And Now She is One

My baby girl is a little one year old now! She has always changed so much from day to day but this last week especially I’ve been blown away by how different she is every day. She acts less like a baby, sleeps (finally and HOORAYYY!!!), takes just one nap, is so interactive with all people and animals, says two words consistently (kiki-which is what we call our cat, and dog. Yes, her first two words were kitty and dog! haha!) and sometimes says Mama and Dada. She gets her feelings hurt when I say “no!” (uh oh…do I already have an emotional girl on my hands? :/ ), almost has walking down and gives kisses and hugs a lot more freely. I could go on and on about all the little things about Stella that I love and adore but I really just wanted to share some photos of how we celebrated her first birthday!!

One of my best friends always says that the one year birthday should be a celebration for the parents as well because we survived our first year with our new babies. I like that idea a lot! Especially with the first one since it’s all so new and, at times, hard. But, let’s face it, since our one year olds can’t really voice their opinion or decide for themselves what we do for their birthday, it kind of is a celebration for us! At least I made sure Stella’s was ;) We wore party hats all day, we went to the zoo the next day, we took her one year pictures with lots of color and balloons, and we had a really big party!

I know a lot of people don’t really think birthdays are that important. They don’t see why they, or anyone else, needs to be celebrated so much, especially for a one year old. Here’s what I think: there is only one day a year that is just for you. This is the day we are all supposed to reflect on how happy we are that you’re a part of our lives! Every other holiday is for everyone (or everyone of a certain group anyway) and that is wonderful but your birthday is the one day every year that you are supposed to feel a special happiness that sets you apart from everyone else. I always feel that way on my birthday, and there is just nothing better! So I hope to pass that feeling on to my children. I want Stella to feel special and happy and important every single day but there’s just something magical about that one day a year when others really go out of their way to make that happen. So even though Stella won’t remember any of these things we did, I do think the happiness she felt that day, and the connection everyone had by being together and celebrating her, will influence her forever. There is never a good enough reason to not make memories with the ones you love.

So are you ready to see like one billion pictures?? Including a few sneak peeks of her party?! :D

That’s Stella’s new face. She does it when she sees loved ones, animals, and donuts.

There’s more where that came from..

So Stella’s actual birthday was a bit of a bummer day. Daddy had to work late and it was a week day so nobody had work off to come play with us or anything. So Stells and I just kinda hung out and she opened a few presents.

But the next day we went to the zoo and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here before but she looooves animals. So the zoo was heaven for her! She made her excited face many times and squealed at all the animals!

Then, about a week later, Malissa and Greg were here and they helped us get these amazing photos of Stella and our little family! I am so excited how they turned out and that we even got them, it seems like things like I never actually get things like this done (ha!)

Stella loves to play with her Daddy so I’m really glad we could capture that.

She was getting pretty grumpy by the end and that’s when I put this donut in front of her. Boy did that perk her right up! I don’t know how she even knew it was a special treat because she’s never seen one before but she sure seemed aware that it was something to be excited about! She sort of held it up and laughed and squealed and smiled at it for about 5 minutes before she even tasted any of it.

Oh my goodness, those two little teeth and that crooked smile are almost too much for me!

Then of course, the big finale, her animal cookie themed party!!

There will be a whole other post on this soon for sure so I’ll just show a few details now.

We had lots of fun circus games that the little kids really enjoyed. I’m feeling pretty bad that we forgot to break open the pinata thought! I had it all filled with goodies too…someday!

And here’s Stella with her best little buddy, Kenzie!

Some of our favorite people in the entire world were able to make it! We babysat this wonderful family for over a decade growing up and love them like our own nieces and nephews! It was so fun to see them again and I just love them being all grown up so we can talk about important things, like hair and boys! haha!

Again, Stella acted like she was in heaven when I handed her this cake. I’m pretty sure she’s never seen one before in her life but somehow she knew to be excited and she sure was!