Abigail's 1st Birthday

Abigail had her first birthday on July 15th. Hard to believe my little girl is already 1 year old and won't be a baby for that much longer. Although, she just barely started doing the "army crawl" in the week after her birthday and she is on the small side, so she still seem like a baby to me. At her 12 month doctor's visit a little over a week after her birthday her stats were:

• weight: 17 lbs, 3 oz (5th percentile)
• height: 29 in (50th percentile)
  

I was surprised that she had gained less that a pound since her 9 month visit.

Abigail's 12 - month picture

A few things about Abigail at year old:

1. Her favorite thing: mom (the person and the food source - she is proving a little more difficult to ween than her brother)
2. She loves to eat! Even though she is tiny, the girl can eat. She especial like sweets (like ice cream) and demands that she gets some whenever we are having some.
3. Favorite toy - stacking cups and stacking balls.
4. She has the cutest little girly laugh and her daddy and brother can get her laughing the hardest.
5. She a very good little sleeper and has been sleeping through the night since about 4 months.
6. More often than not, she dislikes being put into her car seat and arches her back and screams until finally giving in.
7. She has never taken a pacifier. Instead she prefers to suck on her own tongue ( hey - works for mom and dad, at least she can't loose her tongue in the middle of the night).
8. At the time of her birthday, she had cut 5 teeth and loves to have them brushed.
9. She really likes to stand and frequently will refuse to sit when I need to leave her. So if I can't get her interested in something enough that she will sit, then I have to just lay her on her back, which she doesn't like.

On the day of her Birthday, we spent part of the day at the the Idaho Falls Aquatic center's outside wadding pool with Grandma Bendixsen. Abigail had fun there and ended up taking a nap in Grammy's arms, while her big brother played a while longer.

Abigail swimming in the wadding pool at grandma's feet.

I invited our family that was around and could come to a birthday party that evening. Of course, a 1-year-old doesn't get into present opening all that much, but she did enjoy her birthday cake very much. I made 2 identical "present" cakes, one for guests and a smaller version for Abigail to dig into herself. She ended up being very dainty with her cake. She just picked at the frosting with her index finger, until her uncle Nick and myself helped her brake into the cake part. Then she continued to mostly pick at small cake pieces with her thumb and index fingers. In the end, she did end up being pretty messy but it took her a while to get there and she didn't smear it all over in her hair like some 1-year-olds do.

The 2 "present " cakes.

Abigail trying to grab the candle.

Abigail at the end of eating her cake (she didn't eat all the red fruit-by-the-foot ribbons, some cousins gladly helped)

I took this picture a few days after her birthday when I had her birthday present from mom and dad assembled. She looked very pleased with herself to be sitting on her new horsey.