Standin'

I was trying to get a video of Boo's new trick...you can see it was a bit interrupted. :)

I got a better one later in the day though. She does this over and over. Stand up, wobble a bit, fall to knees, repeat. You'd think her knees would be getting sore but she keeps at it. Practice makes perfect I guess. :)

12 Months

Boo Bear had her 12 month check-up on Friday. They said she looks good and healthy but she is still somewhat of a lightweight. Her stats were:

Length: 30.3 inches, 85%

Weight: 17.4 lbs., 3%

Head Circumference: 70%

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Yes, she is only in the 3rd percentile for weight. Which seems so weird to me! She has chubby little thighs and chubby little cheeks. I've read that babies are supposed to triple their birth weight by a year but I cannot imagine what she would look like at 7lbs heavier! It looks like she'll be in the infant car seat for quite some time.

I was pretty surprised that she is only 17 pounds b/c she has been such a little piggy lately! She eats and eats and eats some more. She can out-eat her sister at every meal. I guess she has a really good metabolism! Lucky her. :)

She is a little mover though so I guess I can see how she burns off her calories. Just like her sister, she is rarely still. She goes and goes and goes. She is a short-term snuggler. She will snuggle happily but it only lasts about ten seconds before she is off again. It is nearly impossible to take her to any events b/c she just will NOT sit still.

Here are a few fun facts about Boo at 12 months:

*She has 12 teeth, including 4 molars.

*Her preferred method of transportation is crawling and she can move really fast!

*She is starting to walk and got 5 steps in a row last night!

*She is a great traveler and very rarely cries in the carseat. When we buckle her in while in the house while preparing to go somewhere she will fuss and fuss but as soon as we get in the car she will just happily look around for as long as it takes to get somewhere.

*She is happiest when getting out of the bath! She likes to take a bath but as soon as we get her out she is so happy she squeals and laughs. So funny!

*She says lots of words: Ma-ma, Da-da, Thank you, Up, Out, Hi, Bye-bye, Ba (water), Papa, Nah-nah, and her own versions of her sister's name and Grandma and Grandpa.

*She only does one "sign" and that is more, although she really just claps her hands together. Bug did lots of signs at this point but for some reason Boo refuses to do them.

*Her favorite thing to do is climb stairs! She loves this, but most of her fun has been halted by the installation of a gate two steps up. She climbs those two steps and shakes the gate back and forth. :)
*She loves to "read" books and will sit there flipping through the pages, but if I am reading to her she will only sit still for about 2 short books.

*She loves to tear paper into little bits! Apparently I had a bad habit of doing this as a child as well.

*She still loves to find bits of things on the floor and put them in her mouth. Ugh.

*She gets very mad when her sister takes something away from her or tries to move her from one spot to another.

*Some of her favorite foods are: bread, crackers, applesauce, mandarin oranges, peaches, pears, and cookies!

*She doesn't care for: green beans, plain oatmeal, anything cold, or, strangely enough, bananas.
*If you ask her for a kiss she will smack her lips together.

*She is wearing 12 month clothes...oddly enough she is actually .8lbs lighter than her sister was, but she is 1/2inch longer. She must have a longer torso too b/c Buggy was wearing 3 month onesies when she was a year and Boo has to have 12 months for the length factor.

*She is still wearing a size 2 shoe! I don't know why her feet don't seem to be growing at the same rate as her body, hopefully they'll catch up one of these days. :)

Boo seems a lot more opinionated to me than her sister was at this age. She definitely lets us know what she likes and doesn't like. Maybe she just has to be louder to make herself heard over her sister. :)

It is so fun to watch her growing. She definitely makes our family complete, and we all love watching her do all the "firsts". I'll have to see if I can get a video of the walking soon. We're expecting her to take off any day now!

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And that's Boo at 12 months!

Happy Birthday!

Boo Bear had a wonderful birthday! She definitely knew she was queen for the day and made the most of every second. :) She was happy as a clam all day! Funny girl. Here is a picture of her at 2:04pm her birth-minute. :)

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We had a relaxed dinner with a few guests, Grandma, Grandpa, Noni, Papa, and two of our good friends from here in town. Noni got here and set up her birthday present for Boo. I saw something like this on a friend's blog and just fell in love with the idea! My mom says this is a practice one b/c she only had a week to make it so she was just trying to figure out how it would work, but I think it's pretty darn cute and the girls love it!

