12 Months

We officially have a one year old!  I know everyone says it, but until you have a child of your own, it's hard to understand just how fast time flies watching your child grow up. We have been beyond blessed these past 12 months getting to see Ella grow, change, see her personality develop, and watch her discover the world around her.

I remember the day of her birth like it just happened...

...getting to hold her for the first time and feel her soft skin against mine.  I still get teary eyed thinking about those first precious moments with our beautiful, healthy baby.

And now 12 months later, she is our vibrant, silly, cuddly, sweet girl who is more of a toddler than a baby!  We took her to her one year appointment today and got her most recent stats:
Height 30 inches - 75th percentile
Weight  21 lbs. 7 oz. - 55th percentile
Head circumference 18 inches - 75th percentile

  I plan to continue giving updates on Ella's growth and accomplishments for my memory's sake, but this may be the last of her monthly updates. 

At one year old, Ella...

• still has no teeth.  At this point, we just hope she gets them someday!! Her doctor doesn't seemed too concerned about it.
• has been nicknamed "bug", "buggy", "boo-boo" and "Ella-belle".
• says and recognizes "mama", "dada", "dah" for dog, "nana" for banana, and "ba" for ball.  She is also very vocal in her grunts, growls, and babbling to communicate what she wants.
• will point to her head, toes, and belly button when we ask where they are.  She has recently discovered her belly button and loves pulling her shirt up to point it out to us.
• continues to love fruit and could eat cheese and bread all day (takes after her mama).  She's starting to become a little pickier about eating veggies (takes after her dad).
• will take 4 or 5 steps at at time on her own (we've counted she's taken about 10 steps at the most at one time) but prefers to walk hanging onto something or someone.  The first day she walked for a few steps on her own was 10 days before her first birthday.  She loves using her walker and is a little speedster when she pushes it through the house.  She still prefers crawling over walking and is a very fast crawler!
• loves reading books - especially books with pictures of dogs, and any sort of touch-and-feel book.  Her other favorite books include Snuggle Puppy, Jamberry, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?
• is still our strong-willed, opinionated little girl like she has been since the day she was born :).  She definitely lets us know when she wants something or doesn't want something.
• has been testing out the range in her vocal chords lately and will scream loudly just to hear herself scream :).
• is starting to show signs of attachment to mom and dad, but is generally still friendly and outgoing to new people.

 Using her walker - she insists on hanging onto her doggie with one hand while also trying to hang onto the walker

My little laundry "helper" putting her clothes in and out of her laundry basket

 Reading with daddy

Don't mind the blueberries on her face, but I had to document our first attempt at pigtails :)

I've yet to capture a good video of her new walking skills, but I caught a few of her cute, unstable steps ;)...

On Ella's birthday, we celebrated with blueberry muffins for breakfast and her birthday crown!

We had Ella's one year pictures taken by our friend and talented photographer, Karly Lee.  She captured so many beautiful pictures of Ella and I wanted to include some of them on the blog so that they would make it into our yearly book.

Happy 1st Birthday sweet Ella!  We love you more than you can imagine and are so blessed to get to be your parents!

Party pics to come...