Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Happy Birthday Sunshine!!!


My baby girl turned 1! Ok, so it was awhile ago but as she is the sixth child I figure I have a little room for not posting right away. At least that's my story! I have fallen by the wayside on my blog updates, we'll see how long I keep at it this time!


Rosemerry Sunshine is every bit as sunny and bright as her name suggests. She is sweet and loving and has added so much culture to our family. She has captivated us and has neatly wrapped each of us around her little fingers! In the middle of the night it is only my higher reasoning skills (added to the desire for a little quiet alone time) that keep me from waking her up to play. She has taught us so much as parents, we've really learned to trust a baby's instincts- a strange idea I know. I could never list all the ways she has enhanced our lives. She has truly permeated our souls and brought us closer to the Lord who gave her to us.


Pink spends her days trying to get outside. If we're not careful, she will pry the front door open so she can eat the unmelted snow in the middle of the street. Thankfully we live on a very safe street and we all have the "Where's the baby?" antennae. She loves spending time in the dirt pile the boys have claimed as their monster truck pit. If we have the audacity to try and bring her inside she will first try to become one with the ground, scrunching down as close to the ground as possible, hoping that on the off chance her camoflauge tecnique fails that we will at least be unable to get our hands under her to pick her up! If she sees that isn't going to work she will begin to snake herself backwards flat against the ground in a desperate attempt to slither out of reach. When she sees she has failed at that, her last ditch effort is the flush motion as she's being hoisted away from her beloved ground. She squirms and wiggles and plots against the person who had the misfortune of carrying out orders! She has turned into quite the teradactyl as a result. So far we haven't dropped her, but she sure takes for granted that we won't!


We taught Pink some sign language in order to help her communicate and hopefully keep her inner banshee at bay. She has been signing since around 6 months and has picked up some fun signs along the way. Our favorite (and hers too) is the sign for chocolate! Sometimes out of the blue she will come running out of the kitchen and throw us the chocolate sign to see what she gets. 9 times out of 10 she gets it too- she's so hard to resist when she is begging for chocolate! She loves it when we understand what she wants and is very patient to keep trying when we don't. We have all been learning ASL and it is so fun to watch her. She knows something is up and tries her hardest to manipulate her hands like everyone else does! She's been blowing kisses and doing 'Pat-a-Cake' and 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' for quite awhile now and her little racoon hands are quite adept! Pink says a few words too- though not the ones the rest of the kids said first. Her first baby words include: gentle (though it sounds like unta), ouch, hot, Ma, Lena (meaning any taller female child), no, tickle tickle and poop.


She is the typical youngest child. Everything she does is adorable and she knows it. Life is a game of "How cute am I now?" and we all love to play! She is quite engaging with her many facial expressions and little giggles and sounds. She goes around smiling at everyone to see who she can distract from their school work. She does a little school work herself now and then too, much to the chagrin of the person who left their books unattended as her favorite writing implement is a marker and she can usually find one! She also loves pencils- but not to write with. Pencils are only valued for their erasers. She has systematically chewed every eraser in the house and is always on the lookout for more!


When she plays by herself she is usually kissing her baby or reading her books. She recently discovered a lamb in the animal pile and has become it's devoted mother. That poor lamb gets schlepped everywhere and now has an uncleanable face for all of the kisses and feedings she's given it! She has a special affinity for anything she can choke on- Lego heads and helmuts are her particular favorites. She instinctively knows when we are going to take something out of her mouth (sometimes before we even know it!). When she thinks we are looking at her mouth she will suddenly clamp shut and take off running. Dead give away! Then the chase is on and we have just increased her chances of choking!


We especially love her sweet demeanor. As long as she has company she is happy to go along with most anything. She just wants to be loved and kissed and likes to snuggle with anyone who will comply. She is sad when someone else is sad and laughs when we all laugh. She learned how to hum and dance and is often in the mood for it! Such a gentle soul has a soothing effect on us all. She often selects someone for kisses and to their delight plants several wet kisses complete with kissing motions and sound effects! We do have to be on our guard with kisses as sometimes she changes her mind mid motion and decides to stick her tongue out- or bite! Her little chompers are quite sharp! Poor Hudson has the most experience with this. She only bites out of self defense as a last resort and he gives her plenty of cause!


Our little baby is growing up so fast! In the past few months she grew out of her 12 mo jammies and is now snuggling in 18 mo size. I knew the time would fly but I really thought it might go just a little slower! This picture is from her first birthday. Try as we may we could not get her to wake up. I put her on the table thinking that maybe she would wake up due to the hard surface but she just snuggled in and kept right on sleeping! She slept there for 10 minutes before we decided to give up and hold her. Sometimes a baby just needs a nap!

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