ONE.

Now that she's approaching fourteen months old, here are a few of the twelve-month/one-year photos that I took of our baby girl when we got back from Florida, along with some commentary on what our one-year-old has been up to of late.

You want to take my picture?  Too bad!

About two weeks after her first birthday, Louisa took her first intentional steps.  (She had taken a couple of "accidental" steps here and there before that, in the course of letting go of whatever she was holding onto and falling down.)  She's now walking all over the place, if not quite all the time.  And she is SOOOOO proud of her newfound form of mobility!

Big, goofy grin

Louisa has been adding words to her vocabulary lately, too.  Or at least sounds, if not quite words.  New favorites include "ouch" and "wow".  She also will spontaneously say "thanks" if you give her something, and something that sounds like "I love you," occasionally!

Here you go, now you can see how big she's gotten!

She is the SWEETEST baby, and still loves to give hugs and kisses, often unprompted, to us, to her sisters, to the cats, to inanimate objects...  When she wants a kiss, she'll press her lips together, lean toward you, and say "mmmm." 

Silly girl, the bow goes in your hair, not your mouth!

On the other hand, she definitely has a temper when she doesn't get her way, and will squeal and pinch at you when she's mad.  (Seriously!  And I'll give you one guess where she learned that...)  One of the things that makes her angry?  When Amelia or Ramona sits in my lap!  She thinks that she's the only one who gets to do that.

Bear got knocked out of the basket... Louisa barely fits in it anymore!

Nevertheless, Louisa loves her big sisters and wants to be just like them.  For example, she's not happy eating her food with her fingers like a normal baby.  Instead, she wants to use a fork like Amelia and Ramona do.  (Most of the time we have to get the food on the fork for her, but sometimes she actually gets it herself.) 

Chatting with Mr. Bear

And we've given away more than half of our baby toy collection at this point, because Louisa would much rather play with whatever toys Amelia and Ramona have than her own.  (This means that we're often fishing doll shoes and other small items out of Louisa's mouth.  The hazards of being the third child!)

Captured the two seconds she had the bow in her hair on camera!

I really can't believe that it has been a year (and six odd weeks) since we brought our littlest home...


Escaping

To illustrate just how much of a difference a year makes, here are a couple of collages of Louisa's monthly photo shoots:

12 months in the basket with the bear...

...and 12 months on her quilt with her monkey!

It's been a great year, and we're looking forward to so many more with you, Louisa!