Baby Girl turning ONE!

Our sweet baby girl will be turning ONE next week! I can't believe it! This year has just flown by.

I thought I would take the time to write down what she's up to.. if I don't do it now I know I'll forget.

At 12 months she is walking, practically running, and talking. She has her two bottom teeth and FOUR top teeth coming in all at once. My kids seem to get their teeth late. But she took her first steps, unassisted, at 8-8.5 months and has been walking everywhere since 9 months! She was my earliest walker.

She's been talking since around 5-6 months. Her first word was "mama" :) and her second word was "dada". She also says "bubba, nigh-nigh (night-night), nack (snack), doll, dog, dat (that), baa (bath), hi, bye, wuv you (love you) and probably some other things I'm forgetting. She just learned to hold up one finger when you ask her how old she is. We've been practicing so she's ready for her birthday. :) It's the cutest thing ever. :)

She has loved playing with cars and balls since she was really tiny so we call her our little tomboy. If she sees a little car or football she's all over it! We were visiting friends recently and she found a regular sized football sitting around (they have teenage boys). She was so excited and started trying to carry it around lol! So cute! She also keeps up with her 4 year old brother very well.

But she also loves girly things, loves looking at and "picking out" pretty outfits to wear and she absolutely LOVES baby dolls. We were visiting friends today and she found two baby dolls to play with right away. There was another little baby also visiting who was a little smaller than Baby S. Baby S saw this little baby girl sitting on the floor.. looking all the world like a little live baby doll.. and she ran over to her, started yelling in her face "doll! doll!" and tried to pick her up! It was hilarious and absolutely adorable! Fortunately the baby seemed un phased by the whole thing. :) S is quite the character from her loud voice, get up and go personality and her little temper. :)

She also loves music so much and tries to sing and dance. She's a great eater. She's been on table foods since 4-5 months. We did/still do purees but have also done a lot of solids and "real food" since early on. She has been a formula baby since birth and has absolutely thrived on formula.. as I knew she would. :) She still drinks a few bottles a day but we'll probably start cutting back soon.

She's wearing size 3 diapers (about to move up to 4, I think) and size 12 month clothes. She has yet to really wear shoes although she has too many pairs to count. :/ I think she's either size 4 or 5 in shoes.

We think she's going to be right handed. Before she was born I heard a theory that if you're right handed you'll have a cowlick on your head going in the right direction, if you're left handed you'll have a cowlick going towards the left. That was totally correction for my husband, our older kids and I. After S was born I looked for her cowlick.. anxious to see which direction her's was going. Well, she has identical cowlicks side by side.. one going right and one going left. You can imagine how fun it is to keep her hair neat with all that confusion and hair growing in every direction. :) Right after she was born I said she'll probably be ambidextrous lol! By the time our older kids were her age we knew if they were going to be left handed or right handed (even before we heard the cowlick theory) but with S we really can't say for sure although we're guessing it'll be primarily right although I'm thinking she has some ambidextrous tendencies as well. It'll be fun to see for sure as she gets older.

She has a ton of hair that has a lot of curl to it. Some days the curl really shows up and her hair is everywhere and then, other days, her hair is flat and smooth. I think it depends on the weather and humidity a bit.

She is quite a character and has quite the personality. Both of our girls are very strong willed and have nice little tempers (ahem.. not sure where they got all that) while C is pretty laid back like his daddy. S is charming, almost always happy, smiles easily, entertains herself all the time, stands up for herself very well, is VERY loud, has a ton of energy, is silly and cute and sweet as can be. I will try to post pics soon. I'd like to start blogging regularly again one of these days..