How a year has passed since sweet Ellie was born,
I do not know!! But it has been the most AMAZING year of our lives! Hopefully
hers too ;) I have learned and grown in so many ways and my heart has never
been so full ♡♡♡ We love our girl SO MUCH!
Let's talk about the birthday
girl! At 12 months, Ellie:
• Does her scrunched up nose smile all the time and it kills me
every time!
• Is a chatterbox! She is literally talking nonstop. She is still
using her own little language but she is VERY expressive and even uses
facial expressions and hand gestures when she's talking. I wish so badly I
could understand all of the important things she tries to tell me!
• Is sooo close to walking on her own! She wants to walk all over
the place, but still wants to be holding our hands. She's getting faster and
more steady and is standing on her own more so I'm just waiting for
her to take off on her own one of these times. My parents got her a walking toy
for her birthday and she loves walking it all over the house (and
neighborhood!). You can tell she just feels so big walking 'on her own.' :)
• Is loving table food more and more! She just can't get enough of
it! She's still eating some baby food but is transitioning to just our food.
Her current favorites are cheese, cheese, and more cheese! Haha, really though,
that girl would eat cheese all day if we let her! She also loves beans,
potatoes, and anything that mom or dad is eating.
• Has a newfound love for water! (Hallelujah!!) It's been over a
hundred degrees every day for the last couple of weeks (and is going to be for
a while!) so we are SO grateful that she decided water is actually pretty
awesome. I don't know what we would have done all summer if she hadn't! We got
a little pool for our backyard that she thinks is the greatest thing ever, but
she REALLY loves going to the splash pad/river downtown because she can watch
all of the other kiddos!
• Loves drinking out of her water bottle and out of straws!
• Loves reading! She can't sit still and read for quite as long
anymore but we still spend some time each day at the book cabinet. She intently
looks at the pages as I read, turns the pages on her own, and jabbers along as
we go through the book. My favorite is when she'll sit and 'read' stories to
herself :) Whenever she sees a book, she'll hand it to me and plop down in
front of me so that we can read it. Some of my favorite memories! Her current favorites
are Shoe-la-la; Quiet, Loud; Daddies are Awesome; and Little White Fish is
Happy.
• Loves to pinch mommy--ouch!!
• Loves loves loves other kids and babies! She's super friendly
with kids and gets soooo excited whenever she sees a kid or baby! Sometimes the
kids don't know how to react because she's so tiny and so full of personality
haha. She's also great at sharing! When she's with a 'friend' she'll just hand
all of her toys to them over and over :)
• Is a busy bee! Nightly baths are essential since her main form
of transportation is still crawling-- her knees and the tops of her
feet are basically black by the end of each day. She's very curious and can't
sit still for long! If she notices that one of us has left the room, she'll go
find us and if we're in the bathroom she'll knock and stick her little fingers
under the door hahaha
• Is still the waving queen! She waves at everyone (and
everything!). She still loves to clap, too! If she hears clapping (or any noise
that sounds remotely like clapping) she can't help but start clapping
herself! Or sometimes she'll just start clapping if she sees something that
she's impressed with-- or if she does something that she thinks we should be
impressed with :)
• Loves to take things in and out of other things (does that make
sense?). She loves to put a bunch of toys into her Easter basket and then hold
it upside down in the air, dump it all out, and start over!
• Is mastering her pointing which is extremely helpful!
• Learned how to give high fives but about half of the time she'll
just touch your hand with her pointer finger
• Folds her hands for prayers (unless food is already on her
tray--then there's nothing that will keep her from digging in!)
• Dances whenever she hears music! Her favorite song is currently
Despacito.
• Loves getting messy! She does not mind a dirty face and hands
and can't help but stick her fingers in her baby food every time!
• Loooooves shaking her head no and thinks it's hilarious!
Probably because we laugh whenever she does it ;) I don't think she fully
understand what it means yet but she does it at the best moments and we can't
help but laugh!
Now,
a little recap of her big day! Ellie gave me some birthday cuddles when
she woke up (my favorite part of the day!) and then was very excited to
watch her birthday videos from daddy, grandma and grandpa, and some of her
cousins! She watched them over and over and over with the biggest smile on her
face :) After breakfast, we headed to the park to play in the grass and, of course,
do some people (and puppy) watching-- Ellie's favorite thing. When daddy got
home from work we set up her new pool out back and let her try it out! She has
not been very fond of the pool when we've taken her there so we were a little
worried, but she loved it!! She kicked and splashed like crazy and was so
happy! And I was happy because now we can spend some time outside this summer
:) For dinner, she had chili and cheese (her two very favorite things!) and
then we played for a while while our food settled. Oh! and she opened her
presents! She got her presents in the mail from her pop pop & grandma
Sue and her Oma and she was so excited to open them on her own! She loved
everything that she got and had lots of fun playing with all of it :) That night
we went to 25 Main for cupcakes since we're having her smash cake at her little
party next week. We unwrapped the cupcake and set it in front of her and she
didn't hesitate before grabbing it and eating off all of the
frosting! After she finished off the frosting, she went face first into the
cake :) All in all, I think it's safe to say she LOVED it and it was possibly
her favorite part of the day! She was a mess when it was all said and done
which I think means it was a success ;) We didn't want the night to
end there so we took a little walk down main street and ended up at the
river/splash pad! We took off our shoes and walked down the river and Ellie was
(once again) in heaven. Have I mentioned how happy I am that she loves water
now? ;) We counted up our change and were even able to ride the carousel
at the park before the night was over. It was a magical, wonderful day and I
wouldn't have changed a thing about it! As Ben said, we basically celebrate
Ellie every day but this one was extra special :) We love our one year
old!! ♡♡♡
We can't wait for many more years and adventures to come, Ellie Grace! ♡
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