Little H turned a big numero uno last week.

Here she is, riding bike with big sister N, on the very spot where she was born:

Playing tea party on the front porch:

N's party clothes:

H in her favorite hand-me-down hat and standard summer outfit:

The girls have taken an interest in washing dishes, partly to cool off on hot days. In fact, N recently added breakfast dishes to her list of morning chores, and H always wants to be in on the action (especially now that she's climbing on and off chairs by herself):

H's first birthday was a bit of a bummer; feeling miserable from a double ear infection, she just wasn't as much into opening presents as everyone else was:

She was a good sport, though, and tried out her first cousin R's handmade blanket right away:

We never did get around to singing "Happy Birthday" or putting a candle in a zucchini cupcake. H just kept crying, nursing, and falling asleep at inopportune times. So the party went on without her. Her Auntie H and Uncle M joined the would-be festivities. Here, my visiting cousin R and her boys (H's and N's never-before-met second cousins) enthusiastically decorate the cupcakes:

Fortunately, after the doctor prescribed antibiotics the next day, H perked up quickly enough to go along on a five-hour family trip to visit Uncle Z, and returned to her usual charming, busybody self. We hung out a lot on the baby-proof deck overlooking the city, reading books, playing with an (empty of compost) stainless steel pail, and tossing orange peels over the railing to the garden below, not to mention munching homemade cookies:

By way of sightseeing, we spent a rainy morning climbing up and back down 36 stories of stairs at a very tall building at a very large university (flooding the echoey stairwell with harmonies as we descended). I'm proud to say that both girls made it the whole way--H on her dad's back and N on her own four-year-old feet: