Lola is 1! We Made It!

365 days? The days have gone by slowly, but the year has flown - know what I mean?

365 days ago we went from this:

...to this:

...in a matter of 3 hours!

The "Babies for Dummies" websites say not be be offended if your child doesn't smile at you the first few months of her/his life, but Ms. Lolo was having none of that...

...and she has been smiling ever since.

She's pretty much gotten the hang of handling her rambunctious very-soon-to-be 3-year-old brother too. She's learning more everyday when to smile and laugh, when to scream for help, and when to fight back against his antics. I think these two will be the best of friends someday.

And TJ is a fan of anyone who will let him make fart noises on their arm, so Lola is A-ok in his book.

Lola is not quite walking yet, but does pull herself up on anything and everything - including people, dogs and curtains. She's also become quite the adept cruiser along the living room furniture - any day now she will be toddling around the house and life will change just a little bit more.

She still enjoys her bottles (onto whole cow's milk now, and doing great), her baby food (she loves the vegetables!), and oatmeal in the morning and before bed - but with a mouth full of chompers (including 4 molars!), she eats food from our plates at mealtimes and has been downing Cheerios and other kid-diet-staple cereals for months now.

What's that? How's she sleeping? Well...in my humble opinion - like a champion! 10-12 hours a night straight through since she was 8 months old, and she's still taking 4-6 hours of naps everyday. I seriously won the sleepy kid lottery! Maybe that's why she's so happy all the time - she's well rested!

Happy Happy First Birthday to the most cheerful sweetheart of a baby in the universe, we made it a whole year!