Robin Hope Turned 1!!

"A One-year-old child is so many things --
A tiny discoverer of butterfly wings,
A hugger of Teddies,
A sweet sleepyhead,
And someone to dream for in bright years ahead..."

-Anonymous 

Our little Robin Hope is officially 1 year old!!

She weighs 18lbs (23%) and is 27.5 inches tall (4%). 

Robin has such a fun personality; a wonderful mix of happy, stubborn, so so sweet, unbelievably smart, incredibly mischievous, wonderfully independent, super friendly and  extremely funny. She is so strong and so lovable. Most times I find myself just watching her and laughing, but really I never know what she's going to do next. She is full of surprises and keeps us all on our toes. 

Shortly after turning 11 months she began walking. Now, she's no longer a crawler that occasionally walk, or even a walker that occasionally crawls. She's a skilled walker that even takes off running. She still has spills and tumbles, but she hardly if ever cries. She picks herself up in stride and keeps going after whatever it was she was chasing. She's a very determined and focused girl. She keeps her eyes on the prize, especially if that prize is an open dishwasher, an open door to the potty, or chasing after her older brother.

Robin is very coordinated. I was laughing as I filled out the 1 year questionnaire for the doctor becasue (not to brag, but) she was so much more advanced than the questions asked. Its kind of funny and strange seeing someone so small be so physically capable. She's a climber. She climbs up the oven door in efforts to play with the gas knobs (errr). She's not content helping with dishwashing unless she's climbed up and into the dishwasher. She loves loves loves going outside in the backyard and running around all over and climbing up and down the deck steps. At church, sitting is not an option. This girl wants to run up and down the aisles, halls, and stairs. I am in primary, so now it's Skyler's problem, uh i mean blessing. :) He's exhausted after wrangling for 2 hours. I have had so many people come and talked to me about how cute Robin is and they love watching her antics during Sunday School.

Robin spends most of her free time, cruising around the house finding things to entertain herself with: the tupperware cabinets, pots and pans, windows and curtains, night-lights and plugs (errr), Charlie's balls and food dish, River's inventions, and occasionally her toys. She does love to sit and look at books. 

Robin does the funniest things. One of which is she loves to climb and lay all over Skyler. When he's done with work he will come up and play with the kiddos. This usually entails him getting down on the ground to play with them and, ends up with him laying down, giving Robin full access. She excitedly runs over with her hands waving excitedly in the air. When she gets their she flips around and throws herself in a backward swan dive on top of Skyler, her cute little body arching playfully over his tummy. And she laughs and wiggles and giggles and is so happy. Of course River gets in on the action, and Skyler is at the mercy of these two smitten kids. Robin usually takes advantage of Skyler being pinned down. She wanders around to his head and sits down on his face and starts bouncing. Its really really funny. I need to video it for the archives.

Robin says Mama and Dada, and we're working on Brother, especially River. It's so sweet how he tries to coax her into saying things. Those two together are so cute. They get each other giggling and laughing. They are almost inseparable. If Robins not in sight, River asks where she is. If River leaves the room, it's not long before Robin is cruising around trying to find him. She waves byebye, pretends to talk on her phone. To express her love she gives leans, where she leans her head in to rest on yours. River loves when she does that. Ok, really we all do.

Robin is cuddly and sweet. She gets very emotional and dramatic. She loves to play and explore. She's confident yet quite. She loves people and smiles and flirts with just about everyone. She can't get enough of her dad, her brother, and her dog. I love her to death. My heart has only grown bigger with my daughter and my joy and hope deepened. I know my hard work and sleepless nights are some doing good. 

It's hard to sum up Robin in a nutshell. She is and does so many things. I love the baby stage, and there are a lot of things i miss. But this is the stage I love because they really are becoming their own person and exploring the world and who they are. It's amazing. And I love Robin more and more everyday!! I want to remember everything, her freshly washed hair, her crazy toenails, how she lays her head down on my shoulder when she's tired, how she calls mama and follows me around the house all day. I love how she eats saltine crackers and sits in my lap when i am sitting indian style. I want to remember the sound of her laugh when she's playing with River, and how she lights up when Skyler comes home. I want to remember wrestling her anytime i have to change her diaper or clothes and she gets bored. There's so much to remember, so much to treasure. Perhaps it all gets woven into the fabric of our souls, and the makeup of our being. Thus becoming eternal and forever ours. I hope so. 

