What a difference a year makes

I'm frantically packing tonight for a weekend trip to the mountains with several of our dear friends and their children.  We took a similar trip last year, and I went back tonight to look at some of the pictures.  I was completely blown away by how much both of my kids have changed in the past year.  The changes in Dash are incredible.  When we were on this trip last year, we could only sit up, he wasn't even crawling.  Now?  He's running and jumping and working on walking down stairs.  Last year he was nursing.  Now he's eating entire hamburgers.  Last year he had a vocabulary of - let me double check the baby book - yes, my memory is correct, zero words.  Now?  I can't even count the huge arsenal of words he has assembled, but to give you a flavor of how far he's come in a year, he now regularly says things like "Hap birt-day, Mimi!  Hap birt-day to you!" and "Dashy wear digger shirt" and "I want it!" (he is practicing hard to be a two-year old after all) and "I love you, Mommy!" (he has to find ways to redeem his two-year old ways), and maybe most fabulously, this week upon seeing a popsicle: "My lick it!"  But Ella, she's changed so much, too.  Last year she still had a chubby little girl face and short hair.  Now, every bit of her is long and lean.  What a difference a year makes.

September 2011 at White Oak Lodge:

I'll update soon with a picture from this year.