Happy Homecoming Day, Natasha

This day last year is when we brought Natasha home. She slept most of the day, which worked out well since it enabled DH and me to pay endless amounts of attention to Adam.

I was fearful that he would react to her the same way he did when we were at the hospital, but he just loved her up as though he had been waiting his whole life to meet her. Still, she slept. Even through the kisses and his attempts to pick her up.

This last year has been a magnificent neon blur. Like a waving sparkler photographed on the fourth of July. It's hard to encapsulate all that has happened, but Natasha has started to bloom in the last month. She's gone from My Little Baby to the brink of toddlerhood. She's *this close* to walking. She signs "more", "drink", and "up" (also Adam's first signs). Tries to say "Desi" and "Adam" and says "Da da" and "ball" easily. The girl climbs things at 12 months that Adam has just started to climb. I call her my spider monkey because she's so swift and agile it's scary.

At her 12-month appt today our doc agreed that our recent decision to get tubes surgically placed in her ears was a good idea. She had actually lost a few pounds during her last ear infection (but she gained two pounds since and has finally broken 17 pounds!). We visited the ENT and her hearing is perfect, but after 7 rounds of antibiotics, we are ready for something else.

Here are a few recent pictures of my darling little girl.

Enjoying an apple:


With the cake that she HATED (still slow-going on solid foods):


Learning to walk: