to the birthday girl....
i looked at the clock today at exactly 3:33pm (i swear) and remembered that time exactly one year ago. we have never felt so blessed as that moment that we saw your shock of dark hair and heard your cries and saw our little "mary lou" for the first time. fast forward a year later and you are this little "person". that shock of hair has turned the most beautiful shade of auburn, and your cries pierce our hearts in just the same way. you have grown and changed into the most amazing baby. when you let me hold you and rock you before bed i start to cry almost every night, looking down at your sweet face and those big blue eyes and i wonder how we got so lucky.
when we put you to bed now, you give hugs and "pats" and kisses before waving good night and pointing to your bed to let us know that snuggle time is over and you'd like to get to sleep. when you get laughing you often get the hiccups. you laugh the hardest when papa is "getting you" or giving you "hiney squeezers" or when you think we are chasing you, or when mommy dances around while papa holds you. this makes you laugh so hard it sounds like you are crying.....all squealy and giggly and just hilarious.
you are walking everywhere now, and you are always exploring each and every room of our house. but even if you leave the room, if we say, "where's greta?" you still yell out your version of, "here i am!" and come back to surprise us. in addition to saying your first word (nana for banana) and mom and dada, you also have said doggie, tree, baby, hi, and night night. you like to make animal noises and have your versions of what a doggy says, a monkey, a kitty cat, and a horse.
you love to eat, especially oatmeal for breakfast and meat any time of day. you don't like your veggies so much, and will either spit them out or toss them off the side of your highchair or both. you drink soymilk like it's your job.
lately instead of wanting to look at books by yourself, you like to carry books over to mommy or daddy and have them read to you. your favorite books right now are probably either that baby words book or "who's at the door?", or maybe pat the cat. you like to pretend to smell flowers in every book you see.
you have learned the sign for "up" and are working on the signs for gentle, drink, and book. you know what we mean when we say that we are going to go outside or go for a walk. it continues to amaze us how much you understand. like when it's time for mommy to nurse you, you will go over and point at the boppy pillow. speaking of that, you are down to one nursing session a day. although mommy is sad that this time with you will soon be over, you have transitioned through it without missing a beat.
i don't think i can convey in this letter what a neat little person we think you are. we just watch you constantly, marveling in what you can do and say. thank you for letting us share this first year of life with you. i still am amazing (as silly as this sounds) that i get to be your mommy for always. 
halloween is a big event in our neighborhood. we probably get about 250 trick or treaters, and all night long cars roll up and kids pile out to hit all of our houses. maybe it's because there's good candy to be had. maybe because our houses are so close together. who knows. either way, you can't miss out. greta was determined to get in on the action, just like she did last year. we dressed her up in her lederhosen and went over to our neighbors' house. emily and patrick have a little boy, tom, who is just a few weeks younger than greta. we ordered pizza, passed out candy, and hung out while greta and tom motored around the front yard. it was a fun night. and greta looking so cute and so german in her costume made it even more fun. she even left her alpine hat on long enough for pictures, and she kept her pigtails in all night!!
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