Scarlet's First Year of Life

Scarlet has been one year old for six days now. I am utterly smitten with her. Here are a few of her current activities:

-She's walking like a very precariously balanced toddler. Occasionally she'll just be standing and suddenly drop to the ground. Thankfully she doesn't have far to fall because she's pretty lousy at staying upright.
-She likes to get into things ceaselessly. She pulls open the cupboards in the kitchen and bathroom and my nightstand to get at all the things we store underneath. I turned my back for a minute after changing her diaper and she had pulled out twenty wipes and was trying to reach into the container to get at the rest. She dumps out Q-tips and then picks them up one at a time to put back in their box or insert into her mouth (gag). She especially loves to pull down dvds and play with my work phone.

She got into the toilet paper and trailed it behind her until I could stop laughing long enough to help her.

-She is a good eater and can eat anything that adults eat now, but her favorites are yogurt, cottage cheese, carrots, bread, and graham crackers. She's tentative about vegetables and seems not to like broccoli, beets, any leafy greens, or tomatoes.

-She watches Barbie movies all day long because I need to distract her while I'm working. Sometimes she demands attention to emphatically that I have to stop work to play with her for a few minutes. Otherwise she clings to my legs, sobs with her head thrown back, and slams her hands on the keyboard. It tries my patience, especially when we're slammed with work, but I really am just losing patience with myself because I have unending guilt for working when my little girl needs me to take care of her.

And sometimes she'll leave me alone long enough to stare at the tv. She really likes when the animals come on the screen.

-She loves Color Crew on Netflix. When she sees the show start to play, she'll scream in excitement and start dancing.
-She is a shameless flirt at church. She refuses to sit in the pew, and instead insists on standing between her parents, facing the row behind her, and flirting with whoever is unfortunate enough to sit behind us. She also enjoys tearing the program into shreds.
-She is generally a happy baby who wants to smile and play, so I have learned that when she cries (hurts herself, is not feeling well) it means something is genuinely wrong. She never cries wolf when it comes to actual crying so I always treat her tears seriously.
-When Josh comes home from work, Scarlet jumps at the sound of the key turning in the lock. She gets so excited to see him!

Josh and I are so lucky/blessed to have her and to have her as a first baby. I wouldn't be able to keep working at WGU with a more difficult child, and life would be a lot less pleasant than it is. I'm looking forward to the next year of milestones and laughter!