My Baby Girl is 1!

On year ago today, at 2:46 am (I still think that she was born at 2:36a and in the insanity of her birth, there was a typo made for her birth time - I mean I did sign the consent for the Dr. to deliver my baby AFTER she arrived!), I met a little girl who changed my life in the most amazing way.  It is incredible to watch her grow from a completely helpless 6.5lb bundle into a thriving drama queen of a little girl with a thirst for adventure and an amazing ability to make me love her more and more each day.

Over the past few weeks, I have spoken with my sister and sister-in-law about the morning that she was born and when they found out.  Because of our my uncertainty about being in real labor and the time of our departure to the hospital, we didn't call anyone to let them know that we were leaving for the hospital.  And we didn't want to wake everyone so early in the morning so Michael and I had an amazing few hours with G when we were practically the only people on earth who knew that she had arrived.  Two things about our little lady that have not changed one bit from those first few hours - 1) she will let you know when she is hungry and 2) when she wants to eat, she wants to eat 5 minutes ago.

It was so fun to make our phone calls at 6am.  As promised, our first call was to my sister. When Natalie was in Boston for G's party, we reminisced about that call and how she only picked up the phone because, in her just awakened delerium, she thought maybe...just MAYBE...I would be calling her at such an unacceptable hour to let her know that Baby K had arrived.  I still smile to myself when I remember the phone call with my Dad and Mom.  When my Dad answered I told him he was officially a Papa to a little girl.  To which he replied, "You're in Labor!  You're on the way to the hospital?" (I blame the confusion on the 1 hr time difference between Boston and Tulsa...5 am is EARLY!).  When I corrected him to let him know that we were at the hospital, had delivered our baby and he had a granddaughter, I heard my Mom proclaim "It's a GIRL!  Praise the Lord!"  That should have been my first clue that Gabriella was going to be spoiled by her Nonna!  Michael's calls were just as sweet with his parents and siblings and we were fortunate to have them close enough to come and meet her on her birth day.

Sadly, because of the insanity of G's delivery, we have no photos of her from her first few hours since ALL of our stuff was in the car parked in the drop-off zone in from of the ER.  But, here are some sweet photos from the day she was born.

It is astonishing how much has changed in just 365 days - here is my 1 year old (so crazy to say that!)!

We go in for our 1 year appointment early next week so I will update height and weight after.

Gabriella is walking and talking (jibber jabber) like crazy.  Her favorite (invented) word is ducati/dugati (pronounced do-Cot-E/do-Got-E).  She says it ALL THE TIME...generally when she is excited about something.

She loves Gymboree Classes.  She loves Music Man.  She loves swim class.  She loves baths. She loves chocolate.  She loves George.  She loves cheese.  She loves her "day-days" (babies).

Her favorite game is hide and seek.  Her favorite book is Good Night Moon (she is starting to sit and read books which is so much fun) but she also likes the little books (Little Pea, Little Oink and Little Hoot).  Her favorite song is still John Mayer's "Who Says."  She likes itsy bitsy spider and being tickled. She is becoming a very adept block and cup stacker.  She loves retrieving items for me.  She loves "her" kitchen cabinet.

She does not like to get her diaper changed.  She does not like bananas.  She does not like getting her teeth brushed.  She can be a bit of a drama queen about these things.

The last month has been very eventful.  She finally has more than one tooth (one more coming in on bottom and two "fangs" coming in on top)!  She is sleeping through the night (PTL!) from 7p - 6:30a/7a.  She eats 3 full meals a day and takes milk in a sippy.

If we are home for the day, she takes two naps, one at 9:30a and one at 2:30p.  

She is wearing a lot of size 12-18 month clothes even though her 6-12 month still fit.  We got some stuff for her birthday and I had some stuff for her so it is fun to put her in some new stuff.  Pants are still 6-12 months though...She is in size 6-12 month pedipeds and I think she will be for a while.

She is still quite the serious little lady.  Much like her mama and dada, it is easy to get her to crack a smile but takes a lot of effort to solicit a good belly laugh.  She has started a fake laugh which is pretty funny.

She is getting settled into being at Christine's  once a week (FINALLY...it only took 7/8 months) and will do fine in Playcare at the Gym as long as Alicia is there.  We've tried the nursery at church several times with mixed results (mostly unsuccessful).