Happy Birthday, Dear Annie

Our little girl is one year old! I'm so proud of her and daily amazed at her spunky personality and growing body!
I can't believe all that's happened in this last year, and it's so fun to look back to see how far we've come. :)

The finger-sucking days, ah the crying and short-short naps
Family trips, braving the outside world; Annie has a mother who will just never be able to stay inside on beautiful days, even when she's got a newborn baby
See that pacifier? Haha, funny, we were so naive thinking if we just kept trying she would eventually take it . . .

The days of comfy strollers she looked way too small for, and playing the "startle" game with Daddy, when any and every thing was so new and fascinating to look at
Getting so much bigger and falling madly in love with her papa

Annie's birthday actually started on Monday, when Poppy gave her her first first birthday present . . .
Let the piano lessons begin! Pretty soon she'll be charming boys with "All of Me," just as her daddy did with me :)


Last night we had a dinner party for Annie. Presents and cake and good friends--what a lovely evening!
(**More and better pictures, taken by Scott and Nancy, will be posted soon. :) )

The table

The birthday girl
The guests (little baby Anne is there too, even though she's hiding!)


Getting ready for the cake!
Waving to her guests mid-bite
Yum!! It took her a little while to figure out what this stuff was we'd put in front of her, but once Brant put a little in her mouth, she went AT IT. (See videos below)
Messy face! ("Please, sir, I want som'more")
Clapping with Daddy
Presents!! Reading a card from Grandma and Poppy

Hugging her newest doll, Name-Yet-to-be-DeterminedToy from Great-Grandma Jane!

And soaps---mmmm they smelled so good!

Raiding the adorable clothes from Grandma CC
Oh my, I was having as much fun as Annie was! This girl is gonna be stylin' in the fall. Wooden shapes toy! She stayed up an hour past her bedtime playing with this . . . :)

And now she's one year old! Now I don't have to say my baby's age in months; I could just say, "she's one." Wow!! We just got back from the doctor's this morning . . . the other birthday ritual, unfortunately, was a lot of shots. But Annie was very brave and is doing fine. She even hugged the doctor! She's still in the 10th percentile for weight (18 lbs 6 oz; darn it, we still have to wait a while for that highly anticipated front-facing car seat), and she's about 29 inches long. Yay!

For your viewing enjoyment, here are some videos from her very happy birthday:

Singing Happy Birthday


Eating her cake!