My Little Raggedy Ann

On Friday, Helen Grace and I celebrated our friend Libby’s first birthday with a Raggedy Ann themed party. By some rare stroke of genius, I remembered that morning that I had bought Helen Grace some Raggedy Ann stuff at a Little English sample sale a loooong time ago, so I went digging in her closet. (Delta Gamma’s “mascot” is a Raggedy Ann doll that we call Hannah, so I freaked out when I happened upon this collection.) I found a 3T dress and an 18 months sweater in her closet- BINGO! She looked like such a little girl in her Peter Pan collar and sweater. We had fun catching up with our friends at the party and hearing everyone’s holiday stories. All of the big kids wanted to help Libby with her gifts, of course. Not sure if she got to open one unassisted. :) Happy birthday, sweet Libster!

Doty and sweet Caroline It took her a minute to warm up to the cake, but when she did, Libby was all in! “Is this how I do it?” “Or maybe this way?” Finally! All the kids had fun helping Libby open her presents. Helen Grace can’t keep her hands off of Adam. As if a tv screen with Barney in the backseat isn’t enough, she must watch Barney on my cell phone as well. S-p-o-i-l-e-d.

In other news, we decided to take down our baby gate this weekend. Helen Grace has gotten really good at the stairs, and she minds well enough (most of the time) that we think we can keep her from making a dash up them without assistance. We didn’t realize how constraining (for good reason) the gate had been, but now that it’s gone, we both have mentioned how free-ing it feels. This afternoon, Helen Grace had just gotten to the bottom of the stairs in her sock feet, and she turned to go around the banister and into the kitchen. Unfortunately, we’ve been cleaning this weekend as well, and the wood floor was very slick. The poor baby slipped and went head first into the molding at the bottom of the banister. She has a huge black and purple egg on her forehead, but she was a pretty good trouper about it. We haven’t had a good head injury in a while, so I guess we were due. :(

Sprawled out this morning playing in the floor