Mary Lu turns One

Ok, now I've waited through birthday and Christmas and I have a billion photos to post, so I'd better get on it already. Here I'll post a few from Mary Lu's birthday. I know I already did this, but it was a rushed version, and I feel Mary Lu deserves a richer ode. So, here goes. . .

Mary Lu loves to swing. Maybe I'll include my favorite photo of Mary Lu ever--swinging. She is a climber, a novice runner. She loves to be startled and chased, but she's not too crazy about being swung about. She yells. She now at times yells, in deep and loud bursts, bent slightly over and head cocked, hands on her hips (back of the wrists on her hips and hands, relaxed and open sticking out behind her back like she's about to shake a tail feather, looking just like some haughty southern firecracker telling someone what for). She likes to stand up in the bath and which is some improvement over her tendency, a couple months ago, to fling herself backwards in the bath from the sitting position. She stands precariously on chairs, beds, and looks at us until we tell her to sit down, then she slowly lowers herself, smiling, generally into a squatting position until we tell her to sit on her bottom, which she does. She turns lights off and on, loves getting in the refrigerator and digging through it to find something to carry around the house--mustard, butter, salad dressing. Don't try to take it away from her. Like her brother, she loves to drive the car. She "vrooms" and turns the radio up LOUD, I turn it down, she turns it up. She likes to lie in the middle of the floor, still, for a few minutes here and there. She puts everything in her mouth. Always has. I imagine she will outgrow this. Today, after she chewed a piece of cardboard off something and went to the cabinet to throw the piece in the trash. She finds tiny bits of trash on the floor and brings them to me. . .usually. She brings us books to read all day long and is partial to books about animals and babies and books with surprises. She loves the alphabet. About two months ago, right after we moved in, she began to associate the song with the letters and she sings "ahh, bahh," when she wants to go look at the letters and sing the song. She loves animals, she's drawn to them and wonderfully gentle with them. She loves people, especially people her age and Juan's. She does not love Santa. She waves, often with both hands, at characters in books, at the dogs, at us. She is an adventurous, brilliant girl. So sweet, and so full of joy. She gives wonderful kisses, often prefaced with a loud and drawn-out "mmmmmmm."