The Saturday after her actual birthday, we went and had professional pictures done at UNC's campus. We should be getting the proofs soon and I can't wait to see them! Although it was about a million degrees at 9:00 a.m. so we'll probably all look extra shiny.
Later that day, we had her birthday party. I thought it turned out really well! We resisted the urge to go overboard and invited friends & family over for some burgers & dogs...and cake of course! After polling FB, I ordered the cakes from Harris Teeter and was very pleased. Apparently if you order for your one year old when you're still pregnant, you can get the little "patty cake" for free. I did not plan so well in advance so I just paid the $6 for it. And it was worth it because she loved it!! Mostly the icing...she was peeling off handfuls of it and stuffing it in her mouth. But hopefully someone got some cute pics and will actually pass them along (???).
We had a good crowd though and it was really nice because all 3 of Lainey's great grandmothers (2 of them getting ready to turn 92!) were able to be here for it.
So what has Lainey been up to lately? Generally being cute & sweet and doing all of her "tricks." She still likes to do animal noises and she babbles all the time. She is quite adept at cellphone usage and can navigate her Aunt Lala's iPhone without issue. Her new thing is texting...she gets my phone and does those little thumbs. Ah, they grow up so fast these days!
We transitioned to milk & sippy cups only without issue which I was pleasantly surprised about! We'd been giving her water in a cippy cup for awhile now and for the last two weeks before she turned one, we made her last bottle of the day half with whole milk. Since she did fine, the doctor recommended just going cold turkey to all milk and no bottles. So we did and she seems perfectly happy with that!
She's also getting better & better at signing. She picks them up so quickly now! I showed her the sign for "sleep" just once and she now does that when I ask if she's sleepy. Not that it isn't obvious though because she will come over to me and lay her head in my lap or get the blanket off the couch and rub it on her face. :) So sweet! She also signs "more" and "hungry" and "please." The other day, I fed her lunch and then ate my own. We had similar lunches except that she had lima beans while I was having leftover mashed potatoes. She was really acting like she wanted my potatoes so I let her have a bite. Well, then she starts emphatically leaning over and going "uh! uh!" so I said, "What do you say?" and she signed "more" & "please" back-to-back. So obviously I had to give her all my potatoes because it was just so cute. The best was when I said, "That's right. More please!" and she signed "more" again and then said "eeese!" That kid sure is cute. Not that she isn't fully aware of that fact! :)
She's also getting a ton of teeth (at least 3 up top) and growing some more hair. It's a little slow to come in, but there are funny long strands now and the back is filling in nicely.
I can't believe she's already one. I must say, it's been a pretty awesome year! My only complaint is not getting to spend enough time with Troy & Lainey but maybe one day our schedules will slow down a little more to allow us more family time. For now, I'm just enjoying what I've got! :)
