Halle's latest photoshoot and stats...

I can't believe it's already been a year. My little baby has become this beautiful little girl. Sigh. Thanks Hillary for the fabulous pictures!

Halle at one year:

24 lbs (87%), 30" (77%).

My beautiful BIG girl!

One year ago today...

Happy birthday baby girl.

Halle at 12 months...

- has been to Hawaii. She loved the beach, eating delicious fruit, and playing in the pool. Oh, and her hair developed a ringlet-curliness all over that surprisingly has not disappeared since we came back to our 0% humidity home. We love the curls!

- plays hard like a big girl. Halle progressed rapidly from standing to walking to running and climbing. Mommy is having a hard time keeping up! We also clap, dance (she boogies up and down and twirls like a ballerina), and say "Mama", "Dada", and "Bah Bah". Jim is convinced she says "Hi Dad" when she sees him!

- LOVES water. Did I mention that already? This girl has no fear in the pool (and has dived in face-first several times already!)

- still eats like a champ... sort of. We've entered that special toddler phase where eating < playing. That said, Halle never passes up fruit (with the exception of pineapple, which gives her a nasty rash). This picture is Halle enjoying her birthday cake!

- drinks proficiently from a straw. And has sampled (and enjoyed) soda and tea. Please don't turn me into CPS.

12-month stats to come. We are wearing 18-24 month clothing, so I'm guessing she hasn't suddenly dropped off the growth charts!

Look who's 10 months old today!

9-month check-up!

Weight: 22.2 lbs (92%)

Height: 28.2 inches (68%)

In summary, we are getting shorter and fatter.

Maybe that's why the majority of my pictures lately feature Halle eating. Have I mentioned she is refusing baby food now? And being fed with a spoon? Yes, we are officially graduated to table foods!

Oh look - I found one picture where she isn't eating...

...sort-of.

Look who's 9 months old today!

Halle is nine months old today. Where has time gone? Only three more months and our little baby will be a year old!

What has Halle been up to? She became a full-fledged crawler last month (exactly a week after she turned eight months) and is pulling herself to standing and "cruising" along the furniture. In the past week she has even started to "free-stand" by herself. Halle is also babbling like crazy and we are certain her first words will be here soon.

Halle also was sick for the first time. She's been hit with two colds in a two week period (with Mommy sick in between). Needless to say, our house has become a giant pit of humidifiers and used Kleenex.

Even with being so sick, Halle still is eating well. She's learned how to drink from a sippy cup and has three teeth now (two lowers and one random upper). Halle has also moved up to 18-month-size clothes and now has a new car seat. Our little girl is growing so fast!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Halle spent her first Valentine's day with Grandma Brown while Daddy and Mommy went to work. Here's a peek at the special outfit Daddy picked out and dressed her in for Valentine's day!

Look who's 7... er 8 months today!

Seriously, where did the time go? It feels like I was just writing about Halle hitting the 6-month mark and now she's already two-thirds the way through her first year. We've changed so much over the past two months - here's what we are up to these days!

We LOVE bathtime in the kitchen sink, especially splashing in the water and playing with our toys.

We are moving all over the place! We can pull ourselves up to standing, crawl backwards, roll, and go from hands-and-knees to sitting. We also recently figured out that we can do this in our crib (and yes, the mattress has moved down to a safer position since the below incident).

And here's the usual end result of all that backwards crawling:

And another example of pulling ourselves to standing on just about anything:

Halle still continues to possess her sunny disposition and loves to talk up a storm. Over the past month she's found some volume to all those cute squeaky noises. I'm sure we'll be teaching her about using her "indoor voice" sooner than later!

My new hobby these days...

...is purging my house.

Here's a peek of my "to get rid of" closet.

OK, it may have crossed the "hobby" line over into the "obsession line" but can I tell you how easy it is to keep a house clean that has nothing less in it?

I am thrilled. Jim is concerned.

(and can't find anything thanks to my obsessive purging/re-organizing).

It's the beginning of efforts to make our house feel more like us. We're paring down in preparation for maybe some remodeling? Or maybe not. Regardless, less stuff = less stress = the minimalist inside me is happy.

I know it's been a long time since my last update. There are some potentially big changes coming this direction, least of which is the possibility of a new computer for me. Yes, Jim's '03 Toshiba is finally kicking the bucket (you mean it's NOT normal for a computer to require 10 minutes to boot?). I'm biting the bullet and going Mac - my dilemma is Macbook or iMac? I appreciate the flexibility of a laptop but drool over the capabilities of the iMac. Hmm...

Here's a picture of the almost-8-month-old bug to keep you coming back for more.

Stay tuned!