Eloísa turned one on May 7 and so far she seems to have thoroughly enjoyed her first year on Earth. She has skipped crawling altogether and is learning to walk, still with assistance, but getting more sure-footed with every step. She loves music and starts “dancing” as soon as a good beat gets going. She seems especially interested in the Blues, with Popa Chubby being among her favorites.

She has also learned a few words; she says “agua” when she wants something to drink, “pan” (or something along those lines) when she’s hungry, and “papa” whenever I walk in the house or room. She also mimics the dogs she hears barking outside, as well as the Austral Parakeets that come into town to eat the remaining apples at this time of year. She laughs a lot, too, which is a good sign, and still likes to sleep all night long, though she prefers to stay up later than she probably should. She’s all but given up the milk bar at this point and enjoys eating out at the Highchair Restaurant. They serve yogurt, fruit and all sorts of good homemade food there. She eats it all without complaint and even tries to share it now and then. She’s a generous girl.

Eloísa has enjoyed visits from her grandparents and aunt Anne at different times during her first year and is always sad when those visits come to a close. She has also received many wonderful gifts from extended family and friends, and though her parents have fallen a bit behind in some very over due thank you notes, she wants everybody to know that she has gotten much use and enjoyment out of all the clothes, books, toys and keepsakes that she has received.

Soon, Eloísa will have to start thinking about spending some time in day care, if for no other reason than to start making friends other than her parents. We sure don’t want her to burn out from boredom before she realizes that there are many cooler people her own age out there. She does have a few friends already, but is still trying to figure out why they only appear randomly from time to time. I think she’d rather have a regular schedule where she and her buddies can get together and pick up where they left off the previous time, plotting against the big people and whatnot.

Don’t forget to click on the image to open the photo gallery of Eloísa at One.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 2:18 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.