Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

My how quickly a year goes by. I can hardly believe the changes this past year brought.

Our tiny baby is growing in to a little girl, from a helpless bundle of joy to an almost standing, always squirming bundle of smiles. This post is full of collages, but it truly is quite a feat to distill an entire year of parenthood into just one manageable blog post (not that I won't try).


We've had a wonderful year of family time.

I know families come in all shapes and sizes, but it is fun to feel like a stereotypical family, hanging out together. And the more time we spend together, the more we seem to enjoy it.


A year of trying to capture everything cute and/or funny.

Composing this post has made me realize the ridiculous volume of photos we've taken this year. But it has also brought back a lot of fun memories, like Virginia clapping for herself the day she ripped all my magazines apart, learning to hold a spoon, and discovering that the tupperware drawer is just the right height.

A year of mutual admiration.

And self-admiration. Virginia's favorite thing in the world, next to her books, is mirrors. A book with a mirror in it is pure nirvana. Needless to say, she was pretty thrilled about both going to the bean and sitting in front of the three panel mirror at the store. That was so exciting I took a video of her bliss (I'm so dedicated to my still photography that it's actually the only time I've ever videoed anything--had to figure how to make the camera do it first).

A year of sharing our joy with family and friends.

These are pictures of Virginia's baby blessing, the day Scout and Atticus finally got together, and Scout with her great-grandmothers (including the original Virginia).

A year of sleep, sometimes more than others.

You'll notice these pictures stop when she's about four months old. She stopped sleeping wherever and through whatever, but I still miss when she would lay on my knees and just sleep there.

A year of food, in many forms and locations.

From bottles and tubes to spoons and hands, everywhere from the side of the road to the Cheesecake Factory.


A year of reading.

We've made a lot of progress here too. The pictures are in color, some of the pages are made of paper rather than cardboard, and she's even willing to read some Eric Carle books (though not all of them and not always). Our little Scout remains a discerning reader. She has favorites, and shoves everything else aside. But sometimes, when she thinks I'm not watching, she pulls out the new material to give it a look and perhaps approve it for future read-alouds.

What a wonderful year of cuddling and kissing and loving and learning. Oh how we love our baby girl!