Aaay (yay), Duhee (done), Yeah (as in, 'yes'), and Baby. It's funny to hear her talk, especially when she says real things.

*SLOWLY, but surely, she's getting her hair. ...but people still think she's a boy. Meh.

*She loves to (and is very good at) backing up and sitting on everything. A book, a box, a chair, a bean bag, a toy, a cd case, Mommy's face....if it's on the floor, she'll sit on it. You've been warned.

*She gives hugs and kisses on demand, and is much more willing to give them when it's to another baby.

*She loves on and talks to her toys. She especially loves her baby dolls. She likes to grab as many toys as she can and walk aimlessly around the house with all of them, giving kisses and whispering secrets to each one. And yes, she will literally whisper.

*She is solely on straw sippers. She's been using a straw sipper since she was 4-5 months old, so at 11 months we took away all the bottles and gave her straw sippers only, and she didn't even notice.

*She still LOVES her binkies. She will hide them throughout the house and knows where they all are. Often times I'll find her walking around holding all 4 of them, literally rotating though them every minute or two.

*She loves walking around the store. She gets angry when I put her in the cart, but have to when I shop alone with her or else she runs away (as I stated in the beginning). When we go to the store with Daddy, we let her walk around and she has a blast!

*Sadly, she is still allergic to Milk/milk products.

*She's made the transition from soy formula to soy milk. YAY!! I hate formula, it stinks SO BAD.

*When she comes upon a new floor color or type, she'll pause for several seconds to analyze and make sure she can make the transition without tripping. She's apparently tripped too many time on the cracks on her Grandma Steadman's kitchen floor.

*When I get upset with her or frustrated when I'm busy doing something, she'll pause for a second, walk right up to me, wrap her arms around me, lay her head on me, and give me a big, long hug. I never stay mad long.

*She loves peekaboo. Always has. And she loves playing it with us, with people in the store, people behind us at church, people in line at restaurants....

*She loves eating dirt. It's gross. Apparently, I did it too as a kid, and I know it's pretty common for kids, but it's still freaking gross.

*She loves to bounce on my stomach, and the harder I laugh or scream, the harder she bounces. It can actually get pretty painful, but it's always so funny. That's another reason I know not to lay on the floor...if I do (and if she doesn't try to sit on my face), she'll crawl onto my stomach and start bouncing away.

*She loves her bean bad chair. We bought bean bag chairs a while back; a small hot pink one for her and a giant black one for us. She loves them both and when it's movie time, she'll sit on one or both of them.

*Her favorite movies are "Despicable Me" and "Pride and Prejudice". Although, her list of movies that she'll sit through IS expanding.

*She's got 7 teeth, going on 8. 4 on top, 3 (going on 4) on the bottom.

*Right before she gets a new tooth, she pulls on her tongue. She sticks it out and grabs it with her full hand. It looks painful, but I'm betting it's less painful than getting a new tooth.

*Bathtime is still her favorite time of the day, hands down.

*We switched her car seat to forward facing at 10 1/2 months and it was such a GREAT decision!

*She still sleeps 11 hours each night and takes 2 2-hour naps each day. We love our little sleeper!

*She loves being outside, and if she can't go outside, she will sit at the window and stare outside for several minutes on end.

*She loves trying to shower with Mommy, so Mommy has to shower when Diana naps.

*She gives "5's" and "High 5's" and blows kisses.

*She still LOVES hair. My guess is because she doesn't have any.

*She loves to clap and say "yay" when she's done something good or when others clap.

*She's learned to give us thing she knows she's not supposed to have and to put away her toys.

*She's learning to share with other babies (even without being asked), and it's so precious to watch. Although sometimes the other babies don't appreciate having snacks shoved into their mouths by my bald, smiling girl.

*She still loves to dance and although her list of dance moves has expanded, the poor thing still dances like her Daddy.

*She still loves music with all her heart, and that's still usually the only way I can teach her things.

*She is soooo ADD, poor girl. The good thing is, so am I, so I understand EXACTLY what she's going through and I know that when she freaks out when I say "no" that it's not because she's a spoiled brat.

*She still loves other babies and will follow/run up to one if she sees it.

*She has such a kind, loving heart, and is such a beautiful girl.

*AND, even though she has my nose, she looks more and more like her Daddy every day!

I LOVE YOU, DIANA!!!

Oh Teething, how I loathe thee, let me count the ways...

Ah, teething, what a horrible, yet extremely necessary, part of growth. Its so terrible that I think it's really one of those ways to test our love for our children and, more specifically, our level of patience. I mean, you have to REALLY love someone in order to wake up to their screaming at 1:30 in the morning, pick them up and love on them, take them downstairs to have some milk and watch a movie, then spend the next 2 hours in a zombie-like state while they literally climb all over you. That was last night's episode in our saga, 'Diana: The Teething Experience'. I was really ok with the climbing until she dug her foot (using her entire body weight) into my c-section incision. Yeah, that was not so pleasant.

