Newsletter-- 12 months

Dear Lylah, 

Holy Moly! You are a year old. This has been the best, craziest, most fun, most rewarding, most eye-opening year of our lives. You have came into our world, turned it upside down and made it better. You make our days brighter. We had it good before, but we had no idea what good was. There's a sign in our house that says: "We had each other. Then we had you. Now we have everything." That is very true for us! 

Your hair has gotten so long! I can fit it into pig tails. I LOVE this! It stays for .5 seconds, but it sure is worth it. You are getting a slight mullet, and maybe a few curls at the nape of your neck. But you are too cute for words. Your teeth are coming in so big! You look like such a little girl now! You have 8 teeth and I am starting to think you are getting more in the back. ESSSSSHHHK.

At your one year appointment, you had 5 shots! 5. TWO IN THE ARM. I was beside myself. I would have given you the shirt off my back if you had asked. It was really hard. And in true Mama fashion, I forgot your paci. I did that at your 6 month shots, too. It was a major Mommy fail. Whoops. But you made it through. You were smiling at the receptionist on the way out, so it can't have been that bad. 

You are above the 95 percentile for height. For weight you are in the 50th percentile. Tall and skinny! Mommy used to be tall and skinny! :) 

You LOVE people. If you are upset and someone comes up to say "hi" to you, you instantly turn on the charm. Sometimes you pretend you are shy. Sometimes you show off your words. Right now you can say hi, buh-bye, dog, cat, mama, dada, gege (gigi), up, cheese, okay, yes (but most of the time comes out "ass", much to our embarrassment), bruh (breakfast), cup, avocado (you've only said it once, but we were really excited) and this morning you said apple. You are definitely a talker. You also pat the Bible and say Bible. We know you learned this at church. You will "pat" (basically hit) anything we ask. And if we say "Pat some cakes" or "Yay!" you instantly start clapping. AND you just started yelling "Wee!" This was super funny on the plane.

You also say "do-do" when we show you Coach's picture. I see a possible name change in the future!

Here you are showing off some words in the bath. (This is in DC)

                                 

You still love books. You love to sit in the car with your books. I just keep a stack next to me in front and pass them back. You still ride in the car really well. You are such a good baby. Okay, not a baby. Toddler. But you are still my baby! :)

You still love to eat. Your favorites are cheese, grapes, strawberries, avocado, sweet potatoes and yoghurt. You are a happy girl with a full tummy! Right now you still breastfeed 4 times a day. We are working on getting you to three right now. You usually eat at 8am, 12pm, 4pm and then before bed. I love feeding you and plan to breastfeed you as long as possible. I'd like to feed you in the morning and the evening only. That would be my ideal. That way I can leave you during the day if needed without pumping. 

You walk everywhere now. In fact, you get really mad if you want to walk and you can't.

You finally mastered walking in shoes, which is very important for Mother's Day Out. They take you outside, so they need you to wear shoes. They are SO cute! 

You had your 1st birthday party! You had a good time. It was so fun to have your friends and family all there. You had an applesauce banana muffin/cupcake, and you loved it! I will post more about your birthday party later. Since then we have been on a vacation to Washington, DC...I'll post more about that, too..soon! :) 

You love giving big wet, open mouthed kisses!

You are one! We can't believe it! We love you so much, peanut. 

Love, 

Mom and Dad