One Year Old

Forgive my delay in posting. I'm sure you probably figured out by now we had a CRAZY weekend of family, fun, food, and friends. It was a blast but due to devoting all my time to that - the blog was neglected. It was in no way an indication of the lack of celebration for our little girl's birthday - it was quite the opposite. So....without further adieu...the actual birthday post:

A year ago today (we'll pretend I'm writing on Friday, the actual birthday) we welcomed this little girl into our family:


We were SOOOO excited to finally meet her. Especially Mommy since she was loooonnnngggg overdue. We fell in love with her immediately and also realized she was a spitting image of her daddy immediately as well. Nothing like feeling like a "surrogate mother" after surviving such physical labor to welcome her here. ;-)

Things I noticed back then:

• Her cry was very muted. That was my first observation as they carried her to her bed. They had to reassure me she was just fine.
• Her big toes on each foot were very chubby and had a smidgen of a tiny toenail on each of them.
  
• Her belly button looked like a capital "H" (for "Hufford" I'm sure of it). Of course this was more noticeable after the umbilical cord fell off.
  
• She was such a sweet and easy baby right off the bat. Rarely fussed about anything and just laid back and soaked it all in.

Things I notice now:

• That she has such an adorable personality and is just such a sweet little girl.
• Her cry is apparently still "muted". I've been told this by other people of course. To me it sounds loud and normal.
  
• Her "H" belly button is no longer - but still just as cute of course
• She has the squeeziest chunky thighs and chubby toes - seriously she does.
• Her smile will melt anyone's heart - I'm not biased on this one I promise...check it out for yourself.
• She is definitely getting into the cuddly stage. We get lots of wet, open mouth, kisses, hugs, loves, and pats from her. When it happens it usually doesn't last long but I LOVE it.
• She is still such an easy baby - I think I lose sight of this sometimes until I observe other children and am reminded yet again.

So, what did we do for Addison's special birthday? Technically we were celebrating with a family picnic/party the following day but of course we couldn't leave her actual day of birth uncelebrated so we spent it as a family of three and enjoyed each other's company.

She got to watch Mommy clean in the morning since we were having family visiting from out of town and the bathrooms were in desperate shape. She thought it was all fascinating. Especially the vacuum. Maybe this is an indication on how often I clean around here perhaps? She's probably only seen the vacuum 3 times in her life so far...lol.

After naps we headed out to meet Daddy for lunch at Chick-fil-a. She's a big fan of the chicken nuggets. Mommy was determined to get her a balloon for her special day so thankfully a worker came through for us. Not only did he get her a balloon but a cute little stuffed Chick-fil-a cow as well. She LOVED that cow. Maybe she just recognized him since she's made friends with the grown one at each of my 5k races this past month.

After lunch we headed over to Wal-mart for her to pick out a special toy for her special day. We soon realized she was happy with anything we held in front of her so Mommy ended up picking out a push-button neon lighting wand that spins around. She was fascinated with it.

Next, Daddy went back to work while we ran last minute errands for her big party. We made it back home just in time to welcome the first arrival of the "Bell family" migration.

Amidst all the rushing around, I did make it a point to do as I promised myself and just enjoy the moment of the day. After we ate lunch I just stared at her in the back seat and thought back to a year ago. How amazed I am that she's mine (and John's of course). How much fun she is. How much I am grateful to be her Mom. And, how blessed we are to have her in our family. She has grown so much in the past year and I love that I get a front row seat to watch it all now and in the years to come.

Happy 1st Birthday Addison!