Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Dear Alyssa -

Wow...tonight ended up being so much harder than I anticipated! My last "baby" turned 1 at 8:49 p.m. tonight.  We read together and snuggled until the clock turned to 8:49 when Daddy and I sang "Happy Birthday" to you. I am not usually emotional but it hit me hard that my baby was no longer "a baby" in terms of months.  You are now "1"!

You are so funny and keep us laughing.  You are really crawling fast now!  You try and pull up sometimes but don't do that long.  You can say "Mama", "My Mama", "Dada", "Buh-Buh" (for Brother), "Bye Bye" and "Uh-Oh".  You just learned how to blow kisses a few days ago :)

You wear size 3 Pamper diapers and 12-18 month old clothes.  You LOVE your Leap Frog alphabet letters that you inherited from Andrew and love pulling the magnets of the refrigerator.  You love books and playing "Pat-a-Cake". You also love brushing your teeth! You have a tiny rubber one that goes on a finger with soft bristles but you have that all under control.  You just crawl around with it in between your teeth too!

You have 5 teeth and are working on #6.  You love to bite - Mommy mostly.  On occasion you will bite brother but I seem to take the brunt of it.  We have figured out you bite when you are mad but mostly when you get excited or happy.  I guess I should take the biting as a compliment!

You LOVE LOVE LOVE your brother, Andrew.   He walks into the room and you light up!  He can say "hi" to you and you beam and giggle.  I can tell that you are definitely going to be following him around more and more as you get increasingly mobile!  Andrew loves you, too.  He loves to help with you and carry you around :)  He is VERY protective of you.  In fact, I had to "pop" you gently to tell you not to bite and he immediately quizzed me about that and wanted to make sure that I didn't hurt you.  Of course, I was just trying to get your attention and make a point (you didn't even flinch or cry!) but he had to make sure his baby sister was ok!


Your Mommy, Daddy & Brother love you so much! We are so Blessed to have you in our lives!

Mw-uah!xoxo

Roller Skating

This past Tuesday, we took Andrew to the skating rink to celebrate his friend's birthday.  Of course, Mommy had to get out there with her baby boy! After 20 years of having not roller skated - I landed on my rear and that was enough for me!

These pics are fuzzy but I love that they have these "walkers" for the beginners!  Of course, when I fell on my tooshy, Andrew called out,  "Mommy - you aren't very good.  You need one of these!"  Leave it to my son! :)

Crawling with Luggage

I thought this was too cute of Alyssa trying to crawl and drag Andrew's bookbag behind her... she LOVES him and I guess wanted to claim something of his :)

D.I.T. (Diva In Training)

Last Sunday, we decided to head to lunch and the mall after church.  While we were in Gymboree, Alyssa picked out a boa that we couldn't leave without...

Notice Andrew encouraging her "diva-like" behavior with the white fluffy coat? :)

ENT Visit

Andrew had a follow up visit with the ENT so the 3 of us headed over there.  While we were waiting in the waiting room, Andrew wanted to take a few pictures.  Guess which ones he took all by himself? :)

Zoo Time

On a recent Wednesday, the weather was perfect so we headed to an afternoon at the zoo.  We headed straight for my "Monkey's" favorite place :)

Mommy & Andrew's "Date" to the Arboretum

The Arboretum next to our house did a fall festival day for kids.  It was free to the public and had lots of fun crafts.  I thought it would be something fun & different for Andrew & I to do!

Rock Painting

Bubble Making