A PHOTO GALLERY DEDICATED TO LIL' OL' ME
So here are some photos of me taken over the last few months. I'll be updating again soon if my copy editor picks up her pace. If you are interested in seeing some of the best from my first 12 months check out a little photo montage (with accompanying music!) I put together at Henry's first year.

VISITING WITH CAMILLE
I recently got to visit with my cousin Camille in Arkansas. She is three months older than me and boy can I tell. She knows so much. For instance she knows how to climb to the top of a slide and go down and which way down is the most fun (tummy for sure). She also knows how to open and close doors on play houses and how to ring the doorbell. She also happens to be a great teacher, tough but fair in her critique of my execution of all activities. I learned a lot and can’t wait to visit again.

MY DADDY'S FUTURE PLANS

Drunk with power from his recent detail to the White House budget office, my father has been considering the next logical step in his career (at least if you are a democrat in this election season) and may be announcing his plans to form a presidential exploratory committee. He stumbled upon this portrait (see photo to the left) during our recent attendance at the White House Christmas open house and viewed it as a further sign that now was the time to make his big move into national politics. Mommy had her doubts until she stumbled upon another portrait (see photo below) and began to envision all the pet causes she could back, the State dinners she could host and her own eventual bid for the highest office in the land after daddy serves his two terms and she finishes raising me. Given the photo albums I have perused from my parents high school and college years I have some serious concerns about the viability of their candidacies.

WHY MOMMY AND I LOOK SO SERIOUS IN THIS PICTURE
If you haven’t heard yet, my mommy and daddy have made me a baby brother or sister. Right now “the Pea, Jr.” is cooking inside mommy’s tummy, but he or she should arrive sometime in late May. Both mommy and daddy are very excited about the new addition and tell me about how much fun it is to have a younger sibling. Mommy is particularly giddy with delight and only looks serious in this picture because she is probably thinking about how she is going to fit two cribs in our tiny Capitol Hill rowhouse or how she will be able to carry a newborn and a tank like me down the stairs.

I am a bit more uncertain about this new development. On the one hand I know my aunts and uncles (and therefore my mommy and daddy’s siblings) and know they are very fun and bring joy to my parents’ lives. But on the other hand there has to be a limit to a parent’s capacity to love right? Now, I don’t mean to sound conceited, but my parents worship me. I can do anything from throw food on the floor, to pull my Daddy’s much needed glasses off his face, to poop in the tub and I am pretty much heralded as a genius, a roguish imp or all around perfect child. So you can see my problem. How will this adoration be affected by my sibling’s imminent arrival, particularly since I will be hitting my terrible twos shortly thereafter? If I remember correctly from my own newborn-hood, babies are kinda boring and a lot of work until they are 5 months or so. I think that I am in the clear for at least 5 months, but after that who knows? Any tips for me?

WALKING AND TALKING
Well, I thought I would get out ahead of Obama’s big announcement today and finally officially announce that I am a walker. This news comes a little late and to those of you who see me regularly is not much of a surprise since I have been walking since late September, but I did want to work on perfecting my new skill before going public. I have to say I have gotten pretty darn good at this over the last few months and have included a few photos of my prowess here. (please note that I am already an all-terrain toddler who can handle snow, pavement, floors, etc and do it all while holding other objects)

Now that I have this skill under my belt, I am currently focusing on talking. To be completely clear, I am really working on speaking in a manner in which my parents and other adults in my life can understand me. I actually speak quite well, but they don’t seem to get it. I have heard that the older people get, the harder it is for them to understand new languages. If this is true, my parents must be really old because they barely understand anything I say unless I am pointing right at it. Here is a sampling of my vocabulary so far:

• Da – daddy or truck
  
• Daa – that (very versatile word; can be applied to anything I want – sometimes use this for truck and daddy too)
  
• Dah -- mommy or that
  
• Dha – dog or truck
  
• Dhaa – truck driving fast

MY BIRTHDAY (11/18/06 – my editor is really slow so she is only posting this now)
A whole year has passed since my birth and my parents decided to honor me by throwing a big party. There was chili, cornbread, chocolate, cake and cute girls. All I boy could ask for really. The cake looks a little messy (Mommy needs a cake stand for icing cakes), but was really yummy. My favorite gift by far was a bunch of balloons that magically appeared on my birthday morn. Apparently we have a balloon fairy in this house because balloons for me have appeared on every major holiday I can remember -- my birthday and Superbowl Sunday.

Below are some before and after cake photos (don't ask me why my parents made me strip down to my skivvies before enjoying my birthday cake!) and a snapshot of two of my cute girl guests. They are teaching me how to open gifts, a skill that came in very handy a month later at Christmas. Older women are fun!