1 Year

Wow, a year flew by! Aurora's birthday was very special - we had a lot of fun celebrating at her party and then on the actual day, but it was very emotional for me too. I am excited for my little angel to grow up, but it was a little sad to realize that time has passed and she will never be that age again or be in those stages again. Part of me is very happy about that - this year has been exhausting, but there are definitely things that I miss already - like her falling asleep in my arms and on some days I miss her not being mobile :) In a few weeks I am going to start weaning and as much as I am looking forward to having my body back (and eating what I want!) I know that there is a part of me that is going to miss it...

But on to happier things. Stupid first paragraph is making me cry already. I am such an emotional wreck when it comes to Aurora. EVERYTHING makes me cry. I need to stop already. Anyway - we had her party the Saturday before her birthday and we were so lucky to have so many wonderful friends and family there to celebrate with us. Aurora was such a good girl and she dove right in to the cupcakes that I made. I don't think she ate much of them but she had a good time making a mess. And I think she prefers vanilla to chocolate. Weirdo, but I guess she takes after her daddy.





On her actual birthday on Monday my Mom and I took her to the Tucson Botanical Gardens to see the butterflies. Sooooooo pretty! And there were so many! Aurora seemed pretty interested. She was also very in to the little train model they had there and in to trying to eat the cemented in rocks on the pathway. She managed to throw her stuffed panda into the water in the butterfly exhibit but then still insisted on carrying him around with her afterwards. Gross. She feel asleep in the car right away afterwards and then we woke her up so we could go to the puppy place since she likes dogs so much. But it was closed! Even though it was supposed to be open! I was frustrated that we woke her up for nothing. We had Greek food for lunch (yum!) and then went to the mall afterwards so she could play in the kiddie area. She slept in the car on the way home, but that was the extent of her napping for the day. Nick got home a little early to play with her and she was super grumpy for the rest of the day - overtired :( But she had cake pops so that made her happy for a little bit.





At her 1 year doctor appointment she weighed 21 lbs. which puts her in the 55 percentile and she was 29 1/2 inches and in the 65 percentile. Developmentally the doctor said everything looks good and she is healthy - hooray!!!!! She had to get more shots and it was so sad. She screamed so much and her arm even got bruised this time :( I bought her her first Starbucks afterwards. Kid's chocolate milk (with half the chocolate and with whipped cream. So yummy) She didn't drink much of it, but she liked playing with the straw.



Aurora is walking very well now. I let her walk as much as I can - even in stores which means shopping takes me that much longer because she wants to touch everything. And pull everything off the shelves. And bring everything with her. She spends the days at home just walking across the house with stuff in her hands which means our house is a mess and I can never find anything. She is my little tornado.

I feel like in the past week she has really started to catch on to things quickly. She points to her head when we sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and knows that if she points to her head I will turn the song on for her. She also knows where the CD player is and will walk over to it and point when she wants the music on. She opens and shuts her hands and claps when I sing that song and she claps and does the hooray part for "If You're Happy and You Know it." She does the wheels on the bus motions and when I ask her to sing she says "lalalalala" Hilarious. She doesn't really say any words yet other than Mama and every once in a while she will say dada. She seems to be trying to say dog sometimes but really only gets the da part and will sometimes say ba for ball or something blue. So not much to report in the talking area. But she knows who all of her stuffed animals are and will bring them to me when I ask her to (I have to use their names though - green monkey means nothing - I have to call him Mr. Pickles). And she has started to point to things that she likes in books. And she turns the page when I ask her to.

She is becoming a somewhat difficult eater. All she really wants to eat are goldfish. She would eat those all day if I let her. She knows what the package looks like too and she started freaking out the other day because the lady next to us in the store had them in her cart. She doesn't love prunes and fights me every time I try to feed them to her. Unfortunately she really needs to eat them - they are the only thing that keep her regular :) She really likes yogurt though and most fruits and veggies are OK, but she will only eat so much of them... She also does not like carrots. Or bananas. Baby food bananas are OK, but not big girl bananas. And avocado is still one of her favorites.



Well, I am off to go pack now. Aurora is taking her first plane trip on Monday - should be interesting. Nick and I aren't really looking forward to the flight, but we should have fun in HAWAII! I'll post pics when we get back :)