One year old. My tiny baby is ONE YEAR OLD. I'm not even sure I understand how this happened... it seems like just yesterday, I was finding out I was pregnant... and the next thing I know, nine months had passed, and I was delivering her... and now 12 (!!!) more months have passed, and she's already a toddler and no longer a little baby. Life sure isn't fair that way.
We celebrated Annabelle's birthday two days early over Labor Day weekend so family could be in town. It was small since nearly all of our friends were traveling for the long weekend (they don't get many breaks in pilot training, so when they have the opportunity, they take it!), but it was so much fun anyway. Little Miss enjoyed all of the attention, getting to be outside, and of course her cake and ice cream.
I think we created a monster, though. She now loves sweets. Oops.
The next day, we all went swimming in the hotel pool that my family was staying at. Annabelle just loves being in the water, so we knew it'd be a fun birthday activity for her. She loves her whale, but she also loves trying to dive out of it. Little Miss Independent just wants to do everything on her own.
After swimming, we went to Braum's, where her great grandma got her some blue birthday cake ice cream - her first time eating ice cream at a restaurant! She loved it and kept diving in for more with her mouth open.
Dan and I had an unexpected date night after all of that since family was around to watch Annabelle. We had a fun time, but then I realized how upset I was that I didn't get to put her to bed myself on her last night as a little baby... so we snuck into her room when we got home so I could take a picture of her last sleep before she turned one. Look how peaceful and angelic she looks. Aww. And that was her last night in that size of pajamas too - she's now fully into the 9 month size there! My sweet tall girl.
When she woke up, we had a little balloon party in bed! Dan helped me blow up all the balloons the night before, and she was so amazed at them. I don't think she'd ever seen one, let alone played with one, before. She loved having them around, and we let her play for about a half hour (supervised, of course). Her little face is filled with such joy!
Before her grandparents and great grandma had to leave town on her birthday morning, we took Annabelle to Cracker Barrel for the first time, and she really enjoyed it. She ate SO MUCH FOOD (which she totally does now - she eats constantly all day long... I have no idea how she's so small!) and waved at every single person who walked by our table. She's such a flirt.
I can't believe that in one year, she's gone from the teeny tiny baby in the center to a big(ish) one year old! Time sure does fly once you have a sweet baby to spend all your time with.
I won't be posting monthly updates anymore because it seems like overkill now. I really wanted to record her first year with as much detail as possible, though. Thanks for following along as I did that! I will still share about Annabelle, of course, and post lots of pictures... and I'll probably make an update post about her every three months or so.