Birthday Girl

I can't believe Savannah's birthday was over a month ago and I'm just barely getting around to writing about it! Thankfully, I am finally done with school for the summer so I can start writing more regularly on this blog. 

Savannah's birthday was going to be while we were in California for our trip to Disneyland (I'll write about our trip sometime later this week, just as soon as I finish editing and organizing the photos). And since we would with with my in-laws there, I decided to throw an early birthday party for my family here before we left. I didn't want to do anything big because, well, we were going to Disneyland for her birthday haha! So I decided to just have close family for dinner at the Pizza Factory and then cake and ice cream at home afterwords. 

Sorry, but there are a ton of photos and I figured it would be easier to upload them all in groups. I particularly love that one of my cousin Coleman reading Savannah the Elmo book she got!

 

 

The cupcake on the left was for Savannah, the cake on the right was for everyone else.

 

Taking her first taste of her cupcake. She didn't like that the frosting stuck to her fingers and she kept trying to wipe it off on her high chair.

 

I was expecting her to dive in and destroy that cupcake, but she didn't like how messy it was. Bryant eventually tore it up in pieces to try and get her to eat those, but she mostly just wanted to share.

 

She only took a few bites, but she was really cute!

 

She also really enjoyed opening up her presents!

I still can't believe that I have a toddler. It's even harder to believe that I've been a mom for a year! Crazy! 

One Year

I can't believe it's been a year since I got up to make myself some toast, and turned to Bryant saying "I think we need to go to the hospital". Seven short hours later, Savannah was looking into my eyes and my life was changed forever. It was almost like in the story of the grinch, my heart felt like it grew 3 sizes. I was so in love with her, and I felt as if I already knew her, like we were re-uniting after 23 years of being apart. I can't imagine life without her in it. 

 (When I first found out I was pregnant. I think I was 7 weeks along in this photo. When she was still the size of a grain of rice! Oh how I wish I had that body back!)

(Exactly 39 Weeks along, taken the night before I had her!)

 This last month has brought a lot of new, exciting and funny developments for Savannah. The biggest being that she is walking...well, kind of... She can walk short distances and often likes to walk from the chair to the coffee table, from the coffee table to the couch, from the couch to the nearest person. She's even getting braver and will stand up by herself and attempt 5-10 steps into wide open living room before she topples over. It's been so fun to see her test her boundaries and push them. Within a couple of weeks (or days!) I think I will have a busy walking girl on my hands!

 (Just a few days old! Wearing her biliblanket to help with her jaundice. She slept with her arms like that for months and hated being swaddled!)

(I think she was around 5 months old in this photo)

 She is becoming such a copy-cat these days. I am an avid user of lotion and Chapstick and she loves to put them on all by herself! She can also brush her own teeth (all four of them...) and brush her own hair (all ten of them...)(kidding... She's actually getting enough hair for me to clip a bow or flower in it. Not that she keeps them in long or anything though.) She even likes to pretend to put makeup on like mommy! She's such a smart cookie! 

 (One of my favorite photos! She was around 6 months old and getting ready for her first Disneyland trip!)

 She is still a champion eater and prefers the food you are eating as opposed to her mashed up baby food. For months she has been a self-proclaimed vegetarian and hated anything with meat, but she happily ate some ham slices the other day! Her favorite things to eat are girl scout thin mint cookies, marshmallows, and freeze-dried yogurt. If your have any of those within her sight, you had better give her some before she has a meltdown! We have also finally switched her to cows milk as of last week. I had been kind of putting off the switch for a while because I know so many people who really struggled to get their kids to drink cows milk, but she polished off the entire bottle like it was no big deal. I am so happy that I don't have to buy formula and mix bottles anymore! 

 (Another favorite. Probably around 6 months old here too.)

 She is finally back to sleeping through the night (hallelujah!!!) we found that sticking a big stuffed animal in her crib helps her feel like she is sleeping next to us and she's only gotten up once in over a week and that was while we were on vacation. She's also gotten into a really amazing sleep pattern, where she's been sleeping in until 10am, taking a 2 hour nap (instead of two, 1 hour long naps) around 4pm, then going to bed around 9pm. It's amazing!

 (Around 9 months)

(Her blessing day. July 2011, at 3 months old in Mt. Shasta California)

 It's been an exciting year. Savannah has taught me patience, she has taught me unconditional love, she has taught me to celebrate little achievements, no matter how small they seem. She has brought so much joy into my life that sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with happiness. She opens my eyes to just how amazing our little earth is. Everything is still new to her and it's fun to see life how she sees it. She has all of the personality traits I wished I had. She's not afraid to go after what she wants, she loves EVERYONE, she's tender and caring of people (and stuffed animals), she forgives quickly and acts silly just to see people smile.

 (1 Year! At her birthday party enjoying a cupcake!)

I love her so much it feels as if my heart could burst!

Happy Birthday beautiful girl!

(Sorry for the lack of posts! I've been busy with birthdays, vacation, work schedule changes and school finals. Hopefully I can catch up soon!)