Coming up on a year

In a few short weeks, August will turn one. This, my friends, is very hard to believe. This time last year, yours truly was stuck on the couch, watching the Tour de France and wondering when they'd make the baby come out. (They meaning doctors, not professional cyclists.)

Anyway, I'm working on a photo/blog book for August's first birthday, so I want to sum up the year for posterity; something nice that she'll scoff at when she's 12 and appreciated when she's 22.

The first surprise about August was her hair. I knew she'd have a lot of dark hair when she arrived (since that's the story with her dad), but had anyone ever seen black hair with brown highlights? Now she has brown hair with black highlights, and either way you must admit it's a cool color. Someone who came to visit August in the hospital remarked, "People pay tons of money at a salon for hair like that." Too true.

August is a happy baby -- an easy baby some have said. We often look at each other and wonder how we got so lucky. She was laid-back newborn and a content infant. Since early on, she has almost always been ready to laugh. She has never cried without good reason. She has lots of energy and likes to squirm and wiggle when getting her diaper changed or buckling into the car. TV has yet to appeal, but she loves books, and we've even caught her "reading" them to herself. Sometimes when she doesn't feel like sleeping, she has long conversations with her teddybear and monkey, her two best companions in her crib.

Since so far I've been terrible about keeping up a baby book, I really need to record August's firsts somewhere.

First smile -- 4-6 weeks
First laugh -- 2-3 months
Slept through the night -- 3.5 months
(funny how I recall exactly when that happened)
Rolled over -- 4 months
Sat up -- 5-6 months
Crawled -- 7 months
Stood up -- 7-8 months
Played peek-a-boo -- 8-9 months
Ate baby food -- 5 months
First steps -- 10.5 months
(though she still find crawling more efficient)
First word -- any day now
(though sometimes we're sure she's said Mama or Dada with intention, and several times we've swore she's said Teh-deh-deh for teddybear)

A few weeks ago, when we were over at the Kleitschs' for a "photo shoot" and dinner, Karsten and Britta were singing the Winnie the Pooh song with a cd. I remembered the song, so I sang along. August decided to "sing" along with us and clap her hands. It was one of those tiny moments when I realized that August was not going to be a baby much longer. She's really starting to join in with things like a little person. And I can't wait to see what kind of little person she becomes.