12 months

Happy 1st Birthday to our precious baby girl! Mommy and Daddy are SO proud to be your parents and we thank the good Lord every day for the blessing he has bestowed upon us - you are hands down the best gift ever sweet child - we can't wait to see what the next years of your life have in store for you and for us! You are the light of our life, the joy in our hearts and the love we never knew we were capable of feeling. Our cup runneth over!

Who is 12 months old today?

So, how much has Catherine Ellis changed over the past 12 months - let's take a little walk down memory lane:

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months

So what's our 12 month old up to - we'll do 12 wonderful things and one to grow on:

• eating lots of foods - chicken, barbecue (yep, her Daddy fed her this one night while I was in class!), turkey, avocados are still a favorite, jello, yogurt - she seems to like just about everything. She's also starting to protest baby food - even the chunky kind - and she really wants to feed herself - she protests when you try to feed her.
• she's a pro-crawler - really if there were a contest she'd win it
• she's taking steps holding onto things - walks around the coffee table with effort
• she's extremely friendly - waves to everyone and smiles at most everyone
• she's a talker (imagine that!) - she has almost added "hey!" to her vocabulary
• she's sleeping most nights from 8:00 p.m. - 7:00 a.m. (thank you time change!)
• LOVES being outside - would rather be outside than anywhere else
• points in the direction she wants you to take her
• can give and take things with ease
• still LOVES her passie - this is going to be a hard, hard thing to give up
• has 1 molar and 8 teeth - and can bite the dickens out of you if she wants
• still napping 2 times a day when at home - morning and afternoon nap
• loves to hand you things, either trash on the floor, toys we need to pick up, newspaper, anything she can hand over to you

I say it all the time, but it's so true - she is the light of our life! Thank you Lord for blessing us - may the next 365 days be just as much fun and as exciting as the past! What a ride we are on! (be sure to check out the slide show on the post from this morning - it's below!)