One

This past month sure was a special one! As of September 20, my sweet baby is now considered a toddler. But of course, she will always be our baby. And it's true what they say, once your child is born you can't imagine your life any other way.

It's hard to describe how much we truly love you, Elliot. We will always remember the first day we laid eyes on you.

                               (though Mama tries to forget her own (HUGE) face in this one) 

To look at you now, walking, talking and feeding yourself just seems so unreal. And while I knew this first year would pass quickly, I'm not sure I was prepared for how "grown up" you'd be.

You have returned in full force with your tolerance for signing. We lost you for a little while, but glad you are enjoying it because I'm not sure there's anything cuter than you asking me for "more, please" with your gestures. We had a few rough patches with your desire to eat and be in control but you're slowly coming around :). I think you could eat a pint of blueberries if I let you! Bread, cheese and yogurt remain your faves. You've been good about eating more steamed veggies lately, but if it weren't for the pouches, I'm not sure we'd ever get your full veggie intake for the day! Thankfully, it appears you do not have a peanut or egg allergy and we enjoyed watching you down your first PB&J.

As your birthday came closer, we started weaning you from formula and you are officially finished drinking formula- thank goodness! While whole milk wasn't your most favorite to start off with, you've grown to enjoy it more in the past 2 weeks. Weaning you from taking milk in the bottle is a different story, I'm afraid. But, we've got you down to only having one at night these days. You're close!

Your sweet teachers at school helped us work with you on walking and a few days before your birthday, you took more than a few steps on your own! Now that we're nearly one month past your birthday, you've certainly picked up the pace and things are just not the same anymore. You are on the move! But we love watching you walk and think its pretty stinkin' cute. Especially in your skinny jeans. I can't handle it.

You have moved up to a "big girl" room at school where they have transitioned you into taking only one nap each day. I can't believe it! Recently that has meant that you are ready for dinner and bedtime earlier. So, we cherish our afternoons with you since you've got a 6:30 bedtime! And most recently, you've begun to enjoy getting dropped off at school. You reach for your teachers when Daddy drops you off and waive bye-bye to him. Too cute. But the first it happened to Daddy, he told me he almost cried. He loves his mornings with you!

Your actual birthday was spent with your friends and teachers at school, but we made sure you celebrated in style. Your daddy knows how to make a mean t-shirt. I'm sure this will be the first of many!

 

You had your very first Gibson's donut for your birthday breakfast. Mommy and Daddy love Gibson's and we were hoping you'd feel the same. We also hope this will remain a tradition in our family as we celebrate each birthday with you.

After it was touched, it was devoured!

And a few days later, we celebrated your birthday with your extended family. We decided to keep it fairly small for your first, because let's face it, you won't really remember this day. And the most important thing to us was to celebrate you with other family that love you just as much as we do. It was such a great day and you were a trooper. With only a 20 minute nap all day, come 3'oclock I thought you'd be on the verge of a melt-down, but you were ready to party!

What a year it has been. We look forward to all the funny things you'll do and how you will become even more of a little girl, this next year. We love and adore you, Elliot!