Happy 1st Birthday Alethea Lenora!

              My baby girl has already been with us for a year! How is that possible?!  We have been so blessed to have such a sweet little girl.  Her personality is developing more and more each day.  Though she definitely is strong willed just like her Mommy, she is a super sweet little girl and brightens each and every day.  Her unofficial stats for the month are 21lbs 9.6oz and 31inches tall.  We go to the doctor on Friday for her one year check-up so we can confirm stats then. J  She is up to 5 teeth total now since she gained 3 this month.  She now has 3 on top and 2 on bottom.  She got her top right tooth on the 24^th of January, the top left on the 6^th of February and the tooth just to the right of the middle teeth on February 13^th.  She was making of for lost time and thankfully she has done amazing with teething so far.  We are praying she continues to be a trooper.

Oh how she has changed!

                I think she most definitely falls into the category of toddler now. She is all over the place walking and running and having a good old time.  Some fun things in mobility this month are that she can climb up onto the couch using a step stool and get down all by herself.  She loves this! (I have to make sure the stool isn’t by the couch when I don’t want her on it.)  She also loves to dance.  She bounces up and down to the music from her learn and groove and waves her head from side to side.  So cute!  It’s the funniest when she gets so excited dancing that she tips herself over.

She loves to run around outside

Playing around with Mommy's exercise bands

              Her eating this month has taken a minor turn towards picky.  She will eat what we have for dinner, and then not want to eat it the next time it is offered.  Plus she is refusing most all finger food veggies, so we are offering purees again as well as sneaking veggies into main dishes.  A few favorites this month have been meatloaf, macaroni and cheese of all types, grapes, blueberries, always cheese, and hot dogs.  She definitely has an awesome appetite which is going to make for a nice weaning process over the coming months, but she doesn’t always want to eat what you initially offer her.  And most everything must be something she can feed herself.  She is little miss independent. J  On a completely different, random note, she is now only taking one nap.  Her morning naps were getting later and later so we finally just had to make the switch since her 2^nd nap was getting so late.

blueberry face

My sleeping beauty

                One of her Daddy’s favorite things is that if you aren’t looking at her and she wants your attention, she has her own special method to get your attention.  She walks up to you and tilts down her head until she sees you eye to eye.  Both her and her Daddy get the biggest kick out of this.  He also loves it when she gets out her play phone, or even our phones, then tilts her head to talk on them.  Super cute!  We always joke that she is talking to her buddy Molly on the phone planning their next play date.

This is what she does to get your attention, except right in your face, lol

"Hey Molly, What's up?"

"Yah I just had to walk away so they couldn't hear."

                She has developed several new skills this month.  She is able to, with a lot of success, put tops on and off buckets, containers, etc. and she absolutely loves doing this.  She can stack the rings on her rock a stack and, surprisingly, they are often stacked in the correct order.  This month she has also discovered how to blow a whistle.  Thankfully she can’t blow it that loud yet so it’s still cute. J  She also loves to play with ice in muffin tins.  She uses a spoon, quite successfully, to move the ice from one tin to the next.  The last skill she has developed isn’t one I am necessarily as excited about.  She can open the child locks on our kitchen cabinets!  How is this already possible?! She doesn’t even do it by force. She sticks her little hand in and pushes down the lever just like we do.  Way too smart for her own good!  We have thoroughly enjoyed seeing her explore her world and pick up on things we don’t even have to teach her. J

Climbing into the drum is way more fun

Peek-a-boo

Baby Einstein

Must use the tongue in order for it to work properly :-)

And the tongue again

                A fun first this month was that we celebrated her first Valentine’s Day.  Leading up to Valentines Day last year we thought we were going to have Alethea beforehand so we thought last year would be her first. But instead we got to celebrate it this year.  We didn’t really do much for Valentines, but I did get her a shirt to commemorate her first V-day.  Her Mamaw also sent her some Valentines books, a bib and a fun Valentine’s outfit.  Mommy and Daddy are also looking forward to going out and celebrating this week while Mamaw and Papaw are in town for Alethea’s birthday and can babysit.

In her Valentine's bib

Her first Valentine's Day!

                So I think that is enough for now.  Mamaw and Papaw are in town to visit and Alethea (and Mommy and Daddy) are enjoying all the fun times.  Then we are looking forward to even more family coming in town this weekend to celebrate Alethea’s first year of life on Saturday.  And next Monday we are getting her one year pictures taken so we will have lots of fun pictures to share then.  What an amazing year this has been!

Reading with Papaw