Happy First Birthday Robin Hope!!

Robin Hope : 10 Months

Our little RoRo the explorer is 10 months old, and explorer is a perfect description of her right now. With her perfected crawling, climbing, and pulling-herself-up-on-everything skills - this girl is exploring her environment every day. Her latest endeavor is to play in the kitchen opening the cupboards pulling everything out and climbing in. The tupperware and mixing bowls never stood a chance. She spent a few hours at a friends house the other day and learned how to go upstairs. She's so curious about everything. I was really proud of her when we were visiting the Oregon Coast a couple weeks ago. She loved playing in the sand and on the rocky beaches. She had no hesitations and got down and dirty, crawling and digging and basically having a ball.

I can't believe how quickly she's changing. I can't keep up as she's blazing through all these different stages. They grow and develop so much in the first year. I feel like I am getting to know her better everyday.

Now Robin comes when you call her, crawling excitedly to you. When she wants you to pick her up, she climbs up your legs to standing, which is tricky when I am wearing a skirt and comical when she climbs up on River. He always says, "Uh, I need a little help here," not quite sure what to do. She's about 3/4 of his height already. 

She's becoming so much more social and interactive. She laughs and giggles and plays with us. It's so fun. And her smile is the Best! She laughs and smiles when I sing and dance for her, and when we dance together. We all love our little Robin. She's such a funny, wild sweetheart. I could spend all day watching the funny things she does, like pulling the garbage can over on herself, getting stuck underneath a drawer she pulled out, teasing Charlie with one of his bones, or vigorously swinging around one of her toys. She loves to splash wildly in the bath tub. It's becoming quite the wrestling match to keep her from slipping and sliding all around. But she loves it.

I love her full cheeks and kiss them endlessly. I love her thickening soft hair, bright blue eyes, and plump little hands and fingers.

10 months, that was fast. 

We love you RoRo!

These Two

 

These two are like a silly old couple.

There's so much love and laughter there.

Robin Hope : 9 months

This next sequence/gambit of emotion is typical Robin.  

 Such a silly girl!

Even Charlie adores Robin!

I just love my little girl. It's nice to have someone on my team, but also for all her brut-ness, with her super strength and huskier build, she's so sweet and feminine. I love how her hair falls so sweetly and sweeps to the side in the back. I love her blue eyes, pink lips, and chubby cheeks. I love dressing her in cute outfits and putting bows in her hair. I can hardly wait to paint her petite nails a pale pearl pink. I hope I can teacher her the joys and importance of womanhood and the inherent divinity in our gender. Dont' get me wrong I adore my boy beyond words! It's such a blessing to have one of each!

Robin is officially a crawler, no more army crawling. She's up on all fours (belly clean off the ground) and crawling all over the house causing mischief. Especially with the dog bowls ... grrr. She know's she not suppose to play with them, so she flirts with it, waving her hand above it and looking around to make sure we're not looking and then -- SPLISH SPLASH! EW! I guess I can't blame the girl, she loves water, including baths, sippy cups of water, oceans, and apparently dog bowls. But back to the crawling, my favorite is that she will follow people or going looking for them when they leave her sight. I am hoping she'll stat coming when I call her. (Just like training a puppy right? Charlie was good practice.)

Robin is hilarious, expecially when she gets mad. She shakes her head no -- vigorously if it's something she's really upset about and opposed to; like getting in her carseat, having her face wiped, changing her diaper, being swaddled and rocked to sleep, and mixed vegetables. Oh she HATES mixed vegetables. This girl has learned how to communicate her dislikes. Like with her Full body kicks. I call it the fish wiggle, like when they're being suspened in the air by the hook and are thrashing all over. Charlie does a similar thing when he's excited, we call it the fish butt. But for bittty, it's the fish wiggle.

She's just as talented and effective at communicating her happiness and excitement. She wildly flaps her arms and kicks her legs when he's happy. She laughs and giggles, squeals and squawks. She does this funny panting breathing when she's super excited for something. I swear she breathes at the same rate as hummingbird wings flap. Robin loves her family and is quick to laugh and play with us at just the hint of a smile. 

