A survey for my readers:

What can I do to make Sunday special and to fill in what feels like a very long afternoon, when my husband is not available for "family time"? I have qualms about doing regular everyday activities, such as housework or shopping, and it's too hot to go outside much. As adorable and fascinating as my daughter is, sitting in the floor all afternoon watching her play and letting her crawl on me is a sure way to make the day go by very s-l-o-w-l-y.

One Saturday night I got desperate enough to prepare a bunch of activities out of the "Slow & Steady, Get Me Ready" book, thinking it would at least keep us occupied for awhile on Sunday. I won't tell the exact result, but suffice it to say I'm listing the book on half.com next week.

So, ideas are appreciated. By the way, the birthday party was an enormous success, much better than I ever could have imagined. Everyone had a good time and C. was at her best! Whoohoo!

Yesterday I had a professional housecleaner for the first time. It was sort of MY gift for dd's birthday. Actually, my husband agreed to it because it would lessen my stress in preparing for the big birthday party on Saturday. Both sides of the family are getting together for the first time since the hospital one year ago.

I was surprised at my reaction to the freshly-cleaned house and to the whole "having someone in to clean" experience. For one thing, I did NOT like having someone in my house for nearly four hours, especially someone with odd piercings and a tattoo that should NOT have been visible to the public, if you know what I mean. By the end of the day, I was inspired. My new goal in life is not to let my house get to the point where I feel the need for hired help again. Today I've been following the "clean as you go" policy to try and eliminate the need for heavy cleaning as much as possible.

I was also inspired in other ways. Because finally the whole house is clean at once, my mind felt free to leap to other projects. I cut out a jumper for C., and I'm actually going to make it this time. Sewing is something I have wanted to learn for a very long time. But I've been hampered by guilt -- how dare I do some fun homemaking project like sewing when the bathtub is dirty? (Interestingly, the guilt doesn't keep me off the internet, but let's not go there, haha.)

So now the house is clean and neat, the ice cream cake is in the freezer, the gifts are wrapped, and the balloons are hiding in my car. I found a pink and green butterfly balloon at Dollar Tree, and C. LOVES pink and green -- how cool is that?

My darling is one today!

This is a blog for happy things, so I will not relate most of the day's events. It was a Murphy's Law kind of day, until we finally arrived at the zoo less than 2 hours before closing time. But you know what? It was perfect. I discovered that I am really, REALLY out of shape, and I could not have made it with our original plan of going around lunchtime.

The layout of our zoo is not convenient to the visitors, in my opinion. You have to walk a long way from the entrance to see any animals. We found the elephants and giraffes first, and C. was completely unimpressed. I thought for sure that Murphy had followed us to the zoo! But C. likes tigers, so I decided we needed to make sure and see the tigers. It looked like it would be a long walk according to the map. My husband took off with the stroller and I kept up the best I could!

It was SO worth it! Her reaction to the tigers was priceless. She shrieked and laughed. I'm sure she recognized them from her video. Everything that had gone wrong that day faded into unimportance as I watched her.

From there things kept getting better. She got to see a lemur, leopards, a red panda, and various exotic birds. She watched the meerkats getting dinner. The lemur and the red panda were so close to her, separated only by the fence or the glass! (The animals are in very good environments, not cages. The glass or wire manages to separate them from people without actually caging them -- a little hard to describe unless you've seen it.

After the zoo, we took her to Carrabba's for dinner. She loves their bread! The wait staff sang "Happy Birthday" to her in Italian, she got her first kids' meal (grilled chicken), and most importantly, her first taste of chocolate! That's one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen on her face -- I guess it's genetic.

Another milestone I forgot to mention: she rode facing forward for the first time today. We were good and followed the law to the letter, haha. Now she knows we're right there and we'd better be paying attention to her! It's going to make for some interesting car rides until we all adjust.

I think being the mommy of a one-year-old is going to be wonderful.

My little girl will be one tomorrow. I've survived the first year of motherhood and managed to end up with a healthy, happy almost-toddler.

She is growing like a weed. I keep having to put things higher in order to keep them out of her reach. She's about to outgrow the changing table. (To my husband's chagrin, there is no such thing as an extra-long changing table.) She knows what "no-no" or "don't touch" means and will obey it more times than not. She's learning to pick up her toys and put them in the bag, though she's just as likely to pull them back out again in the middle of the picking-up process

She has just learned to push the piano keys gently, one finger at a time. She is tall enough now to reach the keys when she's standing up at the piano. She grins when "Twinkle A" starts to play on my I-tunes. Tonight, she also grinned when I started saying her memory verses (see "Truth and Grace" entry) while she had her nighttime bottle.

I'm starting to have confidence that I will, with God's help, be able to teach her to love God, to read, and to play the piano. Those are three biggies on my list, the first one of course being the biggest. Other things I'm not so sure about. Will she learn from her socially awkward mother how to make friends? Will we manage to muddle through and learn the art of homemaking together, or will I have to enlist outside help to fill in the gaps? Can I possibly help her avoid the trap of wasting her youth longing for attention from boys?