The mailbox on the side there really opens up so they can put letters in it!

Birthday dinner guests.

Then on to presents!

She got so many nice gifts!

*A llama that looks like Noni's llama, Kuzca, from Aunt J and family;

*Robeez socks (yay, maybe I can finally keep socks on her!) and books from Mama and Aunt Karen;

*a new sleeper, shirt, two movies, and a Weeble go-cart from Grandma and Grandpa;

*a cute outfit, hair clips, and cute jammies from Grandma V and Grandpa J;

*an elephant from Auntie W (and Bug got a cute giraffe ring which she was SO excited about!);

*an activity farmhouse from D and B;

*a ball toy from Uncle B and Auntie M.

* and we bought her the Weebles bus since she likes her Weeble playhouse so much.
(sorry, for all the letters:)

The farmhouse.

Thank you everyone for the great gifts!!!

Noni and the girls.

Our little family.

Time for cake! "Happy Birthday to you..."

She thought the flame was pretty and wanted to grab it. She was NOT happy that we wouldn't let her.

But she got over it pretty quick.

It took her a minute to get the idea.

But she got the hang of it eventually.

Num!

Love those chubby fingers.

Sweet baby.

Silly girl!

Happy Birthday Love!

P.S. Thanks so much to my friend, L, for letting me borrow your giant cupcake mold!!! I thought it turned out really cute! :)

Dear Boo,

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! This morning you woke up and we heard you in your crib saying, "Up? Up?" I cannot believe it has already been a year. My mind says the time has been short but my heart says you have always been with us. We love you more than we could ever say. Your smile is sunshine. Your laughter is infectious. Your joy for life sparks joy in us. How precious you are to us baby girl.

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We are still amazed that God blessed us with you. How perfectly you fit into our family. He knew just who we needed when He sent you.

It has been so fun to watch you grow and change this past year. Just this week you have started to stand up on your own without pulling up on something. Every time you do it your sister gets so excited and shouts, "Mommy, look! She did a miracle!" She loves you so much, and she's right, you ARE a miracle to us.

Thank you for coming into our lives and making our world a better place. Thank you for hugs and kisses and snuggles and smiles and wiggles and giggles.

Happy Birthday sweet girl. May God bless you with many many more!

Love, Mommy

Time Flies

It is SO hard to believe that a year ago today I looked like this...

That seems like such a long time ago, and at the same time I feel like this year has just flown by. I can't believe my sweet baby is going to be one tomorrow.

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She brings so much joy to our lives. She loves to laugh, and has quite the little personality. She knows exactly what she wants and makes her protests known when she doesn't get it. :)

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I love the way she gets so excited when Daddy comes home. If she is on the floor she crawls like lightening to get to the door, reaching before she even gets there saying, "Up, up!"

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She is such a busy girl, always on the move, always looking for something to get into.
She loves small spaces and crawling up on her "perches". She squeals to get our attention and then wrinkles her little nose at us until we laugh.

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Most of all she brings joy to our lives and we are so thankful for her. What a blessing.

Brush and Floss Every Day

The other night we were all sitting in the living room like we do most evenings...me reading, T playing his new PS3 and the girls playing on the floor. Boo gave up what she was doing and started crawling toward her room. Her room is baby proof and she likes to play in there so I didn't stop her.

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A few minutes later I heard a weird noise. It was kind of like a "swish, swish, swish". I thought, that's odd, but I was at a good part in my book and didn't want to put it down since I figured she couldn't be into much in her room. A few minutes later I heard it again. T was getting up for something so I asked him to check. I heard a "Where did you get that??" He brought her in and plunked her down on the floor.

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I had forgotten that there was still one small duffel bag left over from Christmas (terrible I know!) that was still in her room. I thought there were just clothes in there but apparently there were also a few stocking stuffers...like floss. Cinnamon flavored floss.

"What?"

She thought it was pretty darn tasty! She kept smacking her lips and saying "Num!" :)

She drank an entire sippy cup of water! I'm sure her mouth was experiencing a sensation that had yet to be discovered in her short life. :)

After we took it away she started licking her fingers. I guess she really likes cinnamon!

At her first dental appointment I'm sure they will be highly impressed that our baby has such vivid concerns for her oral health. :)

Giggles

Lately Boo has been doing this really cute thing where she grins and wrinkles up her nose, and if she is an especially good mood she does this funny little giggle. It cracks me up!