Alice is one year old!!!!

Alice is officially one year old--we now have the pictures to prove it! Isn't it amazing how much she has grown in the last year?

Her current tricks include "walking" and effective baby sign language communication of "all done", "more", "milk", "touchdown" and "frog" (just the essentials in our house). Her interests include sorting, the "bear in a square book", and climbing into things. She also really likes pointing at things and saying "eee-it" or waving at you from across the table and saying "hi". We are clearly biased, but we do find her to be quite a delight!

cousins!

Over MLK weekend, Alice had lots of fun playing with cousins Leo and August in Winona. There were many very sweet moments and a lot of "hey baby alice"'s from Leo!

Happy Birthday to Alice.....

We started the celebration for Alice's first birthday last week with much help from Grandmas and Grandpas who made sure that Alice had plenty of cake to refuse to eat! Given that Alice hasn't mastered blowing out candles yet, she got a lot of help from her friends. It is hard to believe that it's already been a year! Time really does fly.....

Daddy's girl

Alice has reached a stage where she really enjoys playing and dancing with Daddy, and tries to mimic anything Daddy does. So she likes to read her books while he's studying, wrestle & have pillow fights, help pick up her toys at the end of the day, and kick back with a Miller High Life & the remote while the Packers are on tv!

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cookin', cookin' with Grandpa

Alice really enjoys spending time at her kitchen in our kitchen, though she often finds these domestic tasks to be exhausting and even dangerous (note the black eye of unknown origin)!!! Recently, her cooking experience has been enhanced with lots of cut-able wooden vegetables and fruits from Grandmas Ann and Sandy!

Belated Christmas Portrait

Here is a belated family Christmas portrait complete with stockings and a toasty fire. (maybe next year will be Alice's year for a stocking!)

Alice is 11 months old....

It has been a grand holiday season, but with all the excitement, we neglected our blogging duty to post a picture update. Here is a much belated picture. We know that it isn't particularly revealing, but we thought it highlighted the difficulties we are having keeping Alice in one place!

As far as Alice's new tricks......she is becoming very "chatty" with near constant blabber and "sign language". She is also the recipient of new wardrobe since she has grown so much recently! The big news is that she has started walking (okay, walking may be an exaggeration, but she is taking 2-6 steps on occasion without support!). As they say, the journey begins with a single step......