summer fun

Summer is almost upon us....Al finishes up this weekend, and after that we'll be wandering into an unknown abyss.  We're not sure where we're going or what we're doing yet, but we'll figure it out in the next few weeks. Hopefully. 

Rhia is just changing so much every day.  We went to her 1-year well-baby, she weighed 21 pounds and was 29 inches tall.  So she's tripled her birth weight (yay!) and is over a foot taller than she was at birth.  50th percentile for everything again, except head circumference, but that's always been a bit bigger.  I'll say it's to hold her exceptional brain.  The doctor told us that Rhia is "incredibly bright" because of her language skills--she can do 4 signs and says a whole bunch of words.  She even has a sentence (and we have witnesses to attest to it!  seriously!)  I know it sounds far-fetched, but when she hands you something she says, "here you go."  She'll also say nana (banana), woof (anytime she sees a dog/hears a dog/hears the word dog), and a few others I think I've mentioned before.  She babbles ALL of the time.   

 She's walking like crazy and follows me everywhere.  If I leave a room I just have to ask her to come with me and she toddles along.  She doesn't crawl at all anymore, which is great when we go somewhere.  We went to the waterfront park for a picnic last weekend and she did laps around the grass.  

Still a little ham (as seen in a picture below), loves to be chased/chase, and loves to play "babyzilla" and knock down block towers.  She gives hugs now and pats you on the back when she does it.  She's gotten really into affection lately and loves to hug/kiss/snuggle with everyone.  Cats included, although I don't think they like it as much as she does.  When we go out on the front porch she'll walk around and smell all of the flowers in my flowerpots, which is just heart-meltingly adorable.  She's also learning to help clean up toys and her high chair tray after dinner (thanks, Aunt Kordy!).  She's just such a sweet, kind little girl.  We are so incredibly fortunate.

I think I emailed/Facebooked most of the recent pictures, but here are a few, because, well, what's a post without a few pictures.....