Happy Birthday, my sweet Scarlett Ray

Dear Scarlett,

I am a little choked up as I write this, that today, my baby girl is turning one.  This year has gone by so fast, but I also feel like last Valentine's Day was so impossibly long ago, almost another lifetime.   I'm so accustomed to you.  You and I wake up early together, and usually let your dad sleep a little while longer.  We take walks and I point out trees, cars, fences and houses.  You get so excited when we see a dog or cat.  Yesterday, I asked you to put your sippy cup in the fridge AND YOU DID!  I am constantly amazed by you and all the cute things you do and how you pick up on the happenings around you.

You have changed so much this month- probably because you're walking, and you have a new confidence.  You:

• Run around like crazy, so sure on your feet
• Open and close doors and cupboards on command
• Love playing in the fridge
• Sign 'bottle', 'more', 'all done' and 'sleep/sleepy'
• Had two little accidents in one week:
• Falling against the coffee table, causing a bruise on your cheek
• Falling on the sidewalk, causing a big gash on your chin 
• Went to the swimming pool for the first time
• Met baby Ramona, who is 50 weeks younger than you

When you were tiny, we had a hard time getting you to stay asleep at night.  As evening approached, I would get nervous, wondering if you'd sleep some long stretches or if it would be one of those difficult nights.  But now, you're an amazing sleeper, and bedtime is my favorite time of day: you run around the house naked, you take a bath, then I put you into PJs and your dad comes in and together, you two turn off the hot air balloon light.  You love this light, and sometimes you can't wait to finish getting your jammies on before you start calling for dad and pointing at the light.  Then, you and I cuddle and I sing to you and rock you until you're asleep.  This is the only time of day where I can hold you for longer than just a few minutes.  You're usually so squirmy, but at night, I can squeeze you and remember way back, before you walked or crawled, when I just carried you everywhere all the time.

Our newest challenge is that we're trying to get you off the bottle, onto the sippy cup.  You'll drink water from the cup, but you refuse milk unless it's in the bottle.  We've only been trying the cup for a day, so I'm hoping it'll get better.  When we first introduced the bottle to you, you hated it, you screamed when we brought it near you.  It took months before you would take it.  So we joked that you're a locavore, wanting to get your food straight from the source.  The good news is that we gave you regular milk and you seemed happy drinking it, so we're going to keep pushing with the sippy cup and hope for the best.

New foods this month:

• eggs- egg yellows, as we call them
• raisins, prunes
• watermelon
• yellow curry
• onions- I gave you a few pieces of caramelized onion from my sandwich, and you kept asking for more.  Which is bittersweet, because I love caramlelized onions and it was hard to share.
• salsa
• tomatoes
• chicken- your dad is excited that he's got a non-vegetarian counterpart now
• oranges
• cow's milk
• birthday cake- your daddy made you a carrot cake sweetened with fruit instead of sugar.  Even the frosting was sugar free, and you had a whole lot of fun eating it.  As evidenced by these pictures...

I love you, my little toddler baby.  I am so proud to be your mama.  Please don't grow up too fast.

Emily