Robin is just so busy, just like River, and is "going" all day long. She's rolling and playing, getting into things and exploring all day long. She's what I can a non-napper, and really a non sleeper too. We're working on it. Things were going a lot better until she started teething :( Hopefully we will all survive this and Robin can learn to start sleeping soon. She's just too worried she'll miss something. She loves to be apart of everything going on and sneakily gets her hands on anything you are working on while holding her. I can't even get out a piece of bread without it becoming a bit of a wrestling match. 

Robin and River are really starting to pay together and she just loves him, laughing at things I thought would for sure bug her. For example, having blankets thrown on her all day long, but she excitedly kicks her legs in true bitty fashion and squawks and giggles until either she finds away out or River sets her free, There's a lot more wrestling going on at my house. It's not rough or mean, but until she can talk it's the way they can engage each other. Mostly they just roll around on the ground next to each other until one rolls on top on the other a little bit. :)

She still loves people -- maybe more appropriately  people watching. We went out to eat the other night and she spent the entire evening literally turned around, feet out the back of her high chair, watching all the other families come and go and eat the dinner. In all fairness, people love to watch Robin too. People are quite drawn to her and interact with her all the time, even though she's actually quite shy with strangers. While we were in Santa Fe last week, we got stopped all the time. I feel so flattered and thankful for people's kindness toward both my children. It does make us a little sad that we don't live close to family, because they don't really get to know Robin like we do. We're kind of the only ones to get to know Robin so intimately, and so that makes it such a treasure. She's such a treasure. She's Our Treasure- Mine, Skyler's and River's.

I love everything about my little Robin bird, from her soft feathery hair down to her smelly hobbit toes (yes, they really are stinky). I love her so much, it makes my heart hurt. She has been challenging at times and as equally rewarding. For all her craziness, She's is doubly, triply, no, quadruply more Sweet and Fun. I just enjoy her so much. 

A sweet boy in the store asked me her name the other day and I loved his response, "Robin, that's perfect with her eyes the color of robin eggs." 

Oh My Robin. My Sweet lil' blue eyes.

How could you ever say no to that face and that request to be picked up??

Santa Fe : Part 3 - Ranger River

They had an awesome Junior Ranger Program at the park, and River LOVED it! You go into the visitor center and check out a backpack filled with all sorts of goodies, like a stopwatch, tape measurer, binocular, anemometer, compass, flashlight, magnifying glass, info cards, and best of all a giant magnet. They also give you a list of questions and a clipboard with paper to go out, observe, record, and report. All in hopes of becoming a Junior Ranger. 

River was so excited, even though the back pack hung down to his ankles. He loved all the tools, especially the magnet. The first day he ran around the dunes, digging it into the sand and seeing how much magnetite he could draw out and it was surprisingly a lot. The second day he was all about the stop watch and playing in the water.

After each day I sat down with him and asked him questions about his day and what he saw and then he'd draw something. 

AND he became a Junior Ranger, official badge and all. He is now referred to as Ranger River.  

Santa Fe : Part 2 - Grand Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, CO - Day 2

The next morning we came back for more, and we discovered a completely different world from the day before. The sun appeared, burning off the morning cloud cover and heating up the sand. It became too hot to walk around without shoes on. River was so tired from the day before he just laid down and made a "sand angel". The water was calling to him, so we waded into the cool mountain run off and found relief. 

Water must be River's element because it restored his energy and he was off running and splashing again. Him and Skyler chased each other and Robin squealed joyfully as she bounced around in the pack. I loved soaking my feet in the cool water. Eventually I pulled Baby Girl out of the pack so she could get in on the action too. At first she wasn't too sure, but then I think the Hawaii memories came back and she loved the water again. Smiling and splashing her feet, getting us both wet. 

River is a true explorer. He never backs down to the new challenges out travels present. Sometimes he gets nervous, but as long as his daddy is near, he charges forward with out fear. Sometimes this gets him into a little trouble, but luckily he bounces right back and keeps going, and we all laugh along the way.

The magic of the Sand Dunes danced in our heads and the phantom current lulled our bodies as we drove the lonely, isolated, beautiful road to Santa Fe, and the kids slept the most of the way. Ok River did, and Robin was entranced with Barney, Baby Bop and Friends.