June turns 1!

My tiniest baby has turned 1.  It has been a long year, and so much of it has just seemed like a blur.
Here she is when she was still new.

She has red hair.  Copper.  I don't know where it came from, my Mom's dad had red hair, and I think there might be some on Jared's side as well.  Either way, it was certainly a surprise.  What makes it even more fun is that it grew into a wispy mohawk, with an especially long tuft right at the crown of her head.  It's fun, she gets a lot of attention and comments when we go out.  Some people like to just pet her soft head, it's sweet.  Here she is at about 5 months.

Sweet, little pumpkin head.

She has big eyes, big cheeks, and a big head.  She actually looks exactly like Jack did as a baby, but with red fuzz.  I'm fine with that since I think he's an exceedingly attractive kid.  They also both look much more like my baby pictures than Jared.

As soon as she started eating solids, at about 6 months, and would sit in her high chair, she would occasionally tap her tray with her first two fingers, just like a blackjack player saying "hit me".  It really did seem like she was trying to tell me she wanted more food.  It became a "thing" and she still does it all the time.  I could't find a picture, so here she is swinging instead.

She likes to lay on Ruby.  Ruby is so lazy and old that she just lays there and meows.

Her first word was "Hi" and she says it when someone says it to her, or when I go to pick her up out of her crib after a nap.  She also says "Eeee-O" a lot.  I'm not sure where it came from, but we have a good time saying it back and forth to each other.  She also just started doing real baby signs, and telling me "down" when she's done with her food.  This is one of the first times she stood up.

The big kids love her.  Lily and Jack are still a little uncomfortable carrying her around, which is fine with me, but they do like to play with her and try and get her to talk, etc.  Annie, sadly, does NOT love her all the time, and went through a very funny period of saying "I HATE Junie" in a very pouty tone.  She also gives her the stink-eye sometimes, which actually seems to make June sad.  Poor little muffin.

June overall has been a great baby.  She rarely cries and usually just makes a little "kak-kak-kak!" when she wakes up.  Up until just recently, she cried so little that I didn't even really know what a full, hard cry would sound like from her.  She is great at the stink-face though.

She's a thumb-sucker, which I didn't know, but it's the best thing ever!  She just pops that thing in whenever she's ready for a nap, it's great!  And, it never gets lost!  I love it.  She's also a dirt eater, like Annie.

This is when she licked a window at the library.

As great as she is, she hasn't been a very good sleeper.  I think this mostly has to do with me and our house situation.  She's still sleeping in the master bedroom closet (which just perfectly fits a crib at the end).  Because of this I find it really difficult to let her cry at night and it wasn't until after her birthday that she finally slept all the way through the night.

Her birthday was just a simple one.  We made her some pineapple upside cake and she liked it.  She liked being sung to even more.

In fact, she seems happiest when she's the center of attention and the whole family is sitting around looking at her.  She's pretty great, so I don't mind doing it.