Happy Birthday baby girl. I can't believe it has been a year! For your birthday, we went to dinner at Red Robin. Not a fancy place, but you love it. We came home and had ice cream cup cakes and opened presents. You got a ton of stuff, a learning home, bubbles (your favorite), blocks, a ball pit and a bunch of other little things that I have already given you. Your grandjan gave you a stroller for your dolly and a pop up activity center. Your grandmax gave you a box with her voice recorded reading to you. I could go on and on, trust me, you have a ton of stuff!

Now, I will go into detail at some point, but you almost died on us a few times after you were born. You are healthy now, but you spent the first 8 days of your life in the hospital in the NICU. For that reason, your dad and I decided that you will have a birthday week. When you have brother or sister, I will have to reevaluate this.

This has been the best year of my life! I love you soooooo much.

Talking and signing

Everyday we are learning new things!! The other night you said "Da Da!" You babble a ton, but this was directed at your Daddy. I thought your dad was going to cry he was thrilled.
Over the last 24 hours you started signing for "milk" when you want to nurse!! You are so smart. You are blowing lots of kisses now too. We went to Dallas for a visit and you were blowing them to everyone.

We had so much fun in Dallas. We went to the zoo and to the aquarium. You loved the penguins and the giraffes at the zoo. You loved everything about the aquarium. When we move back we will get memberships to both. Honestly, I loved them as much or more than you did. I love animals and the Dallas Zoo is exceptional! The San Antonio Zoo, not so much, but it will do while we are here. I bought a membership there, and we have been several times. I wish it were nicer for the animals that live there.

Right now you are a Mickey Mouse fan, so we bought you a ton of MM stuff for your birthday. We stopped in Georgetown today to see Grandjan and Bob and she threw a little birthday party for you, complete with MM plates, cups, napkins and decorations. You also got a MM cake and balloon!!

I can't believe you are almost 1!!! I loving watching you learn and develop, but it all seems like it is flying by. You are the greatest gift I have ever been given.

Sweet bug! You took three steps tonight!!! Your daddy was coaxing you with mini, M&M's and like any Friedman girl, you moved. You also started blowing kisses in the last few days. Today, you really got it down. Our other new favorite thing is when you clench your fists and pull your mouth down and open your eyes, like you are straining. It is soooo cute, you do it just to make us laugh. You are so funny. You are on your tummmy, sleeping with us and you just sat up with your eyes closed and fell backward. Luckily, there are pillows and you just felling into them and are back asleep.

We love you and I can't believe your birthday is coming up!! Oh, your daddy was promoted and we are so excited. Yay Daddy!!!

Love you sweet baby!

Mommy

You are beautiful, smart, charming and sweet! Your father and I are just so lucky!
Here is what is new with you: you are so mobile! I am exhausted, but I love seeing you crawl around. You are also getting closer to walking.

You love to give sloppy kisses and head butt us. You will eat just about anything we are eating. You love cheese, pancakes, waffles, veggies, chicken and turkey. You can eat cupfulls of blue berries, it is amazing!

You have all four teeth up top and the same two on the bottom. Poor baby, the top ones were tough on you.
We went to the ranch last weekend and you had a blast. I took the most amazing pictures of you. Even the steers in the pen were enchanted with you. There weren't any Bluebonnets out this year. :(

We are going back this weekend for Easter and I will keep looking. I would love to take some pictures of you petting the horses. I will post some when we get home.

I love you sweet baby!

New things

New things! You have started to point and wave and you can throw a ball now! Things are progressing so quickly I hope that I can keep up with everything. You move constantly and naps are decreasing in the last few days. I am so tired! You have started a ritual with your daddy everynight putting the cars in the garage. You LOVE this! He puts you on the center console and drives into the garage, you laugh and clap and raise your arms up in the air. I like to stand in the garage and watch you guys. You also love to press the garage door opener. You daddy says that he can't figure it out and that you need to help him. You went to bed early tonight so he had to manage on his own. I need to get all of this on camera.

He looked at me with a sad expression and said that some day he will ask you to help him and you will say "no" and that he would miss this. I am so glad that he appriciates the time and experience with you.

We love you so much!

You are crawling!!

You are on the move now. You started crawling this week. Today, you really got going. You are still working on your form, but you are an amazingly smart and strong little girl. Not much going on this week other than chasing you around the room.

We went to feed the ducks today with a few other kiddo's and we are going to the zoo on Friday with our Gymboree friends. You liked the ducks, but it was kind of warm out so we didn't stay long. You have my skin and you will burn very quickly. If I have taught you well, then you will stay out of the sun, it is not our friend. I am sorry that you will have spent your childhood in those special SPF swimsuits and sun screen from head to toe. I know other mom's just let their kiddo's run around with out. Both your father and I slather it on everyday. Someday, when you are in your 30's you will thank me. I wish I had done a better job protecting myself when I was younger. I have never been a sun worshiper, but I had a pool in my backyard growing up and one at the ranch and I lived outside as a kid. Your grandmother tried, but they didn't know as much about the damage that sun will do to you as they do now.

We love you scooter. Mommy

Hi sweet baby girl. I am sorry I am so neglectful of writing in this journal. So much is happening. You are growing so fast, and changing constantly. Here is what is going on so far:

You are sort of crawling now, that just started a few days ago. We are thrilled to see you make progress. You would really rather walk then crawl, but you are not ready for that yet. You can stand on your own for about 8 seconds before you sit down. Yay! You are getting so active!

One of your top teeth (the one on your right) broke through the skin on Sunday! It seems like you have been teething forever! You are uncomfortable, and we hurt for you.

You had your first cold about three weeks ago. It was hard to watch. You were so stuffy and your chest was congested. The first night you were so miserable that your dad strapped you into the baby carrier and walked around the neighborhood for almost 2 hours, from around 4am-6am. It got better from there, but we just wanted to make you feel better. The doctor gave you a nebulizer to take home and we did breathing treatments, um, you didn't like that at all.

Your favorite food currently is blue berries! You can eat them non-stop!

You still sleep between your daddy and I. You started waking up a couple of times a night crying, which is out of character for you. I think your mouth hurts.

You are still a little celebrity. People take pictures of you and stop us all the time to touch your feet. You smile so much that people can't help themselves.

New nickname: Cuckoo Banana's

I love you sweet girl. Thank you for being you.