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. :(