Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas today. Grandma and Grandpa came over first thing this morning, and once our sleepy princess woke up and ate her breakfast, we got to open some presents. And Annabelle got to wear her adorable santa monkey pjs that her Daddy bought her.

She had a fun morning, and managed to open about three things from her stocking and then lose interest. And her big brother Gatsby helped her a little too!

After Annabelle's morning nap, we got to go for a ride in her spiffy new red wagon that she got from Granddad and Anna. Boy, did she love it. Her favorite thing was being pulled on our bumpy street so she could listen to what it did to her voice. It was adorable to listen to her, and she was all smiles the whole time. It's a really cool wagon. It has seats and seatbelts, which are great!

After her afternoon nap, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where they had prepared a wonderful Christmas feast for us! We then opened MORE presents. Annabelle definitely found her favorite present ever waiting under the tree for her...a little doll. Once Chris got the paper off of her for Annabelle, she just started squealing in delight and wanted her out of her box RIGHT THEN! After pulling and twisting under Annabelle's supervision, Chris finally released her and Annabelle was oh so happy. She could not stop hugging and kissing the baby, and she had a huge smile on her face!

Guess who's ONE today!

It's unbelievable...Annabelle celebrated her first birthday today! This year has absolutely flown by, and it's been just amazingly terrific for us.

Today was pretty low-key. We played this morning, then nap, then we went for a jog and played some more, then another nap. Then Grandma and Grandpa came over for a small birthday celebration. Annabelle had many presents to open and managed to get a few unwrapped with some big help from her dad. She was really more interested in the wrapping paper than what was inside. I'm sure she'll eventually notice the toys though, and appreciate having some new things to play with.

We had dinner, then birthday cake that I made yesterday. By the time we had the cake, Annabelle was close to a meltdown, so she was absolutely not interested in digging into her piece. She maybe ate one bite, and didn't smear any icing on her face. Oh well! The evening did end with a meltdown. Annabelle pretty much skipped her naps yesterday, and I think it caught up with her today. By about 4:15, she was losing it. We finally gave in and she was bathed and sound asleep by 5:45.

So that's it for the big girl's birthday. I can't believe that a year ago right now, I was struggling to push that little baby out. It seems like just yesterday! Our love grows for our little girl each and every day, and she continues to amaze us. Our lives have been so full of love because of a tiny little baby girl.

What a Big Day!

Annabelle did some HUGE things today.

First, we were playing with a ball this morning and she pointed at it and said, "Ball." (Or "Bawl") I was afraid I was hearing things, so I pointed at it, and she said it again! She then said it many more times, and even said it later in the day for her Grandma when we were pointing at it.

Then at Gymboree with Dad and Grandma, she looked up at the bubbles and said, "Bubble," or something like it. She then said it later this evening for me.

After dinner tonight, Annabelle climbed Grandma and Grandpa's stairs by herself three times. Thank goodness we don't have stairs. And each time she reached the first landing, she'd turn to everyone and smile and clap. She was so proud of herself, and so were we!

On the move...

Annabelle is really mobile these days. Besides being a VERY fast crawler, she is pulling up on everything and cruising. She is constantly standing up. And with this new ability, there are a lot of falls too. We're always having to comfort her cries and kiss her boo boos. Last night, she smacked her upper lip on the bottom of our bed and looked like Angelina Jolie for a while because of the swelling. It's all better today though! Good thing, because her dad's heart was breaking last night when it happened!

And our little girl has 8 teeth now...four on top and four on bottom. She can eat most anything because she is pretty good at chewing things, even though she's not really supposed to have that ability until her molars are in. She's also making attempts at more words. This morning she was calling her pacifier her "pa pa," she barks at Gatsby, and she called my mom Nana several times this past weekend.

It was one year ago today when I had my nasty fall and landed on Annabelle four days before she was born. I'm SO glad that everything came out OK with that. We sure are thankful for our precious Christmas angel!

Peek-a-boo!

Bathing Beauty

Updates, updates

I've been slacking lately. I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I've posted to our little girl's blog! Sorry about that.

Let's see...there has been a lot going on, as always. Annabelle is doing great. She did have a rough week in there where she was sick and EXTREMELY grumpy, but she seems to have come out of it the last couple of days.

One of the cutest things she's doing now is pointing at everything. She wants to know the name of everything. She's just filing all of the information away in her brain for when she decides to start talking. She's so eager to point, she always has her little index fingers out ready to go. And she loves to point at things at say, "oooooohhhh."

We've been going to a lot of play dates, and even hosted one at our house. Annabelle enjoys them for a little while, but she finally reaches a breaking point and throws a fit if we don't get to a quiet place immediately. She also loves to be the center of attention. Yesterday afternoon at a playdate, she was screaming and crying because she wanted to leave. When we decided to go, the whole room of moms stopped talking and started waving and saying goodbye to Annabelle. She immediately brightened up and started smiling and performing. And of course, waving like crazy. I think we have a future Oscar-winning actress on our hands.

Her crawling is crazy fast, and she loves to get into anything she's not supposed to. And she's pulling up on things a lot and standing. No real "cruising" yet, but it's right around the corner.

It's unbelievable that she's going to be one in a little over two weeks. She needs to stop growing up!