1 Year

Libby turned one year old on December 27. I haven't yet taken her 1-year pictures, gbut I'm trying to get some creative ideas for it. Especially since it is the middle of winter and most outdoor pics (my favorite) are out of the question. Any suggestions?

For her birthday party, I constructed (with the help of Matt) a year of pictures of Libby, the best from each month. I thought since I had them all together that I'd go ahead and post them here:

Gabby did such a great job with both the photo shoots she did with us. I'm so thankful for these wonderful pictures during a time that I only had a camera that captured some blurry shots of memories. Thanks again, Gabby!

Newborn:

1-Month funny face!

1 Month
2 Months

2 Months adorable with Dad

3 Months

4 Month photo shoot with Gabby. Again, amazing pictures!

I couldn't decide which of these similar pictures I liked best. Her smiling, or concentrating face, so here they both are.

Serious face.

4 Months, Libby and her dog Rose.

5 Months. At the cabin with Aunt Boo.

6 Months in the sun at the splash park.

6 Months helping me with laudry. Sorry it's so dark, it's with my old camera. But her face its precious!

7 Months. At Advance, the Relay retreat.

7 Months in Charleston on vacation. I have a video from this night when we were eating dinner at the restarant. I watched it the other day and it made me miss my baby and realise how fast the last 5 months have gone and how much Libby's grown! I'll post the video at the end of the blog.

8 Months. On the Hughes' boat!

8 Months. After I got my new camera. The picture quality improves from here!

Adn so do the number of pictures that I have to go through! 8 Months.

8 Month photo shoot at the park. I had lots more adorable shots, but opted to just post one.

9 Months phot shoot in the fall. Again, hundreds of shots to go through, I only will post one.

9 Months at the cabin in NC.

10 Month photo shoot at a different park. 11 Months in the pile of leaves I raked.

11 Months at Cades Cove. One of my favorites!

As I said, I haven't done my 12 months photo shoot yet, so these are just a few from Christmas.

12 Months. Christmas at the Carr's.

12 Months. Playing in the snow.

It's fun to see the progession as she's grown over the last year. She's also learned so many new things. I'll try to list some of the stuff that she's doing now, but she's quite smart and I'm sure I'll miss listing several milestones she's reached. Where to start... She's learned some sign language. She knows 'eat', 'more' and 'all done'. She still sometimes gets 'more' and 'eat' confused and will often use both to indicate that she's hungry. Every time we go into the kitchen at Matt's parent's house, she does the more sign. I guess she really likes Mamaw's cooking!

She loves Rose and sits on her, pets and pats her, and hollers for her when she wants her to come over. She's recently started kissing her, and is so funny to bend over and try to kiss her on the mouth! She has mastered 'kisses' and 'hugs' much to our delight! She is very sweet and gives them freely. I think she gave every one of her little friends at her party a hug and most a kiss. I think it's cute how she'll normally do this unprompted.

She goes down great at night, though not so great for naps. She gives Mom and Dad night-night hugs and kisses then waves night-night to Dad. We lay her down and she cuddles right in and doesn't make a peep.

Shes's learning to eat with a fork and plate. We are trying to teach her not to throw the food she doesn't like or want on the floor, but we've got a ways to go with that one. And also to teach her not to throw her plate on the floor when she's done. I now sweep and/or mop the floor 2-3 times a day. She does like to 'dip' now. She dips her chicken in ranch and her fries in ketchup. It's cute to watch, but I haven't been able to catch it on video.

She is the exact same size and weight that I was when I was 1 year old. Which is funny becuase she started out about 2 pounds lighter than I was and maybe an inch taller. She's grown 8 inches since she was born, starting off at 20.5 inches and topping off one year at 28.5 inches. She's gained 10 pounds and 5 ounces since she was born and is now 18 pounds, 6 ounces. She has progressively gone down in her percentages, which concerns me only a little. At her one year appointment she was around 35% in height, and 15% in weight. She certainly is a little one, but I like her that way.

She's a little behind in her talking. She babbles away, but has yet to make much sense. She knows Mama and Dada, but doesn't use it often.

She's walking all over the place now and it's rare to catch her crawling. She's even given up walking from one wall to the other for balance and just makes a b-line for where she wants to go.

She's learning where her eyes, nose and mouth are and knows them moderately well. She also knows where her hair is and helps me brush it after baths. She tries to put clips in her hair, but hasn't figured out that you have to pinch it to open it. Her hair hasn't stopped growing and I'm learning new styles for putting it up. She's always got accessories in her hair out of neccesity so it's not hanging in her eyes. I think she's really going to like accessorizing when she's older because of this. She helps me dress her by putting her arms through and holding her feet up for socks. She does know where her feet are and where shoes and socks go.

She's learning to draw and one of her favorite toys is a Pilot G-2 pen. It's so cute to watch her try to draw on paper with it!

Well, I'm sure I've missed lots of cute things that she does now, but she's up after a nice long nap and ready for me to play with her. I also need to start packing as Libby and I are going with my parents to Florida this weekend and I have a busy week ahead of me.

