She's a big ONE!!

My baby turned a year old today, hard to believe but it is true. We had a really fun day too! The morning was pretty average besides the fact I sang Sophie Happy Birthday several times. But Dan came home from school at noon and Sophie's friends arrived at 1:00. She had 9 of her friends over for a little party to celebrate! I was worried about having enough for the older ones to do since we just have baby toys, but Dan blew bubbles for them on the porch and they had fun playing with balloons. Then they helped Sophie open her presents from the family (I told them not to worry about bringing a gift since Sophie wouldn't really care and she doesn't need much.) The older kids were much more into it than Sophie, she did a little pulling on the paper but would stop to play with the paper she pulled off instead of proceeding to unwrap the present. Then we all ate cupcakes, this was definitely the highlight of the day for Sophie! She really liked it, she polished off two cupcakes leaving only the frosting on her face and the crumbs on her tray that were too small to pick up and eat!! I'm sure she would have eaten more had I let her. (By the way, she is wearing two hats in the pictures because her "I'm One" hat wouldn't stay on as well as the other hats, so we just put it on top.) Sophie was eating for longer than the other kids and when they were done they went in the living room to play with Dan, while the moms all stayed and talked in the dining area, leaving Dan to take care of all the kids by himself! I didn't notice for awhile because I was so busy getting pictures of Sophie eating her cupcakes, poor guy. He did a great job with them though, and promptly took a 2 hour nap as soon as they left! He was exhausted.

I also completed her teddy bear collage with her 12 month picture, it includes a picture of Sophie every month next to the same teddy bear, the first one was taken when she was a week old and the rest are pretty close to her "monthday's". It's fun to see her grow! I can't figure out why some pictures won't enlarge when you click on them, but I noticed this was one of those so click here if you want to see it bigger.

One of my favorite things that Sophie has learned to do in the past month is baby signs. I've been signing to her since she was around 6 months old so I have been so pleased to see that it finally clicked! She can sign a handful of words including: food, more, mommy, thank you, hat, finished, and signing time (the name of the videos she watches, although she signs the same thing for any movie!). I have to say that it has come in handy, although she won't sign for me on demand when she knows I already know what she wants. She mostly signs when I am not already meeting her needs, which is when it is more beneficial anyway. But it would be nice if she'd do it for the video camera though! :) She's getting better at walking but doesn't want to do it on her own yet. She will if I trick her into it but if I stand her up and ask her to walk to me she will just cry, I think it scares her. So I'm not pushing it for now. She gets smarter everyday and never ceases to amaze me! What a blessing she is!!

It was a beautiful day today so to finish it off we went out to the "playground" (if you can call it that, it consists of some monkey bars, a slide, and a bench) in our apartment complex. It was so great to get some fresh air. Sophie REALLY liked holding onto the monkey bars, as you can see.

Many thanks to: all of Sophie's friends for coming over to celebrate with us; Grandma and Grandpa Quincy for the card and gifts; Grandma Nina and Grandpa Tom for the books, clothes and card; Uncle Brian and Auntie Ann for the gift; and to everyone who called to wish Sophie a happy birthday! We love you all and are glad you are a part of Sophie's life!!