Happy 1st Birthday Little A!

Our sweet girl turned 1 year old! She is such a delight! She brings so much joy and happiness to our lives.

 She is a chatter box and likes to try out new sounds. Mostly she sticks to Mama, Dad, ma, dada, ooh, and aah, but she also says B, D, T, and "ya". I love it when she says "ya". She always says it after we ask her a question. I don't think she really understands what it means quite yet, but it sure is cute!

When she is super excited she tenses up, grunts, and puts her hands out a little. You can see it in the picture really well. This is how we know when she really likes something.  I had her monkey, Momo, and was making monkey sounds. She loves monkeys and was so excited to get a hold of Momo.

We just had a little family party for her birthday. When Allan got home and cleaned up he took her outside to play for awhile so I could get dinner ready. They had a good play; she loves to play with her daddy.

We gave her her first cupcake. She was pretty hesitant at first, like she is with everything, but after a while she really went for it. She really liked the frosting, but mostly just squished the cupcake. We lit the candle and that made her really nervous. She doesn't know how to blow yet so we blew it out for her. She wished for a baby brother or sister. ;) The ice cream was a big hit. She is a girl after her Daddy's heart, and she ate plenty of ice cream.

 She had a ball playing in the kitchen after dinner. I loved how her tutu looked in the walker. It cracks me up! And the bow is hilarious too! It's about the same size as her head, lol! 

After dinner we opened presents. We got her the Melissa and Doug Noah's Ark shape sorter and a few books for church. She has really enjoyed the Noah's Ark (she doesn't sort the shapes, instead we play "The prophet Noah had an ark" to the tune of "Old McDonald had a Farm"). Her favorite animal on the ark is the monkey. It delighted her that there were two. :)

At 12 months little A weighed 19lbs 7oz and was 28 1/2 inches long.

She hates having her arms, hands, and feet touched. Helping her fold her arms for a prayer is not popular. When people try to tickle her or touch her feet she growls at them, lol!

She loves to dance and loves all sorts of music, especially those that have a good clear beat to them. She also loves to watch me dance.

She loves to read stories and makes sure we have some good reading time every day. When she's ready to read she walks me over to the rocking chair, and we sit and read until she starts to fall asleep.

She is a good eater. Her favorite food right now is beans, of any kind.  She hates bread and anything with a texture similar to bread. She still won't drink anything except for milk and thinks that sippy cups are like teething rings.

Her favorite toys are the Fisher Price Nativity, Momo the monkey, and Cheer Bear.  She loves to chew on Cheer Bears nose!  She also really enjoys emptying baskets and buckets.

She still sleeps 10-12 hours at night and takes 2 naps during the day, usually 45-60 min long. Occasionally she'll take a third nap or sleep an extra hour longer on her second nap. Those are really good days! She's a really happy camper, and I get a lot done in the house!

She can pull herself up on things but doesn't like to do it. She rolls both ways now and will move her right leg when she's trying to crawl. The left leg still doesn't budge though so she still doesn't really get anywhere.