Claire Turned 1

Claire turned one on February 23. We celebrated her birthday the weekend before. I did a TERRIBLE job of taking pictures, not to mention the lighting was awful (we had the blinds open AND the windows on), but here's a sampling of what took place.

Her birthday banner was hung over our kitchen windows. I tried hanging it a number of places in a number of different ways and never really liked it, so I stuck it above the desert table and was pretty happy with it. 

I made poms and hung them from our living room fan. I also put one above each living room window. They frame the fireplace so it was a festive touch. There were a bunch of them upstairs in the playroom, too, but I forgot to take pictures of the upstairs! 

This is the fireplace pennant banner. The fireplace is the focal point of the living room. I later added a cupcake sign with Claire's name on it and some mini cupcake signs, but... again... I forgot to take an "after" picture! 

Mom and I made cupcake cookies as the party favors.

At the desert table we had pink, red, and white m&m's, white chocolate covered strawberry marshmallows, and vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. 

cheese :) 

We had pizza, chips, and fruit salad as our main course, and then moved on to desert...

Claire wasn't quite sure of the cupcake at first. I was a little confused until Aaron pointed out that it's HOT PINK. Duh.

Obviously it didn't take long until she dove in and made a huge, lasting mess.

I'm pretty sure the pink frosting was on her cheeks for days. It was on EVERYTHING, actually. Yuck!

Claire was very blessed by our family and friends who celebrated with us. She was also given lots of fun and practical gifts, including an adorable swimsuit, flip flops, books, a puppy purse, a birthday cake LeapFrog toy, and a savings bond to name a few. Lucky girl!

A few things that I want to remember about Claire at 1 year:

-She has caught up to other kids her age and is no longer measured by her "adjusted" age. At her well-baby visit she weighed 20.5 pounds, was 30 inches long, and has a head that measures 45 cm. 

-She says ut oh, dada, and if she's crying and upset she will say mama. Ha.

-She will eat almost any carb or fruit, doesn't like most vegetables anymore, and eats a little chicken. 

-She drinks four Almond milk bottles a day. She drinks juice and water from a sippy cup. 

-She still LOVES her paci but we are working on only giving it to her at nap and nighttime.

-She still naps twice a day, usually around 930 am and again at 3 pm.

-She wakes up around 7 and goes to bed around 8.

-She still only has two bottom teeth! I swear she has been teething for months. She is so crabby at times and always has her hands in her mouth, but no new teeth have popped through yet. 

-Daddy says to put "She's a little angel, a cutie-patootie, likes to play with her brother, likes to "fly" in the air and will stop her feet if she wants you to fly her again, her hair is growing long enough for a pony tail, and she loves to wake up to Gabe jumping in her crib."

-She's a daddy's girl, can you tell? 

-She LOVES to put blocks and other small toys in daddy's boots. He finds them when PT is over and he goes to change into his uniform. It makes his day :)

Also, Claire's genetic testing for Celiac came back. She was at the second lowest risk group for having or developing the disease, so our GI said he's pretty confident she doesn't. Good news! The not good news: we still don't know what's causing her reflux/GI issues. I'm trying to remind myself that she's growing fine so it can't be something TOO serious. It's most likely some kind of food allergy.