Bella's 1st Birthday!!

Okay, so I'm horrible, and it's been two months since Bella turned a year old, and I still haven't posted anything! (It's not like I've been busy or anything... but I'll post about that later.. hopefully.. haha)

Her birthday (April 28) was on a Wednesday, so her daddy was at work, and then he and I both had activities at church that night. So, on her actual birthday, it was just Grandma, Taylor, and I there to sing to her.

Taylor was very timid when it came to eating the cake on her first birthday. In fact, I had to grab her hand and smush it into the cake to get her to really touch it.... not the case with Bella.

She had her eyes on that cake from the very beginning.

and she was not the least bit shy to go for it!

and she ate every single bit of it! except for maybe a few crumbs and what was stuck to her shirt :-)

Grandma made sure that she was not lacking in presents.... Taylor even got a present- a brand new Dora bike! She really loved Bella's birthday.

We celebrated her birthday with the rest of the family the following Saturday. I was lazy (partially lazy, partially busy) and didn't make a cake, so we just picked one up at Costco... but you can't go wrong with a Costco cake!

One of the presents I got her was a toy cell phone because she LOVES to play with our phones, and I was hoping it would keep her from wanting the real thing.. but no such luck! Her Aunt Cari gave her tons of hairblooms (that she made herself, of course!), and they look so stinkin' cute in her short curly hair.

She had a little snaggletooth when she turned one (she now has six teeth!- two bottom teeth, two top front teeth, and then the two teeth next to that on top just cut through)

I stopped breastfeeding about three weeks before her first birthday, and now she is very attached to her bottle. I think we're going to have a hard time getting her to stop taking the bottle. It just makes her so happy!

She took her first steps on April 11th (thank goodness for facebook so I can go back and check my old statuses... otherwise I would never remember this!) but still mostly crawled for a few weeks after that. Now, she is walking- practically running most of the time- and getting into everything. Her favorite thing to get into is probably the toilet... disgusting, I know.

Caught playing in Grandma's potty! We have to try to remember to keep the doors to the bathrooms closed or at least keep the lid to the toilet down... otherwise, she would be doing this all the time! One day, I actually found her with one leg stuck down inside the toilet and the rest of her body hanging over the front of it.. man, I wish I had a picture of that!

At her one year check up, she was 19 lbs (can't remember if it was 19 even or not, and they didn't give me a little sticker to remind me this time!)... she also had an ear infection (her 3rd one in a year) and then of course had to get shots... combine all that with teething and she was quite fussy for the next couple of weeks.

Bella was the mildest, sweetest, easiest little baby, but once she turned a year old, she really started to develop her own personality. She is silly and lots of fun but also very vocal about what she likes and doesn't like--- basically meaning that she screams ALL the time! It doesn't matter if she is happy or mad; she is always screaming, and it pretty much drives us crazy.. haha She and Taylor fight over Taylor's sippy cup a lot. It doesn't matter if Bella has her own; she will still go for Taylor's. Occasionally, they will fight over toys, but mostly, they really love each other. Taylor is the best big sister. She's my Little Momma and is really good about letting me know if Bella is doing something she shouldn't be doing and just watches out for her in general. The other day Bella did something I didn't like, so I grabbed her face at her chin to get her to look at me and tell her "no!" and she flopped down on the ground in retaliation, and Taylor said, "Momma! You push her? I'm gonna give you a spankin'" haha I had to assure her that I did NOT push Bella... that was all her being dramatic! Luckily, since Bella has decided to test us with this new BIG personality of hers, Taylor has gotten milder and so very sweet. Don't get me wrong- she is still quite stubborn, but she tells me all the time how much she loves me and has even called me her best friend! I thought my heart was going to melt!

Another good thing about her turning a year old is that she is now sleeping through the night! Yay for sleep!

I feel so blessed to be the mother of these two little girls. They definitely make life interesting and very worthwhile!