Sweet Pea, Apple of My Eye - 1 Year Old Today!

Here we are...1 year old! What a year it has been! Highlights include, first smile, first recognition of her mommy as something other than food, sitting up by herself, first word - Dada, first teeth and not tooth, lighting up when seeing mommy or daddy after they have been away, recognition of Mamey/Pop/Mawmaw/Pawpaw, fake laugh to get attention, crawling in its various forms, climbing up in mommy or daddy's laps, clinching to Dada's shirt as he carries her, deep belly laughter, teasing Petey with his ball by putting it in hard to reach places, shaking her head and smiling with a big grin when she is in a good mood or just plain happy, and shouting bye-bye because it is easy to do with its motion. Those just name a few. We have yet to walk but we are pulling up on things more and more everyday. No real cruising just yet.

She is finally on a bottle (secret was warming the milk). Yay for mommy (which equals freedom)! We will try to transition her better to a sippy cup over the next month. She is eating the majority of her food with her fingers now. Occasionally if we are out or I am being just plain lazy, I give her jar baby food. She is enjoying eggs, Mandarin oranges, string cheese, waffles, and various forms of goulash that mom makes up.

She is showing more of a personality these days. When she is happy, she is the happiest. And when she is irritated, she is just plain bad. She might have a little bit of a temper. We aren't saying where she gets that from. :) Overall she is really good. No set routine but she does still enjoy 2 naps a day. Normally for an hour and a half or so.

Her hair is slowly coming in. It won't be long before she will be a complete dark headed girl. Her eyes are just as blue as ever.

For her actual birthday, we let her try eating her cake again since the other day it was refrigerator cold and didn't work out quite as well as we hoped. So I stuck that cake back in the frig and pulled it out again. This time I nuked it and it was more of a success. There was more digging in and slinging icing. After a quick bath, and Petey trying to give himself a diabetic coma from eating all icing slung on floor, Don and I headed to the Galleria to let Kate ride the carousel. I took lots of pictures of her and her Dada on it but there weren't many smiles. I think she was trying to figure out why the room was spinning. I promise Kate I didn't spike the icing on your cake. :) After that we headed over to Don and I's favorite pizza joint, Davenport's Pizza Palace. She was so happy while we were in there. I even let her try some pizza. After that though, everything came crashing down. We were back home and Kate was asleep by 8:30. Earlier in the day, Kate and mommy had done some smock dress shopping, then home for a wagon ride and swing push...it had been a long day.

Kate - sweet Pea,

Keep being the sweet innocent girl that we know you as today. You have changed our world in the best way. You could not have come to us at a better time. We love the way you make us feel and how you are reintroducing us to simple joys in life. You give us a reason to go to bed and wake up every morning along with striving to be a better person and example. We look forward to the many many years ahead.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy