She's ONE!

"You mean it's my birthday today?"

"Yay!"

"I'm so excited!"

"Can I have my present now?"

Dear Sweet Adeline,
One year ago today, you changed my life forever.  You were such a beautiful surprise - we didn't know you were a girl until your birth.  Now I can't imagine what life would be like without you.  You are so much fun, and every day with you is sweeter than the one before.  You continue to be such a good natured and well behaved little princess.  You love to give kisses to me and Daddy and your doll.  You are now saying "book" clearly and from the minute you wake up until you go to bed at night, you ask for a book whenever you see one.  I think you will be a little bookworm.  To that you have added "ball" and "dog".  Everything round is a ball to you and you never fail to point one out wherever we go.  The addition of the word "dog" to your vocabulary was a little bit of a surprise to me, since we don't have one, but if your reaction to the zoo is any indication, you are an animal lover too.  You like to point out the dogs in your books.  You are pulling up to stand quite proficiently now, on anything you can get a hold on.  You have been cruising along holding onto furniture and sometimes you casually hold on with one hand like you might just let go and take your first step.  It hasn't happened quite yet though.  Soon enough you will be walking and talking my ear off!  You still like to "read" your books to us and it is so cute.  You say something that sounds kind of like "goggity, goggity, goggity" and you throw in an "uhoh" and "Mmmmm" here and there.  It just cracks me up.  I am so looking forward to the next few months and I can hardly wait to see what you do next.
I love you precious girl!
Mommy

1 year ago today

You Capture - Orange

      We went to Wal-mart.  She spied this cute little pie pumpkin and her eyes lit up.  "Ball!" she exclaimed, excitedly.  She sniffed it tentatively and then proceeded to stick her tongue out and try to lick it.  So I got her a pumpkin.  Did I mention IT'S HER BIRTHDAY TODAY?!  She's ONE.  Can you believe it?  I can't.

{Special Birthday post to come later}

For more You Capture, go here:

You Capture - Animals

I had paid attention to this week's You Capture assignment until I saw all the posts popping up.  I always tell myself I am going to participate, but then I forget and life gets in the way.  This time I got lucky!  It just so happens that Addy visited the zoo this week.  It was very entertaining, for us and for her.  She loved every minute of it.  We actually went to the zoo two weeks in a row since she liked it so much.  Both times the Jaguars paced in front of the window looking at all the small children like they would make a nice snack...creepy!

Jaguar looking for Baby Snacks

Addy doing her monkey impression.  Note the Chimps in the background :)

Addy doing her monkey impression for the Prairie Dog.

Some kind of Crane, or Spiky Headed Bird as I like to call it.

Go here for more...

11 months

 My Sweet Baby Girl,
It's hard to believe you are getting so close to 1.  You are definitely more of a toddler than a baby now, even though you aren't walking yet.  You have pulled up in your crib a couple times, but are still too cautious to do it very often.  You are learning more animal sounds - you can do a monkey and a bear imitation now and will make those sounds whenever you see those animals.  It is so cute.  You are attempting to say "book" although you don't really get the "k" sound on the end, you use it appropriately whenever you see a book.  You also pretend to read your books to Mommy and Daddy and it is so funny to listen to you babbling along while you flip the pages.  You can now say "bye bye" although you usually just choose to wave instead.  You have started saying "uhoh", and enjoy dropping things just so you can use it.  You also now know yourself in the mirror.  I guess I won't be sitting you in front of it and telling you to talk to the other baby anymore.  You're onto me now :)  Whenever you see something you like, you say "Oooooo!" with such excitement and awe.  I just can't get over how precious you are.  Everywhere I go, people comment on how well behaved you are - and it's true.  We can take you pretty much anywhere and you are such a good little lady.  I look forward to every day with you.
I love you so much Sweet Adeline!

10 months

My Sweet Baby Girl,

Every month brings new and exciting things for you.  This month the big one was crawling!  You got up at 3 am to show us you could crawl!  We thought you were just going to skip the crawling thing since you get around so well scooting on your tummy with your own little "army crawl".  But you decided you needed to reach things, so you learned how to crawl for that reason I think.  And because you are a cautious little thing.  You still haven't pulled up to stand yet, but I'm sure you will get there soon.  For now you are happy getting up on your knees to reach for things.  You still love to follow Mommy around and you do it mostly scooting on your stomach because you are much faster at that than crawling.  Your babbling sounds like talking now, but without the words.  

At the beginning of August we went on a little vacation to a cabin in the mountains and you had your first experience with blowing bubbles.  Actually Mommy blew the bubbles and you tried to catch them and loved it.  You also cut your top two front teeth that same week.  I thought teething would be easier for you this time around, but it seemed to bother you almost as much as the first time.  We found out you are afraid of strange places.   You slept the entire drive to the cabin and when we got there I took you inside and you took one look around and busted out crying like "This isn't my house!"  You wouldn't let me out of your sight for several days after that.  

You are my little copy cat, trying to imitate all kinds of things Mommy does, like rubbing Daddy's feet.  It is so cute!  You like to pucker up your little lips at me and you are tickled when I do it back.  Your attention span is getting longer and you can now sit through me reading a whole Dr. Seuss book (sometimes!).  Hop on Pop and the Dr. Seuss ABC book are your favorites.  Daddy usually reads your bedtime story and you love it and smile so big at him when he says "Night night".  You like to resist sleep and have been skipping naps during the day, but you are a good night sleeper as always - 11 1/2 hours most nights and often without waking up more than once about 9 hours in.  

You got your first haircut from Mommy this month.  The hair on top of your head was getting really long so I took off an inch and I can't believe how much lighter your hair looks now.  I think that was the last of your dark baby hair and you are looking much more blond, but still with a hint of red, just like me :)  You love to feed yourself peas, cheerios and graham crackers and you like pretty much anything I feed you.  Fresh peaches or pears with baby oatmeal is your favorite breakfast.  I'm so excited to see what the next month holds!  

I love you sweet Adeline!

9 months old already!

My Sweet Baby Girl,

Wow! Nine months already!  It hardly seems possible.  Suddenly it seems as though the whole world has opened up in front of you.  There are so many new things for you to explore and experience.  You are scooting around on your stomach and today you started kind of a half crawling half scooting thing.  I think soon you will be crawling very efficiently.  If I put you down on the floor and go into another room you come after me, looking to see where I went.  The other day I left you with Daddy and went upstairs to exercise and you scooted out into the hall and banged on a metal vent and yelled "MAMAAAAAA!" when you couldn't find me.  Sometimes you strike off on your own, scooting down the hall to the mirror where you sit and babble to yourself.  You clap your hands for everything from breast milk to diaper changes.  It is so cute!  Just this week you started pointing with your cute little finger.  You point at pictures in books and all kinds of things you want us to see.  You love it when we read you stories, especially at bedtime.  Peekaboo is your favorite game.  You like to snatch up a piece of clean laundry when I am folding clothes and hold it over your face while I say "Where's the baby?" Then you pull it down and laugh like crazy when I say "Peekaboo" or "There she is!"  You are so curious about everything now and you want to touch it all.  While you are still very attached to your mama, you are becoming a little more independent every day.  I have so much fun with you and cherish every minute I have with my sweet baby.  I love you!

Hey mom, what's this green stuff for?

Let's hear it for the boob!

I just had to share this.  I have been showing Addy how to clap her hands for a couple weeks now.  Then last week I bought her a ball and we sat on the floor rolling it back and forth.  She was doing surprisingly well with it and we were clapping and cheering for her.  And then she just started clapping her hands. And she's been clapping ever since, for all kinds of things. She claps for pictures and videos of herself and other babies. She claps when Mommy comes to get her out of the crib in the morning. And today, she nursed, popped off my boob and clapped like "Yay Mom, that milk was awesome!" At least that's what I think she would say if she could talk. It's so cute I can hardly stand it.