Happy Birthday Kate!

Kate is one today! To say this year flew by is an understatement. And yet, it still feels like I can't imagine life without Kate. She is such a perfect addition to our family.  I've loved her as a baby. I think it's because she's my 3rd, she has been completely not stressful to me. She is such a joy to me literally every day. I love going into get her in the mornings and after her naps because she is a delight. Pretty much everything she does seems so cute to me. I think I'm one of those crazy moms because I can't imagine how everyone doesn't think she is the most delightful thing in the world. Lucky for me, I have family members and friends that are willing to exult over Kate with me.

Cute things at this stage: beckoning James to come every time we get out of the car, doing motions to "My hands upon my head" and "There was a little house", pointing to my nose and her nose, crawling on her hands and feet (not knees) really FAST - particularly if she sees me, smiling at everyone and then nuzzling her head into my shoulder feeling shy, asking with her whole body for food - she's never met a food she hasn't liked, laughing a belly laugh/cackle when I'm tickling her or throwing her in the air, laughing when we play on the swings, climbing on everything, dramatically putting her hands over her face and throwing herself to the ground when she cries.

Tricky things at this stage: NEVER wants me to put her down (the world has ended if I deign to), she is a force of destruction - she gets into absolutely everything (recycling, plastic cooking utensil drawer, DVD drawer, toilets, toilet paper, etc.), never well-rested due to older siblings' school schedules.

Brad is on-call late tonight, so he hasn't been around today, so we celebrated yesterday. As a big bonus, Elizabeth and Sam and Carlie were here to celebrate with us. We just did cake and presents last night. In true San Francisco fashion, it was a rainbow cake. (As per Annie's request . . .) And it survived long enough to take a couple of pictures before she grabbed and pulled the whole thing off the table and broke the cake platter. Ah well . . . It's sort of fitting for Kate. She is the most active of any of our babies.

Before we celebrated any of the festivities, we went down to Fisherman's Wharf and had some great fish and chips and clam chowder. We also saw some super stinky seals. And Alcatraz. James is obsessed with Alcatraz. We LOVED (!!) having the Lundstrom's here!!