Birth day

One year ago today, right now in fact, I was in a whirlpool tub of water, breathing as if my life depended on it, and saying that, no, really, I think the midwife should get back in here *now*. And in about 45 minutes, Mouse will be a year old. She's turning into a real little person (I mean with personality, not like a Fisher Price plastic toy. Although the similarities there are remarkable...).

She's about 24 pounds, 30 inches. Dark, curly(ish) hair, albeit not much of it. Huge blue eyes and deep dimples in both cheeks. Only five teeth, which, what the hell is up with that? Her sister had twelve by this time. I'm thinking she may never have a full mouthfull. We're working on sleep training right now. We finally found a method that's working for us. She's a tension increaser, so crying it out isn't even an option here. But neither did I want to keep feeding and holding her to sleep, because every time she woke at night, she wanted to be fed and help back to sleep. Five times a night? Not happening. So, we're down to about two wakings a night, two naps a day, and it takes anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes to get her to sleep. She weaned herself off her bottle just this past week. She just quit taking it. No skin off my nose. I was going to do it anyway, now that she's a year, but she saved me some time and trouble by doing it herself.

She's definitely got a different personality than her sister. It's amazing to see how different two kids from the same gene pool can be. The Bear was as predictable as clockwork. I always joke that she was my textbook baby. Mouse, on the other hand, is a force of nature. She wants only what she wants, when she wants it. She will knock down or plow over anything that's in her way to get it, too. She will scream bloody murder if you take away something she has, or won't give her something she wants.

She will walk if you hold her hand, but won't do it on her own. She'll stand alone for quite a while, but when she realizes what she's doing, she'll panic and sit back down. She's absolutely fearless, though. She'll try to climb over the side of the bathtub, soaking wet, just for fun, or scale a bookcase or cabinet, just to get at something. I have no experience with this kind of stubborn. I always tell the Bear that nobody is more stubborn that Mommy, but with Mouse I may have met my match. I don't know if I can out-stubborn this kid, and that kind of scares me. What will I do when she figures that out?

She's seriously crazy, and wonderfully unpredictable, and completely gorgeous, and mine. And I'm lucky to have her.