My One-Year-Old Girl!

I just put my one-year-old baby to sleep. Are you allowed to say "one-year-old baby" as a phrase? She still is my baby even though babycenter.com will now send me emails stating "your toddler this week." Either way, my girl had a birthday today and I can't believe how old she is! March and April will always be a fun time for us with Jackson's birthday, Easter & Abbie's birthday all within a month. I recently realized Abbie will actually turn 8 on Easter Sunday, so that will be super neat.

But today she turned one and we had a great day celebrating her. Tyler was out of town, sadly, so it was just my kids and I. At first Jackson wasn't so sure about Abbie having a birthday, because of course he wanted it to be HIS birthday. But this morning he was so cute with her and when he saw all the balloons he couldn't care less that they were pink and on her door and high chair this time instead.

She was born at 8 am but she slept in today til 9, a great bday present for mom except Jackson was up at 7:30. But as soon as she woke up we went upstairs and threw some more balloons in her crib. She was so happy and loved seeing all the balloons on her door as well. I was surprised at how sweet Jackson was to her. "It's your birthday Abbie! Happy Birthday Abbie!" over and over. She had been crying before we got in the room but she did not cry for the rest of the morning. She hardly cried all day! I hadn't even gotten her out of the crib yet and noticed Jackson went downstairs but before I knew it he was back in the room with one of her presents. "Here Abbie, open your presents!" Once he realized most of her presents were shoes and clothes he didn't mind letting her have them. I did have one toy for him to open to, so that helped I think.

Loving her balloon wake-up call.

Didn't even plan her matching jammies :)

Thank you Nana for the adorable shoes, the present Jackson brought up!

For breakfast she had a birthday donut which she absolutely loved! But she made quite a mess of herself. Wow that girl gets messy, she loves wiping her hands all over her hair and eyes just to make it that much more fun to clean up. This time she needed a morning bath for sure. She played around a little in the morning before having a quick nap. Then we headed to Jackson's swimming lesson at noon.

Birthday girl!

The "before" shot

Just getting started

When all was said and done.

She immediately tried putting on her new clothes, something Jackson would never do!

Jackson "helped" her open most of her presents!

Happy girl!

Today Jackson had to get in the pool wearing clothes and shoes to simulate what it would feel like to drown and to ensure he can still float and swim with all that heavy stuff on him. He did NOT want to go swimming with shoes but he did so great and as soon as the clothes were off he did so well. He loves swimming so much and has already improved a ton!

Abbie was too engrossed in her book to notice Jackson screaming about swimming in shoes

After swimming we met some friends at Chick-fil-a for lunch! Abbie's friends Colin & Allie were there (both just 2 months older) and her little friend Paris came at the end too. She sat in her high chair for well over an hour and was so great. She loved her grilled chicken nuggets, fruit, and she got sips of chocolate milk and lemonade. She also had their waffle fries for the first time and loved them! And of course we ended off the lunch with an ice cream cup which she and Jackson shared somewhat willingly but it was gone pretty quick :)

With Colin, baby date

I caught her flirting with the people at the other table

Home for afternoon naps and then a chill day at our house this evening. We went to the park after dinner so Abbie could swing and check out the dogs at the dog park. The girl LOVES animals, especially dogs. I just put her to bed and honestly she has been an angel all day.

Before her nap

  

When did she get so big?

I love this little girl so much!

She is such a good little girl. She puts up with a lot from her older brother, so she is super easy going. Finally she is starting to sleep better at night. We're not all the way there yet but it's been a vast improvement since the bad habits she got into at Christmas time. Now on her good nights she will go to bed around 8:30 and sleep til 6 am when I'll nurse her and then she'll sleep for a couple more hours. I'm only nursing her twice a day usually now. Just at bedtime and that early morning time. I will probably be done in a month or so, just when Jackson finished too. She doesn't like bottles but will drink out of sippy cups very well. She loves her water and I'm trying not to giver her juice but she tends to steal sips of Jackson's whenever he has it. She is doing ok with milk but chocolate milk is the main way I'll get her to drink it right now.

She takes 2 naps a day, but can be flexible if we are out and about. She goes down for naps so easily. She cuddles up with her blanket and a binky in each hand and one in her mouth and hardly ever cries at naptime. I put her in her crib awake and she'll be asleep in a few minutes. She is also an expert at falling asleep in her carseat and in her stroller on Disney days. She LOVES Jackson even when he drags her around the floor and tries to wrestle her. She loves any attention he gives her. She loves animals and while she is not super vocal yet, she makes the same little sounds when she sees dogs, lizards, squirrels or birds outside.

She is not walking, I really thought she would be by now! Because of that and her lack of hair it is hard to look at her and think she's ONE? But she can crawl super fast and cruise around on furniture with ease. She has taken a few steps, her record is 8, but she has no interest in it. She could do it if she wants to, she just doesn't at this point!

She loves looking at books and playing with toys, especially ones that make music. Whenever she hears a song she starts bouncing and dancing. Her favorite things to do is climb up on things, especially Jackson's picnic table and hand things to people. All day long she hands me toys, books, food and gets such a kick out of it. She points all the time. If she wants something she points, if she sees something interesting she points. She doesn't do much whining or screaming. She's either happy and quite, happy and softly babbling, or crying.

We love our little beauty girl so much and can hardly believe it's been a year since she was born!