1st Birthday

Adly's big day was on July 10th. Leading up to the day, I spent a lot of time fighting back tears and trying not to be overly emotional. Sadly, it's so hard not to be. There are many incredible things that have happened this year, as well as many challenging things. I just can't believe that a few days over one year ago, I was waiting very impatiently to discover who it was that had been living in my belly for 9 months.

To celebrate Adly's big day, we started with a breakfast of (roughly) heart-shaped pancakes. Thankfully, I have a few years to perfect proportionately shaped pancakes. I sang happy birthday to her as I brought out her pancakes. She man-handled the top pancake right away and refused to talk or look at me as she mowed down. Like father, like daughter.

Nom-nom!

After breakfast, we had a pretty normal day until da-da got home from golfing.

Looking for doggies outside. 

We had contemplated heading to the beach, or playing in the mini-pool out back, but our little sweet pea had other plans and decided to take an extra long nap. Therefore we nixed the trekking and mess of beach/pool time and instead took a long walk to my all-time preggo delight, Margies Ice Cream. This place is an ah-mazing old school ice cream joint. As an extra special treat, when you get ice cream in a cup, you even get a tasty little wafer to accompany it. What more could you ask for!? I frequented Margie's more often than I'll ever admit when I was pregnant. Therefore, I felt it was only fair to introduce Adly yet again, to the ice cream she made me crave like a mad woman for the better part of a year.

After ice cream, we felt we hadn't been gluttonous enough, so we headed to a new restaurant by our house and had ourselves a little birthday dinner. Adly's such a big girl now she gets to sit in her own high chair AND order off the kids menu.

And then, just like that, my little bitty baby became a toddler.

At one year old, Adly is still one of the happiest babies I know. She rarely cries unless she's teething, sick or hurt. She's a total mama's girl, which I have to admit, I love. Adly eats pretty much anything we give her, although her taste buds are definitely evolving. She seems to have the biggest dislike for vegetables, although she loves green beans. She's begun imitating pretty much anything you ask her to say, and just recently learned the words "no", "more" and "down". Hearing her say those words is so funny because most of the words she says are still just syllables. But to hear her say a real word correctly makes her seem so much older. Adly's latest trick is to tickle feet. She will grab my toes and say something along the lines of "tugo, tugo, tugo" and then giggle every time I howl from being tickled. She loves climbing to stand on anything/everything, yet she seems to have no interest in taking a step beyond that. We're working regularly on how to climb down from furniture and steps so that hopefully my heart can stop plunging into my throat every time she gets near the edge of the couch. Finally, she continues to be such a lovie. She loves to gives kisses to just about anyone, looooves other babies, and believe it or not, is even bringing back those fantastic snuggles we've lost in the last few months. (Okay, I use her blankie to entice her, but still...they're back!!)