Happy Birthday C!

C's First Birthday

I am taking some time out from our crazy-busy life to reflect on the last year. At this time one year ago I was scared to death. I had no idea what the future would hold for our sweet baby girl. Most would say that the birth of their child was the best day of their life. It was not that case for me. It was one of the worst and most stressful days of my life. I had no idea how much that day would change our life for the good forever. We have had our ups and downs- various doctors, a surgery, and many many hours spent worrying about her well-being. I love Chloe more and more each day and keep realizing the providence that is in our life the moment she entered this world. She is a sweet, loveable, good-natured and well-tempered baby. She is finally getting up on her hands and knees by herself and can go from sitting to this position and back but will not actually crawl yet...she just rocks back and forth. She loves her walker and is into everything. We have to keep an eye on her because she loved opening the oven...bad if it is actually on...which hasn't happened yet thank goodness. She also loves opening the kitchen cabinets and will move her head sideways to look in. She is saying mamama, dadada, babababa, and gagagaga...none of which I think actually mean something but just noise. Her latest talent is the funniest "surprised" face. She loves to do the face and then will break into giggles, do it again, then repeat the giggles. She is a monkey see monkey do and will try to imitate your facial expressions. I can get her to laugh at almost anything and her laugh is infectious. She is very clean and we rarely have a mess to clean up after she has eaten. She has her two bottom front teeth and her toothy grin is very adorable. She loves music and playing the piano. She has her very own baby piano and then we let her sit at the big piano to plunk away. She will also walk up to the big piano in her walker and plunk at the keys. She also loves to read books. She could sit for hours on your lap listening, feeling, and turning the pages of books. We have a stack of probably 20 books that we keep on the side table in the family room next to the rocking chair and just go through that at least once a day. Her favorites are the ones with flaps and touch/feel pages. Her favorite color is orange. Do you want to know why I know that? Because in her books she is always in a hurry to turn to the next page, but when you get to the orange colored parts she will stop and look at everything on the page before we go on to the next. She is moving along the furniture and is becoming more and more confident moving between different objects- coffee table, couch, rocking chair, recliners, bouncer, and walker. She is eating all types of baby food and mashed up "big people" food. We are going to start feeding her real dairy this week so it will be interesting to see how that goes. Chloe has been going to a babysitter five days a week because I have been interning to finish my degree. She loves going there because she gets to play with another baby girl! They get very excited to see each other and it is so fun to watch them interact. I am grateful that she is getting socialized with another child because there are only adults at our house. Her sleeping pattern is pretty good, although I wished she would sleep about an hour longer in the morning. She goes to bed by about 8:30pm and wakes up between 6 and 7 am. She has an occasional 2-3 am wake time but we have been just letting soothe herself back to sleep which has worked pretty well. She is a wonderful nap taker and has no problem being laid down awake. I love love love being her mom and do everything I can to make her a happy and well-adjusted child. She is the light in our lives.

A year in pictures:

Brand new...she is sooooo little.

One day old. She is connected to most of her machines in the NICU, she is missing the oxygen in this pic.

About 3 weeks old.

First bath in the NICU. She is about 5 weeks old. The nurses helped us. We were so scared.

Ready to come home from the hospital. Sorry- I can't figure out how to rotate the pictures.

Easter.

Blessing day. So tired. Her dress was made from her great-grandmother Liz's wedding dress. It was gorgeous.

Our move from Springville, Ut to Henderson, NV in June.

First swim.

Uncle Taylor exhausted her with his computer use.

C's first Padres game and trip to the beach/San Diego.

She discovered her feet shortly after our return from CA.

First experience with rice cereal.

Ears pierced!


Trip to SLC in Oct for Nelson/Hamilton Wedding.
Before her eye surgery. Waiting to be taken back to the operating room.

Post-eye surgery. Her eyes make me want to cry. She was so sad afterwards, but this was taken the day after and she was much MUCH happier even though she looks a little beat up.
Big girl at Thanksgiving.

Christmas Morning.

New toy on Christmas Day.

Latest funny face...she is so cute!

Birthday girl!