Happy 12 monthday!!!

Amalia, Sunday was your 12th monthday! I was reminiscing with a co-worker about your embarrassing and hilarious birth story, and I really can't believe it has already been a year since my water broke in the middle of a fake trial and the trainer went around to all the courtrooms announcing that I had gone into labor in the middle of our case. I still say that if I had been mistaken and I just peed myself, I would have faked your birth and not gone back to work because I would have died of embarrassment. Luckily for me, you really did want to come out on June 21! The longest day of the year. If I was more poetic, or more of a hippy, I would have insisted we name you Titania or Puck, or at least something pagan, but we stuck with Amalia Mafalda and I still think it fits you like a glove.

We just had your one year doctor's appointment and you continue to be off the charts in size and cuteness.
Length: 31.5 inches
Weight: 27 lbs 3 oz
Head circ.: 18.75 inches


King Kong has nothing on you.

Yes, you are a big baby. Even though you are not walking yet, I'm not too worried about it. You are very motivated to move around, and can get around while your hands are free to pick things up, so you just aren't super motivated to get up and walk. That and it is a lot of mass to get up off the ground!
Of course, you are still eating like a champ. You don't eat baby food out of a jar any more and now eat everything that we do and love it. You are drinking whole milk now since the breast milk stock pile is completely gone. You still nurse at night and early in the morning before you hit the "snooze" button and go back to sleep for a few hours. We'll just have to see for how much longer this continues.


We turned you around in your car seat, only to read an article the next day that it's better to leave you rear facing until 2 years, or 35 pounds, and you should get there in the next couple months, so rear facing you go again!
You are becoming such a social little girl. You love playing with your cousins and watching other kids. You smile and wave and clap, and the best thing you do that I haven't been able to capture on film is dance! You will scoot around in a circle and "raise the roof" with your arms in the air when there is music playing that makes you move. It is so unbearably cute, I need to get a video before you stop doing it.
You are still very clingy with me, and are a little shy with strangers, but you will wave and smile shyly before burying your face in my shoulder.

You still adore, and are adored by your big brother Domi.


It is a source of never ending delight for me to hear you guys crack up at each other for no reason that anyone else can fathom. You have secret jokes, secret smiles, and so much love for one another. It is just the best thing ever. Not that it's always a love fest over here. Domingo still yanks toys away from you, you smack him and grab them back, he throws blankets over your head, you rip them off again and we try to survive the "games" you guys play, minimizing the tears. You have totally become your brother's champion, when he cries because I've turned off the t.v. you look at me and complain loudly like "why did you turn that off, he was watching that!" Or when he gets an "esquina" for what ever reason, you scoot over to where he is and try to comfort him, or get him out. You just want to be with him, and are already a much better sharer than he is. I'm hoping he'll learn some from you.

Amalia in 12 short months, that you have gone from this:





to this:

is nothing short of a miracle. I'm so lucky to have been here with you to see it all.
Love,
Mama