Yes, I've survived the first year. Why do I get the feeling the first year was the easiest?

I think C. officially has a new word in her vocabulary. When I tell her we're going to change her diaper, she says "Duh-dai". This is distinctive from "dah" (dog) and "duh" (duck) and "da-da" (Daddy).

The "d" word I can't figure out is "downg". Imagine that "ow" sound VERY exaggerated. It sounds like the way Yao Ming's name (the NBA player) is pronounced. The "ng" is way back in her throat, and sometimes isn't quite there at all. She says it quite frequently, but I can't tell what it means!

The hissing "sss" is another mystery, although a more predictable one. She says "sss" when she sees her reflection, or when she sees a picture of a baby. She also seems to say it to show she likes something, such as a particular dress. She's generally smiling when she does it. So I think it's a mark of approval, though the literal translation escapes me.

Does anyone know how many calories a 23-pound one-year-old is supposed to get in a day? I counted up Saturday and I think she ate nearly 1000! I'm not worried about her overeating, but as she moves toward more table food, which takes longer to eat and is not as easy to count, I want to make sure she actually gets enough.

One more day and then she'll be one!

Does anyone know what the flowers are at the top of my blog page? I thought irises, so I put an iris as my avatar. However, looking at them together, it's obvious that they're not irises. Help please!

C. had her first Cracker Barrel dinner tonight. Meaning, I gave her some of my chicken 'n dumplings, baby carrots, and cornbread. Wow, she loved it! Whenever I give her something she really likes, she does this little laugh that sounds sort of like a pigeon cooing.

I don't know why, but I find it fun to give her new foods. I guess it's like everything else new -- she's developing as a person with each new experience.

Bath time is fun. Getting out of the bath (once C. has expressed her displeasure just out of principle) is even more fun because it's time to see -- *drum roll*

WET BABY!

What is Wet Baby? It consists of me holding C. in front of the mirror so she can see herself wrapped up in a towel and still kind of wet. There is also a mirror on the medicine cabinet, and the two mirrors reflect each other, so it looks like there are at least 3 "wet babies". So we make a big deal about seeing "Wet Baby" and then wave bye-bye to "Wet Baby". This is a highlight of her day.

To make things even better, her favorite book is a counting book, and for the number two they show two wet babies! She gets so excited when she finds that page.

Life is good.

C. took one step by herself this morning

The reason I'm not tossing confetti is because she also took one step by herself nearly two weeks ago. Then no more walking till this small step today. For all I know she might wait another two weeks to do it again.

That's the part of child development that no one tells you about: the one step forward, two steps back thing. Or rapid progress followed by no progress.

Example -- C.'s first really obvious intentional word was "mama" when she was only 6 months old. When she was about 8 months old, I said something about Kentucky and she repeated "tucky". I thought "Wow, this child is going to be a really early talker." But the progress isn't that smooth. She says a word once, and then it disappears, not to be heard again for maybe months. The same thing happened when she learned to wave. She waved for a day, then we never saw it again for about 3 months.

When she was trying to figure out how to crawl, one morning at age 7 months she started crawling backwards. In circles. She was trying to crawl forward, but could only go backwards. She was SO upset! I thought she would probably figure out how to go forward within a day or so, but instead it was another month. (To her credit, she didn't go backwards again either -- apparently she's smart enough not to make the same mistake twice.)

Anyway, for once in my life I've learned not to stress. I know that the path may not be a straight line exactly, but that her general development IS going forward. One thing's for sure, I never know what each day will hold!

I think I've officially put more time and angst into picking out C.'s birthday gifts than I did in picking out my wedding gown seven years ago.

At first I was searching for the perfect combination of developmentally appropriate, educational, and attention-keeping toys that would keep her happily occupied.

Then I realized that such things don't exist for one-year-olds, and that she actually has all the toys she needs. So any gifts I bought would be pretty much just for show, because we're her parents and we're supposed to give her toys for her birthday, right?

So, I got her some board books from the Half-Price Book Gallery last week, and today I found her a puzzle with the big knobs on it (all the better to hold the pieces with her mouth!) and a learn-to-dress baby doll that has clothes with various fasteners on it.

That's it. I'm done. Money spent -- about $20.

One week till her birthday! My husband is taking the day off and we're going to have fun.

I've already started doing the frequent toy "purges". Face it, a one-year-old does not need a ton of stuffed animals. I did keep a little kitty-cat, though, and we've been having lots of fun with it.

I take the cat and hold it close to me. Then I run through a script that's developed into the following: "Oh, little kitty-cat is sleeping, so sweet. It says 'meow' and it purrs so nice. *make purring sound* But then (in hushed tones), it wakes up. And then what's going to happen? *dramatic pause* It's going to get C. in the belly! *take the cat and tickle C.'s tummy with it*"

The more dramatic the better, obviously.

