Define: One

Jericho is one year old!  Let's just ignore the fact that she has been for almost a month, and just focus on the fact that she is. :)

One of her birthday gifts was a handmade blanket, which she quickly became obsessed with.

Her birthday party was wonderful, and she was just as spoiled as Beckett was at his.  These kids are loved by a lot of people, and we are so thankful for that!

Jericho has recently started saying "hi" when she sees people.  Beckett got really into it when he was younger too, but the thing that's different about Jericho's "hi" is how soft-spoken and personal it seems.  Many times people don't hear, or don't realize that she is speaking to them, and sometimes when they do notice and say hi back, she gets really shy and buries her head in my shoulder.  I love it.

Walking has seemed to be just around the corner for a while now, but I'm really okay with it not happening yet.  She's a quick and stealthy crawler, and once she figures out walking I don't think it will be long before she's running to keep up with Beckett.  She does not hesitate to let us know when she is not happy, and I absolutely believe that she will refuse to be left behind.  She likes to be right up in the action.

She's a trunkseat driver.

Even though walking is still on the agenda, she's jumped right into climbing.  This terrifies me.  She crawls onto step stools, stairs, Beckett's bed, clothes, the cat, toys, chairs...anything she can get up onto, she does.  Her speed and stealth serve her well in this.  Yesterday I looked away for what couldn't have been more than 8 seconds.  She was standing next to the ottoman, which really is not much below her chin.  When I looked back, she was sitting on top of it, looking at me like it was no big deal.  I still have no idea how she got up there.

I cannot even describe what happened before this was taken.

When this girl gets tired...oh my goodness.  "Fighting sleep" is not even...I can't even think of the words.  It's bad.  She will find her blanket on the floor, lay down on it for a few seconds, get up, crawl around, come back to the blanket and lie down again, then get back up...it is almost always a wrestling match to get her to go down.  She has to be held just so, and even then you have to adjust because oh man is she a flailer.  I remove all jewelry before I try to put her to bed.  Really.  I've had the earrings ripped out of my ears more than once (the backs released, thank goodness!), and she's broken a few necklaces.  I've been slapped, scratched, and kicked more times than I can count or remember.  Once she started to fall asleep sitting in her high chair, and she fought, and fought, and fought...I couldn't believe how long she kept herself awake.

Her tooth gap is the best.

Most of the time, she's a pretty happy girl.  Especially if she's being held.  I read all these stories of second children doing things so much sooner than the first kid because they had all this time on the floor while the parent was attending to the first child, but that has not been the case with Jericho.  Beckett requires a lot of supervision, but I couldn't leave Jericho on the floor with him or she would have been trampled the day we brought her home.  Even when I left her in her little rocker seat I had to worry about Beckett sitting on her, or trying to crawl in with her.  He also tried to share food with her very early on.  She got to have some of Beckett's chocolate chip oatmeal cookie at about three weeks old, and a few days after that he dumped about half a can of root beer all over her.  Side note: Jamin did not do well with this.  I reassured him many, many times that newborns were very squishy and she was fine.  As a result of trying to save her from her brother during the first few months of her life, she became very accustomed to being held, and is showing no sign of outgrowing that.

Standing up in her high chair - another fun way to give mama a heart attack.

Before Jericho was born, I had said many times that I would be totally content with all boys.  I don't think that that wasn't true, but now that she's here and we're getting to know her, I can't imagine having had a boy instead.  She is our sweet, beautiful, pumpkin girl, and I am so excited to see what the next year of her life brings.