Twelve Month Update - Alana is ONE!

Quick Facts

• Alana is walking consistently.
• She is getting attached to a stuffed kitty she got from Mimi and Poppy. She loves chewing on the tail and ears and likes to cuddle with it.
• She loves to dance and clap.
• She “talks” quite a lot, mostly gibberish, but she can clearly say Mama, Papa, danke (thank you), and mehr (more).
• She’s in size 12-18 month clothing, 5 diapers, and between 4 and 5 in shoes.
• She is developing a mind of her own.  Let's hope she doesn't grow to be as stubborn as her Mama...
• She likes lounging in our closet.

Birthday Party

We had a wonderful time celebrating Alana’s first birthday last weekend. Although Andrew insists the party was mostly for us, or me, Alana clearly enjoyed it too. She got to play with friends, eat cake, eat some of her other favorite foods, and open presents. Alana likes being around people, so she enjoyed simply having people at our house. She was engaged the whole time and didn't fuss even when I knew she was getting tired.

Unfortunately, our birthday girl woke up with a runny nose, but was in good spirits nonetheless.  A special thanks to Onkel Grant for these awesome pictures.

I really enjoyed planning the party. The theme was "Cute as a Button", an idea I got from Pinterest.  I started planning about a month before her party and I'd do a little bit here and there whenever I had time.  I also enlisted the help of my talented sister Jessica who created the invitations, thank you cards, and food tents.  I went with colors my friend Kelly used at the baby shower she hosted for me, which allowed me to reuse the banner she made for me (the one hanging above the fireplace).  

My friend Melia and her husband run a bakery out of their house.  They made these delicious cupcakes and the cute smash cake.  We had vanilla on vanilla, red velvet, and strawberry.

Here is the invitation Jessica made.  I wish I had a close-up.

Here's a mobile I started a while ago for Alana's nursery and never finished until shortly before the party.

Many of our friends have children around the same age as Alana.  Dean is a month younger than Alana.  Lila is six months older, and Gemma is about 1 year older.  Lila (the girl in the coral dress) is keen on the concept of sharing right now, but she puts her own spin on it.  Whenever she wants something, she yells "sharing" and grabs whatever she wants.  Here she is going after Dean's hat after yelling "sharing!"  He wasn't too happy about it.

Alana and Dean, on the other hand, had the sharing thing down.

Alana loves cards.  I think they were her favorite part about opening presents.  

When Alana hears others laugh, she likes to join in.  Here is her LOL face.

Back to Lila's spin on "sharing"... Andrew was able to catch it on video!  It's a MUST see.  So funny!

Jessica and I were excited for the smash cake, but it didn't go down exactly the way we anticipated.   Here we are singing to her.  First she acted shy and then she clapped along.

I thought for sure she would dive into that cake.  After all, she loves food!  Instead, she gently picked individual buttons off the cake, one by one, and ate them.

It wasn't until we helped her, that she started eating a little bit of the cake, but even then she went for the buttons.  You can see her picking off a yellow button here. 

 After washing up, we enjoyed the rest of the party.  We danced a little...

Played with a big stuffed fish, courtesy of Uncle Eric and Aunt Kelly

Shared Papa with our friends

 And enjoyed everyone's attention

Thank you everyone who made Alana's birthday special by thinking of her, calling, hanging out with us at the party, and sending cards and presents.  I know Alana won't "remember" her birthday, but I think she will smile when she looks back at pictures of this celebration.

Alana, we love you very much!