She apparently knows what a nail file is used for as she just picked mine up and started filing her nails! I usually don't let her have it becuase it has a pointy end, but I thought I'd see what she did with it. She surprises me with how much she understands and is filing her nails as I type.

I'll post some pictures from her birthday party when I get a chance.

Here is the video of her at 7 months. :(

Snow Day!

We don't get much snow here in Tennessee, so when we do we take advantage of it!

Libby and I went out in the snow today and although we weren't able to make a snowman, we still had a good time!

Cute little hat borrowed from the Maples.

She was very curious about the snow.

She does great walking all over the place now. She can turn, and go where ever she wants!

She can even bend over and pick something up and then stand back up without assistance!

Here she is walking in the snow.

Little shoe prints from little tiny steps. :)

I made her as snowball and she was curious about it as well. She tries to mimick everything I do. It's so cute! I find that she's wiping her hands off a lot now, usually becuase I am. She didn't much like the taste of snow, I think it was more the feeling of it that she didn't like.

After some fun time in the snow, it was inside for some nice warm Beefaroni! So messy, and I just gave her a bath this morning! She sure enjoyed lunch, though!

She's learning to use a fork and she's picking it up fast! Thanks to my Mom for showing me all the new things that Libby can do, I just don't think to let her try.

One downfall to having a lot of hair, stuff gets in it! And when her hands look like her face does and she rubs her hair, it turns red! Most of it rinsed out. :) I guess I have to let her have some fun and get dirty sometimes. Needless to say, we don't eat a lot of Beefaroni.

I'm trying to figure out how to put movies on here from out video camera. If I ever figure it out, I'll post walking and snow videos.

Pink Bear and Baby Doll

Here is her pink parade bear with an eye patch.

Libby examining it.

Curious about the button eye.
She still loves it after all.

Can't you tell? :)
For Christmas we got her a baby doll. Since she loved the bear so much we thought it might be time for a doll. She loved it! She hugs it and holds it. We got a video of when she opened it. I'll see if I can post it some time. As soon as she saw it she hugged it, cardboard box and all.

I know it looks like she's eating the face off, but this is her giving kisses to her baby. Unprompted!

She loves her baby!

Libby gives great hugs and kisses now. It melts your heart when her little hands work their way back behind your head and she gives you a tight squeeze. So precious! We're still working on closed-mouth kisses but she's the sweetest thing!

Some Christmas pics

This picture is actually on the day after Christmas at Mamaw and Papaw Kelly's house (Libby's great grandparents). Libby posed for a picture, so I had to take it. :)

Christmas Eve at Matt's parents house. Libby's first go at opening a Christmas present.

"It's so big! And it's for me?"
Libby loved Christmas! She did great opening gifts, it just took her an hour for each gift. And then she was so thrilled with the gift, she wasn't interested in more. One gift would have been enough. It's too bad we don't stay this way. She did get the idea, though. She loved the bows the most and after opening a few of her gifts, she went around and collected the bows from everyone elses.

" I've got a long way to go if I only pull of these little pieces."

It's a Busy Ball Popper!

She loved it, but it scared her the first few times it went on.

It didn't take her long to figure it out. Before long, she was pushing the button to turn it on, sometimes still jumping when it came on. Then she figured out where to put the balls when the popped onto the floor. Now when she turns it on, she watches it, then goes and collects the balls that pop out and puts them back in. Hey, maybe it'll be good training for cleaning up! :)

Christmas is exhausting! She kept taking little rest breaks, laying on the floor. She cracks me up!

Santa Baby

Posing for the cameras.

She loved this little rocker at Mom and Dad Carr's house. She would get in it and rock, well really more of shake it, then stand up and climb back in, then turn around and sit down, then start all over again. I think we need to get one for our house.

We went to a parade in December with Matt's parents. Libby loved it! She kept watching everything go by. A few of the "floats" were throwing out stuffed animals. One person threw something to Libby, and Phil (Matt's dad) went and got it for her. It was a little pink fake carebear with heart on it. Not very cute and definitely not what I would have chosen for her to get attached to. But get attached to it she did! I've never seen her so cuddly with a stuffed animal. I think it was more sentimental because of where she got it than anything. But she would hug it, then pat it and rub it. She loved the thing! Matt says she's got a heart for the unloved. Long story short, Maggie (a golden retriever who loves to chew stuffed animals) got a hold of it and chewed a part of the face off. I need to get a picture of it now, because my sister patched it up real cute. I don't think it actually got any uglier than it was to start with. But it did scare Libby a bit at first. She would hug it when she saw it from the back, but then throw it away when she saw the patch! :) She's a little more used to it now, but hasn't started loving on it like she used to. Here's a picture of Libby and her Mamaw at the parade.

Christmas pics at my Mom's house. Funny face!

Cute pose.

Standing with a nutcracker.

Cute pose on a dog. :) How many cute poses does she have?

More to come, I've got a lot to go through!