Happy 1st Birthday!

This year has flown by!  It has been filled with an abundance of love, sleepless nights, excitement when she reached a new developmental milestone, sickness, laughter, tears, and joy.  My understanding of God's love for us has grown so much just since becoming a mom.

Ashlyn is getting so big and changing everyday.  At her 12 month appointment she weighed 18lbs. 6oz. and was 26 3/4 inches long.  She is in the 11th percentile overall - still a little girl for her age, but perfect.

Here are some things that she is up to these days:

-Still in size 6 months clothes

-Has taken a few steps before wobbling and falling down

-Likes to walk around holding onto one of my fingers.  When she wants to walk she will just grab one of your fingers and start going whether you are ready or not!

-Waves bye bye

-Eats mostly table food - however she refuses to eat the table food at daycare and will only eat her Yo Baby yogurt with fruits and vegetables

-Loves to hug and pet the cats.  The cats are not so much a fan of her.  They quickly move out of the way when they see her coming, but sometimes she catches them by surprise.
-Drinks from a sippy cup only now.  At Ashlyn's 12 month check-up our pediatrician told me that I needed to put away all of the bottles and only offer Ashlyn milk in a sippy cup.  She warned me that she would probably complain about it at first but to be tough and she would adjust in a couple of days.  She was right about the complaining part.  The first morning that I gave Ashlyn her milk in a sippy cup and not her bottle, she screamed for 15 minutes straight before giving in and drinking from it.  However, after a couple of days she was comletely fine with taking her milk from the sippy.
-Enjoys making big splashes in the bathtub
-Loves to snuggle and rock (I soak this in because I know that it will not last forever)

Here are some pictures from the last month and from Ashlyn's birthday party.

Ashlyn and Clay going down the slide at the zoo that goes through the otter exhibit.  We now have a zoo pass and are looking forward to utilizing it more since the weather is becoming cooler.  It's fun to watch her get excited when she is watching the animals. 

Ashlyn was helping to sort  the laundry.  She would pick up  one piece at a time and throw it behind her.  If only I was that excited about doing the laundry. 

We had Ashlyn's birthday party at our house with family and friends from church.  Ashlyn's birthday cake was from Simply Delicious.  It was strawberry and it was really good!

I thought that when it came to the gifts that Ashlyn would care less about them.  Boy was I wrong - she acted like she was a pro.  She was especially a fan of pulling out the tissue paper!  And after she was done unwrapping all of her gifts she started clapping her hands.

 

Playing with some wrapping paper.

Ashlyn and her friend Max playing with the swing that she got from Grandma and Pawpaw.

After the party I was in the kitchen cleaning up and came back into the living room to see this.  Ashlyn had climbed on top of this box on her own, and she was quite pleased with herself!