Our Baby is ONE!



My darling girl, how can you possibly be ONE already?! Time just keeps flying, and you keep changing, and getting older, and the more I write, the older I sound!
 
My sweet bean, we had an amazing first birthday weekend - which of course we expected, because every day with you is amazing. You may read this when you are older and think that your Mom is being sentimental and that is the only way she could possibly believe that EVERY day is amazing, but I do not lie.
Miss Ava, we have some days with you where you want to be held all day long, and we have some nights with you where you want to be held for what seems like all night long, but if that is the most that we can "complain" about, that you want our love and you want to be close, I feel confident in saying to you that EVERY day with you is amazing.
 
 
We started your birthday with you with a trip out to Cultus Lake, your first time there. It was a day so similar to the day you were born - cold, crisp, sunny, and beautiful. The day that you were born, the sun shone in through the windows so brightly that we had to close the blinds to protect your eyes. Your birthday was the same, and we couldn't have imagined starting it any place other than outside. You have spent so much of your short life outside, near the water or tucked deep in the forest. We love the outdoors and want you to spend your life loving, exploring, and living outside.


 
Our sweet girl, the day after your real birthday, we had your birthday party. You were so lucky to have your cousins Kai, Lizzie, and Austen, their parents, your Gramma and Grampa, Nana and Papa, and friends Ryker, Jayda and Avery and their parents come and help you celebrate. You all had so much fun playing together and we loved every second of the noise and craziness.
You spent moments of your party a little bit on the edge, and a little bit overwhelmed by all of the action. When we offered you your first piece of birthday cake, you gave it a few touches, and a taste or two, and then promtly wanted the cake away from you and OUT of your high chair!

 
Our darling girl, you spent the better part of your 11th month being your Grampa's girl, so it was not much of a surprise that you spent much of your party in your Grampa's arms. It has been a long time since your Grampa has had a wee little girl love him so much and want to cuddle him so much - I think you are melting your Grampa's heart just a little bit. I think if you keep at it and continue to lay your head on his shoulder and give him hugs during your quiet moments that you will manage to melt his WHOLE heart.
 
We love your spunk Miss Ava, and we always have. Now that you are one, you are learning to voice your opinion, about all things, quite regularly. You like to yell and scream (in a fun way), and have really taken to using your voice to refocus your family squarely on you during those times when they have forgotten that their job is to watch you at all times.
You now LOVE being the center of attention, and you will stand up to dance or sit down and dance from your knees, and if you see that we are all watching you and laughing, you will step it up to something just a little bit cuter, like holding your toys and spinning in circles, grabbing your stuffies and laying down on top of them for a rest, or even speed eating in your high chair.
 
Sweet baby, as you started to near your first birthday, you also began to develop an understanding of affection, and your Mama could not be more happy about this! You like to cuddle while you eat a snack, or read a book, or even while there are sports on tv. You have really taken to laying your head down, wherever it may fall, to take a break from the crazy. You will lay your head on someone you love, but also on a stuffy, on your toy, on your music table, even on the laundry basket. It is quite cute, and we have a small feeling that you may take so many breaks because we encourage it with our "awe's" and our laughs.
 
Ava Irene, one week after your birthday, we took you to visit Sarah, who took some pictures of you in some pretty adorable outfits. We wanted some professional pictures of you, so that we would remember JUST how perfect you were/you are at one year old. This photo shoot was also meant to be a "cake smash," where you get to smash right into your birthday cake, play with it and make a mess. But it seems that you have decided that cake is just not your thing, and you just weren't into smashing up your perfect little cake. Perhaps next time we will offer you a fork. 






 
Baby girl, this has been the fastest year of my life, and I have a feeling that your whole life is going to go this way, and it leaves me with a bit of a pit in my stomach. Please slow down darling girl. Find a way to make time stop so that we can enjoy who you are at this moment for just a little longer.
Your Daddy and I, and every person that you meet, are so, so, very in love with you.



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