My daughter walked over to me when I got home today and gave me a hug.

That was new.

We're thirteen months in. A baker's year. Let's recap.




She started walking about a week ago. She's been taking the occasional cautious side-step for a few weeks, but she really started actually walking about last thursday. She's still a little unsteady on her feet; I'm not sure it's occurred to her that walking is a legitimate replacement for crawling yet. It's still a novel new thing, with no obvious use. She just toddles around the living room for the sake of it, grinning wildly. Toddles. My baby just became a toddler.

She does this thing when she gets crawling really fast where she starts swinging her butt back and forth like a Komodo dragon. I'm going to miss that. I haven't managed to get that on video yet - I think I only have a few days left to try.

She got really sick for the first time last week too. Monday night last week she had a fever, which had basically never happened before. She woke up in good spirits the next morning and it hasn't come back, which makes that the definitive "no news is good news" story. On the other hand, I think she emitted five times her body mass in snot over the weekend. And she barfed up snot five times last night. We're all well rested.

She's also become quite the climber. She climbs everything. All the time. For any reason. If we have to move things in this house much higher up, Heidi won't be able to reach them either.

The hugs are also new. She didn't used to be all that affectionate - now she'll toddle over, throw her hands around your chest and give you a big hug.