Lucia: Twelve Months

One of my favorite things about you right now is the way you go to sleep. You spend five, ten, even twenty minutes talking and playing with your stuffed animals. You are always very happy and smiling. Once you get tired, you lay your head down on Pink Pearl and go to sleep. Today you looked so sweet resting on Pink Pearl that I went in to look at you; your eyes were open and you just smiled and continued laying there when you saw me. You go to sleep happy and wake up happy.
Lucia, you are the most social of the children. You always have a smile for people. You don't mind others holding you and even enjoy seeing fresh faces. You will dance as soon as any music comes on. You even love to stand at the walker and make it play music so you can bend your knees and bounce up and down to the music.
You can spot any small object on the floor. You love to put stuff in your mouth, just carrying it around in your mouth. Your favorites are grass and straw and little twigs. I have even pulled a few bugs out of her mouth. Yum.
Lucia, you have pretty blue eyes and a sweet little dimple on your left cheek. Your hands are so soft and you have the most beautiful, perfect little feet. You have enough hair to hold a barrette now.
You are a meticulous eater. You use your thumb and pointer to pick up each morsel of food from your tray. You will eat just about everything I give you, enjoying all foods.
When we are sitting on the floor, you love to come get in our laps. You like to sit there while we read and you don't mind sharing our lap with your siblings. You truly are happy when they are happy. You love getting affection. Your favorite kisses are butterfly kisses.
Happy first birthday, Elizabeth Lu. We love you.

LEM: Twelve Months

Well, we have completed our twelve months of birthday cupcake photos. I am so thankful that we made this commitment when they were born, because we love looking at their changes over the past twelve months. The comparison of the photos from the first month to this month are really astounding--at least to their mamas. When we first started taking the photos, I thought getting a good shot during the early months was rough: propping them up only to have them topple over, them not being able to focus or respond to voices. Then, they started getting mobile. The last several months were definitely the most challenging to shoot. I think that comes through in the photos. I am clearly just grabbing at a decent photo. Nonetheless, I feel this documentation will be one of our most treasured.



Here are the first and twelfth month photos of the babies.

Elizabeth Lucia:
Elliott Kimbrough:
Mazie Bell:

We hope you enjoyed the last installation in the series that has been "The First Twelve Months of our Babies." (There will not be 13 month photos!) Have a wonderful day.

LEM: A Retrospective

Lucia: A Retrospective

Elliott: A Retrospective

Mazie: A Retrospective

Just the facts

At one year:

Elizabeth Lucia
29 1/2 inches
19.4 pounds
seven teeth

Elliott Kimbrough
30 inches
21.4 pounds
eight teeth

Mazie Bell
28 inches
16.4 pounds
six teeth

Our little bird

We call Mazie our little red bird because she was so red her first few months of life. Her lack of body fat made the color of her blood more visible through her skin.

Here are two photos of Mazie still looking like our little bird. Her skinny legs and her downy hair and the way she opens her mouth when we feed her yogurt continue to play into her avian appearance. Then she carries on the facade by carrying around this conical block in her mouth.

The Latest Doings

We are a busy bunch these days. We are walking everywhere. Not much crawling is going on anymore. It is very rare to see Mazie crawling. Lucia and Elliott still crawl a little, but mostly walk. Everyone babbles, putting the ah sound with just about any consonant. We have not observed them "talking" to one another yet. They mostly just talk to themselves or their toys.


Elliott has taken to moving the food he does not want to eat into his cup holder at the side of this tray. Here he is moving rutabagas off to the side. "I'm just not having them," his expression seems to be saying.


Mazie got a black eye and bruise on her cheek last week. I was sitting on the floor with my legs outstretched, and she was crawling over them and sort of tumbled off. I think she may have hit the edge of a book, but I am not sure. I was very surprised her little low tumble left such a mark. She looked so sorry for about a week with her bruises and skinny legs and crazy hair. It made me sad to see my little baby with a black eye. Now Lucia is the only one who has not had a black eye.

The babies really love books. I keep a bunch underneath our desk so they can get them out and play with them. One of the first things Elliott does each morning is take all the books off the shelf. All the babies love books and love to read, but Elliott especially spends a lot of time looking at books. Mazie has started holding up books for me to read to her, though she doesn't always stay for the whole story. Lucia this week has started crawling into my lap for stories. And this morning, while I read the babies our three favorite Dr. Suess books, Elliott sat beside me and placed his hand on my knee the whole time. Our babies are so sweet, and it is little occurrances like these that really make my heart swell.
We also play in my baking drawer. They love taking all the measuring cups and spoons out and carrying them around the house. I love to cook and hope each of them grow to love it as well. So, we are trying to establish positive associations. We'll see how that works.

From WWI to the WWW

My grandma was born at the very end of World War One. We just celebrated her 90th birthday in March. I have no doubt that when I get to the end of my life she will be one of the people I will be so grateful for having had in my life. She is and will always remain on my list of people I adore.

My grandma has so many wonderful qualities. She is very good at taking baskets of peaches or other treats to "shut-ins" or "older" people from her Sunday school class. She always puts others before herself. She never wants to cause anyone even a minute's worth of trouble. She sends me newspaper clippings and poetry and little notes of encouragement.

Grandma is also a wonderful collector. She has many beautiful and interesting collections. When she falls in love with something, she commits herself to acquiring a lovely display: paintings, blown glass, Georgia pottery. While she has exquisite taste, not everything she collects is delicate and beautiful. On the one remaining empty wall in her house, she has amassed a hefty collection of Jeff Gordon model racing cars. And, she loves them with the same tender fondness she does her D. X. Gordy pots and Charles Lotton bowls.

This lady has recently done something amazing and unpredictable. She has gotten herself a computer and attached it to the internet (with a little help, of course). She has four icons on her desktop: the web site of the First Baptist church she attends, Jeff Gordon's fan site, my blog, and my sister's blog. I think this is a very remarkable hobby for a lady with her maturity to pick up, and I hope it brings her lots of enjoyment and minimal frustration.

So, Grandma, welcome to the World Wide Web. May your computer never freeze and your icons never disappear.
The three photos H took of Grandma with Elizabeth Lucia the weekend of Grandma's big birthday celebration. They are playing "This Little Piggy." It is now one of Elizabeth Lu's favorite games