The One Year Update

So this is a little bit late timing, but I thought it would be good to post. I sent out a little picture card for Hayden's birthday to some friends/family and wrote up a little update to go along with it. I thought it might be nice to include on the blog, for those of you who didn't receive the card in the mail. And of course, had to include one picture, with Hayden showing off a huge toothy grin (She has 12 teeth now!).

So here's the update...
It’s hard to believe, but Hayden is now one year old! We celebrated her birthday on the big day (July 12th) in high fashion with a mini-foods party. We had mini everything it seemed like – mini turkey burgers on mini buns, mini hotdogs, mini bananas, mini goldfish, mini pretzels, mini Pringles (which are awesome if you’ve never had some!), and of course, mini-cupcakes. Hayden had a good time at the festivities (8 adults, 3 children), even as she was dealing with a molar coming in. Despite her tooth issues, she enjoyed eating the mini-cupcake –she’ll definitely be ready for a normal sized one soon!

When she’s not teething, Hayden is a good eater – we think she may even turn into a gourmand. She loves things with flavor: taco meat, pepperonis, and marinated chicken are just some of the things she has enjoyed. One day recently I was making pesto and she wanted a bite. I thought for sure she’d spit it out but she smacked her lips on it and then requested more! She loves any kind of fruit and will eat it with great gusto, stuffing as many blueberries or grape pieces in her mouth as she can get. She also loves meat and has loved the burgers and hotdogs that we’ve been grilling lately. She is not as interested in vegetables but we’re working on that.

Even though she’s a good eater, she’s certainly not packing on the pounds because when she’s not strapped in her high chair, she is on the move! Within the past couple weeks, her walking has completely taken off. She toddles all over the house now, picking herself up when she loses her balance, and delights in her new form of locomotion. She still prefers to hold onto our fingers in new places or on new surfaces (i.e. grass, sand, etc) but at home she now independently goes from room to room quite easily. It’s fun to see her cruising all around but now we have to take baby-proofing to the next level!

We are also amazed by her developing language abilities. We’ve been using baby signs with her and she really uses them to communicate – dog, airplane, baby, music, more, all done, cold, eat, and drink are just some of the signs she uses on a regular basis! Plus she’s sort of starting to talk too – she says dada in relation to Jason, and seems to say duck, hat and balloon in some capacity when she sees those objects. And she’s starting saying woof for dog and mimicking our silly elephant noises! She surprises us all the time with how smart she is. The other day she was done with eating, but still had a piece of pancake left. Jason made the offhanded comment, “if you’re done, just give it to Blizzard” never dreaming she’d take the piece and turn to the side where Blizzard was waiting patiently and hand it over! Blizzard was one happy dog. J And last night, she very intentionally, with no prompting from us, picked up Blizzard’s toys and put them into Blizzard’s toy box.

All in all, Hayden is a terrific little girl! She’s generally very happy and her smile just lights up her face. She loves making friends with people when we’re out and about and we often get incredulous comments of “is she always this happy?!” She’s even started being silly –like tickling my neck when we’re out for walks and I’m carrying her on my back and running over to Blizzard to give her a big hug. She’s so much fun to be around; we can’t wait to see what the next year brings!