They know. They always know.

The last couple nights*, LG has been somewhat…how do you say?…SPIRITED. I don’t know if it’s her teeth or just general I’m-almost-one-and-life-is-so-HARD growing pains, but woo-boy! She’s gone to bed completely refusing to eat (I KNOW) and literally pushing herself away from me when I try to hold her.

The worst part is that once in her crib, she chats and laughs and babbles and it’s then Chris and I realize she just…Doesn’t want to hang out with us.

“Why doesn’t she like us?” I wonder.

“We’re nice people! I mean, not really, but we’re nice to HER.”

I’m sure there are just all sorts of developmentals going on right about now, as we hit the one-year mark (IN LESS THAN TEN DAYS) (HOLD ME), so I’ll try not too take it too personally, but it’s hard to be away all day and then come home to a baby who’d rather chill with her paper mobile than, you know, THE WOMAN WHO GAVE HER LIFE.

SIGH.

Anyway, she recently started crawling. She had mastered the sit ‘n scoot awhile ago, but it wasn’t until I brought her to work with me, where we have wall-to-wall carpet (as opposed to home, which is primarily wood laminate and tile) that she actually booked it, one-knee-in-front-of-the-other style.

Lock up your sons (or daughters, not that there’s anything wrong with that), heeeeeeere I come!

She’s also started to clap, which you can see in the below video, as well as wave. She waves to herself — I’m guessing is because that’s what she sees when we wave at her — and  it’s basically the cutest and she can keep doing that forever.

I’m not adept at video embeddiment, so if that doesn’t work, click here.

The start of Passover was this weekend and she thoroughly enjoyed her first matzoh ball:

No, really, she gobbled that shit up.

And then Sunday was her second Easter (she was four days old last year!) and she had cat!

That’s Tab, the cat who adopted us. He/she makes me NERVOUS when he/she’s around my BABY, but he/she doesn’t really like LG very much, so he/she never sticks around for long. He/she is either a he or a she, we’re not too sure/don’t care/just scare off all the birds that try to eat my tomatoes and we’ll be cool, Tab.

We’ll be putting the finishing touches on the kitchen this weekend (I say “finishing touches” because we’re going to be finishing the kitchen, but make no mistake, this will be the largest chunk we’ve done yet, oh yay) and also sometime planting the garden (WHEN?! There’s no time!) and then LG’s birthday party is next weekend.

H-O-L-Y.

M-O-L-Y.

Last Friday afternoon found Chris and I both off work early, so we did what any person in their right mind without a child would do — we went to a dive bar and then to Costco. We also pre-ordered LG’s birthday cake on a whim from a local cakery.

The girl at the counter asked if we wanted anything written on the cake (a 4-inch “smash cake,” which this girl knew was for a first birthday), to which I replied, “No, she can’t read yet.”

“Heh,” said the girl.

Hey, sometimes, when you’re totally rejected by your sweet baby, you have to take what you can get.

Fine, fine, I’ll give it to you this ONE TIME, lady.

*I drafted this post at work. Naturally, when I got home, LG was as sweet as could be. It’s like she knew she was breaking my balls.