12 months

At 12 months, Piper is:

• crawling, cruising, climbing, pushing, pulling, but not walking.
• saying "quack", "clock", "coo coo" (for the clock in the dining room), "ma" (for milk), and "dog" (I think!).
• eating all table food and drinking whole milk from a cup.
• only nursing once a day (in the morning). This will cease in a few days as I give my body time to adjust to a succession of dropped feedings.
• sleeping from 7:30 PM to 7:30 AM.
• napping twice a day for 1.5 to 2 hours each time.
• making a mess of everything she can. We frequently refer to her as a tornado.
• chewing her crib to pieces.
• growing teeth. She now has five!
• grinding her teeth (and making my skin crawl!).
• actually snuggling a bit with us. I attribute this to ceasing nursing. She now needs to get her cuddles a different way.
• having entire conversations on her pretend phone.
• throwing EVERYTHING. We are currently working to learn the phrase "No throw!".

reading the paper with Daddy

She loves emptying this drawer in the kitchen.

I'm not sure who thought this was a good idea. Thank goodness for the shirt bib!

Outside

We have had two days of wonderful weather (especially wonderful for February), and Piper and I have enjoyed relaxing on the porch in the afternoons. Here she is sitting in her own little adirondack chair. She's come to really like adult things that are just her size.

Birthday Party Pictures

We were so excited to share the joy of Piper's birthday with family and friends back home last weekend. My good friend Christan graciously photographed the whole party so Josh and I could simply enjoy every moment. Christan did a fabulous job, so this post is overloaded with pictures (and this isn't even a third of the ones she took!). By far, my favorite part of the evening was when Piper experienced the whole crowd singing "Happy Birthday" to her. She loved it and beamed from ear to ear!

Squeaky clean

Wordless Wednesday

A year in pictures

I made this video to show at Piper's birthday party. Be sure to watch it "full screen" to see the entire picture.

New 'do

This is what happens when you try to style your hair with chicken and dumplins, macaroni and cheese, and pears. Pretty sweet, if you ask me.

Birthday at Piper's house!!!

What an awesome day! Piper is now a pro at opening presents and making a mess out of cake and icing. She's sure to put on a good show at her big party on Sunday! We had a quiet evening at home, just the three of us. She seemed to like her cake and the presents we got her.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love my birthday--I like to celebrate for the entire month instead of just one day. Well, today definitely topped every birthday I've ever celebrated. I never thought I'd be able to say that I enjoyed someone else's birthday more than my own!

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

As of 12:24 this afternoon, Piper is officially a year old. It is an absolutely beautiful day here in Nashville today, much nicer than I remember the weather being last year on this day. Piper had a wonderful morning playing and then had her doctor's appointment. My little munchkin is still small and mighty!

Weight: 18.6 lbs (10th percentile)

Height: 28.5 inches (32nd percentile)

I promise to do a sappy one-year post, but that's not going to happy today (or tomorrow, or probably not until her party is over and done with, for that matter). But here are some pictures from a little birthday photo session I tried to have with her. Piper is becoming more and more difficult to photograph because she simply won't stay still! I guess I'm going to have to enlist the help of the professionals if I want some decent pictures.

Josh and I can't wait to celebrate this weekend with family and friends!

It's been a year already?

Hooray!

It's my birthday!