She shrieks, she giggles, she takes the cat and hands it back to me, ready to do it all over again. Then she watches, she anticipates. She starts to grin. Before I can get to the dramatic pause, she's giggling as if I'd already tickled her. The actual moment of attack is somewhat anti-climactic. For me, anyway, not for her.

And then she hands the cat back to me. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I love it, because she's at the age where repeating things makes sense. The boredom factor hasn't kicked in yet. So much FUN!

In Genesis 21, the camel-back-breaking straw for Sarah was when Ishmael mocked Isaac at the little guy's weaning party. Which leads me to some questions.

Did Sarah nurse Isaac herself or did she have a servant for the purpose?

If she did it herself, how celebratory did she feel at the time of this party? Was she happy to "have her body back", or was she grieving the end of her son's babyhood, knowing that another miracle baby was extremely unlikely?

Again, if she was in fact a nursing mama, were her hormones going completely wacky as a result of the weaning process?

Did Ishamael pick a really, really bad time to be getting on Sarah's nerves?

In case you didn't guess, C. is weaning. I figure we'll probably be completely finished by the end of the week. And though my odds of having another baby are slightly better than Sarah's by virtue of the fact that I'm 30 instead of 90, there's still no guarantee of it. I'm happy and sad and my body is confused.

I'd better do some happy blog entries to cheer myself up!

Heehee, I'm hooked now. I'd better be careful or I'll run out of stuff to blog about after one day!

I added another link, to the "Truth & Grace Memory Books" series. I'm sorry to say that I get a form of stage fright when it comes to talking to my daughter about God. What do I say? How do I get on her level?

Using these books, the first one anyway, is helping. I've simply memorized the material in the "ages 2 & 3" section. Whenever I think of it, I say it to her. Basic verses of the faith: Genesis 1:1, John 3:16, Matthew 22:37, 39, John 1:1, Luke 19:10, Ephesians 6:1 (that's a big one at this age!). The first five questions of the Children's Catechism (Baptist version). Singing "Jesus Loves Me" and the Doxology.

C. is beginning to respond to the songs. She starts bouncing her hands "choir director" style. Maybe I'm imagining things, but it seems as though she's starting to show signs of interest when I say the verses and catechism questions, too. I'm having to break out of my comfort zone and add a little extra inflection to my voice.

I look forward to the day when I ask her "Who made you?" and she answers "God made me!" with joy.

For the past several weeks, I've been showing my daughter the "Your Baby Can Read" video (see link to the right). It gives her something to do while she eats her finger foods in the high chair (and while I clean up the kitchen!). We've moved from the "starter video" to the "Level 1" video.

Now, I realize I'm opening myself up to debate here on a couple of levels. One is the use of videos at all. I'm not a huge fan myself, and I avoided it for the first several months of C.'s life. And then, like most new moms, I relaxed a bit. And I have to say, if I'm going to cave and use a video, this is the one to use. It's about as interactive as a video can get. C. was freaked out by Baby Einstein, and Brainy Baby only marginally held her interest.

The other issue is "Why would you want to teach your baby to read?" And my response is "Why not?" Okay, that's the simplistic answer. The real answer is slightly more complex. One, because my husband wants us to do this. Two, because I learned to read early, and I think it helped me immensely. Three, because there's a body of evidence suggesting that children learn more easily in the very earliest years. Fourth, because if there's the slightest chance that I can avoid the reading struggles that I read about so often, I'm going to try it! Fifth, because C. loves the theme song for the video!

Now the question is, does it work? It's a little hard to tell, considering that C. doesn't talk a lot. I know that when the word "dog" comes on the screen, she has said "dah", the same thing she says when she sees a dog. She also puts her arms in the air when the words "arms up" come on the screen. So either she's reading the words or she's memorized the video and knows what is coming next.

And now we have lots of fun all the time doing "arms up!" and "arms down!"

I am a homeschool mom.

I need to keep reminding myself of that. I'm not let off the hook by the fact that my daughter is only almost-one. The habits I establish now will impact her education in the future.

Toddlerhood is not the part of parenting I've always looked forward to. (Is it for anyone?) Little cuddly babies, mmm, I could gobble them up. Preschoolers who are ready for Suzuki lessons? Bring them on. But a munchkin with more escape-artist tricks than Houdini who can only communicate through grunts and babbling? The responsibility scares me silly.

As I type it, though, I can't help but smile. The little grunting Houdini is also a giggling silly-bug who delights in sharing her Cheerios with me and crawls through the house picking up small objects to give me as presents. She sits in her car seat with her arms in the air, waiting for us to turn around and notice. When she hears music, she turns into a mini-conductor, waving her arms in time as if directing. And the smile. Oh, the smile....

Excuse me, I think I turned into a mush-puddle for a moment. :-) Anyway, this blog is about my daily challenges as I figure out how to guide my daughter through the toddler years. Plus lots of cute stories about the sweetest baby in the world, of course!