LiaHowley.com

Dad and mom call it a hot tub, but the water was really cold when I went in.

A few weeks ago, when my grammy and pepere were visiting, I went on the slide for the first time. I’d tried a swing already a couple times, but the slide is even more fun. I’m still working on trying to remember that I need to sit down at the top in order to slide down, but I’ve mastered the scooch that I use to push myself down the slide.

My dad found out that he can stick comments in the video, so he did that here. Remember - another video tomorrow!

I know I haven’t put lots of stuff on this website recently, so I’ve got a lot for you this week. I’m gonna put up a new video every single day this whole week. Except for Monday, cause Monday was yesterday and my dad says he won’t invent me a time machine cause he doesn’t want a pair of docks or something.

So here’s my first video. I’m dancing in front of the TV and singing E-I-E-I-O. When the video came on, I got so so excited! E-I-O is my favorite song! Mom and dad call it Old MacDonald, but I call it E-I-O.

Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything. I’ve been busy! Last week my grammy and pepere came to visit, and I got to go on a playground slide for the first time by myself. It was a small slide, probably as long as my daddy is tall. I wasn’t sure what it was at first - I went up the three steps, and that was fun cause I like walking up steps. Then I was at the top and daddy sat me down at the top of the slide but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Then he pushed me and I slid down and my mom caught me at the bottom! I was so surprised! I guess I was a little scared too, but when everyone clapped and said “Yay!” I realized that it was okay, and I ran back around to go on again. I went on the slide again and again and when I had to leave I was so sad I screamed!

I’ve been spending a lot of my free time learning how to dance. I’m really just teaching myself. I started with the step where I march in place fast, then I learned the dance where I twist and swing my arms. Next, I learned to wiggle my butt back and forth with my feet in place. My latest step is the side-to-side waddle where I walk with my knees straight. I’m gonna be a dancer.

My dad put up a video of me dancing, and you can watch it.

So I’ve got three words now. My first word was “E-I-E-I-O”. You can listen to me say that on a couple of my recent videos. Lots of times I miss the “O”. I’ll just say “E-I-E-I-E-I” or “Yie-Yo”. I also like “E-I-E-I-Go”.

I also say “Hi” a lot. A couple weeks ago, when my dad got home from work, he said “Hi, Lia!” and I said “Hi!”. That made him happy.

I’m also trying to say “bottle”, but I pretty much just say “Bao”. I say that one all the time, whether or not a bottle is involved.I just like to say it.

This is a video of me on Father’s Day, singing old MacDonald. I kind of say “E-I-Goo”, but I’m just improvising. The things you should notice here are:

• The face I’m making when I sing.
• The cool shirt I got for father’s day. Dad tells me that it says “KID” in binary.
• The dance I do at the end.

Also, I can’t sing while sitting down.

So, my dad finally put up the videos. The first one is my eating my birthday cake. Actually, I guess it’s me not eating birthday cake. Cause I didn’t really like it. In the video, I put a piece in my mouth, but decide against actually eating it, so I take the piece out. I get kind of upset about the frosting all over my fingers too. People were laughing at me, but I just don’t like having messy hands. Besides, I was really more interested in playing with the rings from my new birthday toy. It’s really cool - the rings stack up on this middle spoke thing.

In the second video, my dad keeps trying to get me to sing. He’s all happy cause I sing the chorus from Old McDonald. And I know that E-I-E-I-O isn’t really a word, so we can’t call it my first word, but it’s my first song I guess.

I’m laughing at daddy in this video cause he’s doing this funny walk where he’s squatting down to record me and walking behind me.

At the end of the video I climb up the stairs. I don’t usually do it unless someone is right there, cause I’m scared to fall, but I like showing off in front of the camera.

My birthday party on Sunday was fun. Lots and lots of people came over and had food. I got to eat a lot of new things, like meatloaf and grilled vegetables. I don’t like the vegetables so much cause they’re slimy, but the meatloaf was real good. I also tried whole milk from a cow for the first time, but I don’t like that sippy cup thing so much. Why can’t I just use the bottle?

I got lots of cool presents. I got a lot of books, and a bunch of cards. The cards were fun to play with. And I got this spoke thing with different colored plastic rings that go up and down it. I’m not good yet at putting the rings on - I miss a lot of the time - but I’ll get better. And I got my own cell phone. Not the old one that mommy used to use - that one doesn’t do anything anymore since they took out the battery. This one is big and colorful and makes noises! It says “hello” and “goodbye” to me!

But my favorite present is my new car. I’m not good at getting on it myself yet, but I can push myself around on it once daddy sits me on it. And it’s got a horn and a radio and a place to hold a phone! And you can lift up the seat and put stuff inside. I like to push it all over the house. Daddy says he’ll put up a video here soo so everyone can see me on my car.

They gave me cake too on my birthday, but I didn’t like it. I put it all over my face and in my hair, but I didn’t like to eat it. And I got frosting all over my hands and I couldn’t get it off no matter how much I shook my hands. It was stressful.

But I had a good birthday. Yay! I’m one!

I turn one today! My party isn’t gonna be til this next weekend, but today I’m a whole year old.

Tomorrow my Omi and Nanu (that’s my mom’s parents) are driving here from Kentucky to sing happy birthday to me. I met them a long long time ago but I know I’ll remember them when I see them.

Now that I’m one, I’m learning to do a lot more things. I like to stack things up now - I pull all the DVDs off the shelf and put them in a big pile, and I have a box full of corks, and I like to pick them out of the box one by one and put them in a different box. Sometimes I put them all on the cat.

Dad says he’s gonna record my birthday party so we can show everyone who’s not there. I can’t wait.

I know how to walk real good now, and I’ve got two videos to prove it.

First, I’ve got one of me taking my first real good walk, back when my Grandpa Chip and Nana Maureen and Uncle Sean were here. Everyone is standing around and cheering for me as I take all these steps. I even turn around and start walking different directions a few times.

I’d taken a few steps here and there, but this was one of my first real good walks. So that’s the first video.

The second one is a few weeks later, when I really learned how to walk good, like I do now. I fall down a couple times, but I’m walking around on the wood kitchen floor <em>in socks</em>! It gets real slippery, but I’m such a good walker now that I can do it anyway.

I fall down a couple times, but I can get back up now without even grabbing onto anything. I make my mommy and daddy chase me around everywhere now. It’s a lot of fun.

You can click the pictures to watch the videos.