To be fair, Diana is in a lot of pain right now, as she should be. She's got 4 teeth trying to come in all at the exact same time (3 top, 1 bottom), and I'm guessing that it's not the most luxurious experience. She's done ok with her last 6 teeth, but these current 4 seem to be a never-ending pain-fest. Don't get me wrong, she screamed and woke up in the middle of the night with each of the last 6, but those all came in one at a time, spacing themselves at least a couple of days apart from one another. With these current ones, well, lets just say I've been having a REALLY hard time deciding whether she's sick or if all this screaming and runny nose is from teething alone (although, with all the wind lately, I'm positive some is allergies). I check every day to see if they've broken through yet, to no avail, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that today's the day. All I can do until they break through is pump her full of meds and keep her occupied and happy....and understand that I won't be getting an uninterrupted night of sleep again until she's done with this current set of teeth.

What's Wrong With The World Today?

I've never been one to rant very openly about a subject. I have a very strong opinion on things, and those close to be know that, but I usually try not to through my feelings in other peoples' faces, but I can no longer hold back my feelings on things. I think it's gotten to that point in life where things are SO horrible that I simply can't sit on the sidelines anymore, I've got to jump in the game and defend my side.

I simply do NOT get people who are FOR abortion. I've heard the argument OVER and OVER..."It's MY body, I should be able to do what I want". To that I want to say: Yes, you do have rights to do things with your body, but once you've conceived a human being it's no longer about you. In this day and age there are PLENTY of methods to prevent "unwanted pregnancies"; some include condoms, birth control, and, for unmarried people, the old standby of ABSTINENCE. If you decide you want to play around and "explore" with multiple people, that's your choice. If you choose not to use a method of protection during those times, again, that's YOUR choice. But once that human is created inside of you, choosing whether or not it gets to live is NOT your choice. Hate to break it to you, but abortion is murder, no matter what stage and no matter what you call it. Zygote, fetus, baby; those are ALL human beings, even before they look like one, they are.

Back to the concept of "It's my body..." and the person seeing the baby as, sadly, an "inconvenience", my thoughts are this: If that thought process were justifiable, shouldn't I be able to kill a neighbor's dog if all it does is sit and bark all day long, waking my baby every time she sleeps and giving me headaches? Nope, I would most certainly get sued and do time in jail for that. Similarly, if I meet someone who is an annoyance to me, or makes me look bad, or is simply an "inconvenience", shouldn't I just be able to kill them so that I don't have to live with that annoyance? NOPE, because that's MURDER and most certainly against the law. But this is where I hear those whiners saying, "But, it's growing in MY body..."; listen, like I said before, that ship sailed when you decided to engage in sex, and then not use protection. Or, in cases of rape or incest; does your comfort come before someone else's life? Yes, rape and incest are horrific, disgusting things, I'm not trying to downplay that in ANY sense. But shouldn't that child, not matter how it was conceived, have a fighting chance at living? No one said you had to keep the child after it's born. If you don't want it, let someone else have it. I know many people who are unable to have kids who would do ANYTHING to have ANYONE'S "unwanted" child. Killing a human because it's inconvenience to you is wrong, no matter how small it is. Once it's created it has the right to life just the same as everyone else. Who is anyone to take that right away from it simply because the grower sees it as "unwanted"?? And, like I tried to say before, if it's illegal to kill an owl that's annoying me, or a neighbors dog that just won't shut up, then why should it be legal to kill a HUMAN? Why should animals get more rights than an unborn child? And again, YES, it IS a human upon conception, no matter what you call it. An eagle is an eagle before it hatches from its egg. An alligator is an alligator before it hatches from its egg. And the same goes for humans, no matter what your argument is, that's the truth of it.

Listen, I know people think I'm just blindly callous to this whole situation, but I know several people who have had unexpected pregnancies based on poor choices. I know some who've chosen to adopt out the child, and I know some who've chosen to keep it. Either way, they all made the right decision: letting it live. They understood that they made wrong choices and that this life was created because of their lack of responsibility, but they were intelligent enough to understand that that life they created was just as beautiful and special as their own. No one is more important than another, no matter what stage of life or development they are in. We are ALL EQUAL. In the words of Doctor Seuss, "A person's a person, no matter how small." As silly as that sounds, it's so true! If people looked at unborn babies as HUMAN rather than blobs of inconvenience, they'd most definitely change their tune. Most mothers would do anything to protect their unborn children and even born children, and yet there are women out there who would say that unless the child is "wanted" that it's nothing more than an inconvenience that they should have the right to dispose of. No one should have that right, no matter what the situation. Everyone has the right to life. Why should a defenseless, unborn baby be any different? Who are you to make that choice for them?