All in a day's work for Helen

Learning to use a spoon. With a little help, she's pretty good!

Chewing on the other end is, perhaps, more fun.

Helen loves making the Little People's House toilet flush. She flushes and flushes and flushes.

Reading Is Fundamental

Reading books before bed with Dad.

In Minnesota, the Sleep Sack is a MUST!

Helen would rather read books than play with her toys. Current favorite: Busy Monkeys. She could listen to that book all day and some days...does! She knows what a monkey says and the past few days, when she sees a picture of an animal, pretty much any animal, she makes the monkey noise, "Ooooh, ooooh, ooooh". In her case it's actually more of a "mmm, mmm, mmm". She also knows where her feet, toes, and belly button are! Grandpa Pokorny will be pleased to learn Dad has taught her "pupik" as well - Czech word for belly button.

I'm amazed at how much I'm learning every day - about Helen and about myself. Lots and lots about myself. I've learned that I'm not as patient as I thought I was and I'm more selfish then I knew. With those 2 things in mind, how our day goes at home together is all up to me. Helen is a week away from 14 months and she is very busy with that. The only one standing in our way of having a great day is me. It only took me about 3 months to figure that out... What a life lesson that is, huh? Being home with her every day is the most difficult and awesome thing I've ever done. Some days 6:00, when Stew gets home from work, cannot come soon enough. That said, those days often end up being the best ones because I've managed to learn something very important. After dinner, I usually collapse on the sofa and watch as Stew plays or reads with Helen. It's this perspective, this little bit of distance after a paticularly long day, that always gets me. As I watch this amazing, beautiful, smart, hilarious kid play with her daddy before bed, I get a little weepy. How lucky I am. How very lucky, indeed.

Finally - Christmas 2007 pix

Stacking cups Christmas tree.

Aunt Missy showing off Helen's Christmas dress.

Christmas in Iowa!

Opening presents at home.

Grandkids with Grandpa - Helen taking a good look at cousin Abby.

Getting a squeeze from Aunt Barb.

I know I promised Christmas photos for my next post but this is WAAAY better...

Today - Thursday, January 17, 2008 - I said, "I love you" to Helen and she said, "luh yuh" back to me. I know I've been up since about 5:15 this morning and am slightly delirious, but I'm telling you she said "luh yuh" to me. That was the best thing EVER.

Who needs socks?!

Milestone, baby!

AND HELEN IS...

UP!

ALL THE WAY UP!

Sorry, this last one's a bit blurry but I was clicking fast to catch her on tippy-toes. She's been pulling herself up since Sunday - so surprised when we walked into her room to get her up from her nap and she was standing in her crib! Finally had the camera at the ready and captured it. Stewart and I are having such a great time watching Helen cruise through her milestones, ticking them off her list, one after another. A few Christmas photos still coming...

New photos!

Very serious about scaling dad's legs.

At least once a day, Helen crawls over to visit her friend - the Huggies baby.

While there's something a bit "Girl with Pearl Earring" about this, I swear to you the hat is cute in person. Love this photo because you can sort of see what she's going to look like when she grows up.

Sorry I've been away so long! The holidays, what can I say. Stewart's back at work (bummer) and Helen/I are back to our regularly scheduled programming. We had a wonderful first Christmas together and will share some holiday photos in my next post.

Helen has changed so much in the last month. This weekend, she stood unassisted for a few seconds a couple of times and I wish I could describe the noise she made when she realized what she was doing. It was a hilarious combination of laughing and freaking out all at once. She's all over the floor, crawling after us where ever we go. Once she realized she could follow us, she was much happier, indeed. Changing diapers has become an all out war - her against us. Our baby book says to learn to change her while she's standing up and all I could think was "Really? Huh." Do ya really do that? It sounds impossible. She's just begun copying noises we make, especially when we're reading books. So cute. I'm suspicious that "Nah-nah" is me and am hoping that's NOT her commenting on my age.

If I can figure out how to load some video in the next couple of weeks, I'll treat ya'll to Helen In Action! Stay tuned...