Sarah's 1st Birthday Party!

My baby girl turns 1 on Wednesday, January 26!  We had her first birthday party this past weekend with family and it was lots of fun!

 Sarah was glowing her in her princess T-shirt that says "Fun to be One" in glitter.

 She surprised me by tolerating a party hat quite well!

My sweeties!

They had fun together...Austin was giggling at my silly faces behind the camera and Sarah was pointing out things around the room and declaring "dada!" like she does for everything these days when she's excited.

We had a very busy week, then stayed up late on Friday night to make Sarah's birthday cake.  Those of you who remember Austin's first birthday will find this familiar.  We did the same cake for Austin's first birthday, except the #1 was teal for his and pink and purple for hers.

 Nanny got Sarah a really cute pink ribbon birthday hat!

 My princess!  She is getting so big!

 Sarah with Auntie Michelle

 Sarah excitedly examining her balloons that Daddy got for her.

 Sarah wasn't so much a fan of this hat, but we got a few photos before she pulled it off.

In contrast to Austin's first birthday, when he was totally not interested in opening gifts and just ran around the room...Sarah sat on my lap calmly and had fun tearing the paper open on her gifts, examining her cards, and chatting.

We had a yummy dinner of Sausage, Spinach, Ricotta Stuffed Pasta Shells.  Then it was time for cake!  Sarah was pretty overstimulated by that point, so while we went to get the cake from the back room where it was stashed, she sat in her highchair with her blankie ("beebee") and her pacifier, looking a little overwhelmed.  We sang "Happy Birthday" and presented her with her cake.  Austin blew out her candle for her.  She wasn't really sure about what to do with the cake.  She poked at it a bit, but wouldn't really eat it on her own.

 Alexis and Austin were pretty excited about the cake.  Sarah...not so sure.

 She snagged the candle off the cake and thought it was pretty interesting...and tasty.

Once I pulled off a bit of the cake and fed it to her, she was much more interested.

When I first made the cake on Friday afternoon, I trimmed bits off the top before flipping it out of the pan so it would sit flat.  Sarah and I sat together and ate the extra bits of cake and she LOVED it!  By the time she got the finished cake at the party, though, she was so tired that she just wanted to get out of her highchair.  I got her out of her highchair, sat her on my lap and fed her bits of cake...then she was a happy girl.  Yum!

 Playing with her new toys.  I'm surprised she left the party hat on so long!

She was pretty sleepy by the end of the party and just wanted to snuggle on Mommy's shoulder.

Our birthday girl!

It was so much fun celebrating our little princess!  She has been growing up so fast!

Today, after the chaos had abated, she was really excited about her cake!

Sarah at 1 year old:
- Has 6 teeth (3 on top and 3 on the bottom) and is working on more.
- Walking more and more every day.  She can walk on her own, but is hesitant to at times, because often when she is walking around on her own, hurricane Austin comes along and knocks her over.
- She can crouch down, pick something up, and stand back up without holding on to anything.
- Gives high fives.
- Blows kisses - too cute! (even makes the "mwah" sound).
- Shakes her head "yes" and "no"
- "Answers" the phone by picking it up, putting it on her sholder and cocking her head to the side and chatting.
- Plays peek a boo by hiding under her blanket and then pulling it away and giggling.
- Has more hair - long enough that we have to use a hair clip to keep the hair out of her eyes.
- Talking a lot and hollers loudly!  Her favorite thing to say?  Dada!
- Loves to point to things excitedly.
- Tries very hard to watch TV if it is on.  We don't let her watch TV, but she sure tries!
- Climbs up to a stand on her rocking chair and is climbing on things a lot more.
- Can go down the steps to the play room on her own (She has figured out she can turn around backward and scoot down or turn sideways and roll down one step at a time).
- LOVES table food.  She has rapidly lost interest in baby food and fusses if we are eating something and don't share with her. We can not chop up basically whatever we're eating into small bits for her to eat.  She has also figured out how to tip the sippy cup up enough to get the last bits of milk out of it.  We're working on transitioning to her sippy cup because she has basically weaned herself from breastfeeding, with the exception of first thing in the morning and right before bed (and sometimes before her nap).  We've got a huge supply of frozen breast milk in the deep freezer, so she'll still be drinking breast milk for a while!

A few more cute photos since the last post...
We saw this dress at Target back when we were looking for a dress for Sarah to wear to Michelle's wedding in August.  They didn't make this dress in a smaller size, but Nanny bought it for Sarah in the 18 month size for this upcoming summer.  I tried it on her the other day and it was so cute, I had to take some photos.

A cute one of Austin and Sarah together. This is when I was bouncing them up and down on my knees and Steve managed to get them to both look at the camera at the same time. 

 Sarah has been enjoying exploring the tupperware cupboard.  It keeps her occupied for a few minutes while I cook dinner.  This is her "Mom, this is serious business" look.

She was very excited about a chicken dish I was cooking in the oven the other day.  So I turned on the oven light so she could see it through the window.  She watched it cooking, then licked the oven door!

We discovered Jumbo Fudge Sticks!  Fudge sticks are probably my dad's favorite cookies, so Austin calls them "Grandpa's cookies".  He was very excited about "GIANT Grandpa's cookies."