Norah the One-Year-Old

Welp, she's officially 1 now.

We had a little BBQ party the day before her birthday with some friends at Grandma and Papa Nelson's house (our grill-less, two-bedroom apartment is hardly ideal for a gathering of more than three). We didn't have the camera out for most of the party, but we did catch the important part - cupcake time.

Norah wasted no time getting into the cupcake. She loved it. There was no epic cake smashing - you can only do so much damage with a cupcake.

Of course, she had a glare to spare for her delicious cupcake.

About as messy as it got.

We didn't get a very good family shot. Norah was getting pretty cranky by the end. Too close to her bedtime.

On her actual birthday, Norah got to open some fun presents. Turns out, birthdays are pretty cool.

Again with the glare.

Every little girl needs a baby doll.

And every good mommy drinks her baby's bottle. Right?

She loves her new stroller. I'm hoping this is the key to finally getting her walking.

So, now Norah is 1. "What's she up to these days?" you might ask. Well, let's see.

She's not quite walking yet. She can balance for a little while and can balance her way back down to the ground. She has also started standing up on her own without holding on to anything. She sneaks in a step every once in a while, but not enough to qualify as walking.

She does pretty well with table foods now. We're just finishing up the last of the pureed food we have. Her current favorite foods include carrots, cottage cheese, and vanilla wafers. She is basically done with formula - again, we're just finishing up what we have. I was nervous about the transition to milk and getting her to use a sippy cup, but she has that all figured out and absolutely loves her milk.

She's about the same as always on the growth charts. At her 12-month checkup, she was 30 inches long (90th percentile), had an 18 inch head circumference (75th percentile), and weighed 18 pounds, 7.5 ounces (25th percentile). Long and skinny, like always.

We recently transitioned to one nap a day, and she's doing pretty well with it, most days. But some days she wakes up around 5:30 in the morning, like today, and things get a little grumpy.

We love this little girl more than we ever knew we could. And now I will close this post with even more pictures of her!

She loves to sit and play the piano with Grandma Nelson.

Love this little girl.

Birthday Girl

Tomorrow's the day. My baby turns 1. How on earth did that happen?

Today has been kind of fun because we've really been reflecting on exactly what was going on at different times exactly one year ago. Like right now one year ago, we were putting the finishing touches on packing our bags because we had a pretty good feeling that our little girl would be coming within 48 hours.

I'm almost tempted to set my alarm for 12:50 a.m. because that's when I woke up in labor a year ago tomorrow morning. Okay, not really tempted, but it's fun to think of all of these different moments and emotions from a year ago.

I do know that at church tomorrow I'm going to be awaiting 9:51 a.m. because a year ago tomorrow at that time, our lives changed forever. Norah Kate entered our world. What a joy she has been. I know the other parents out there can join us in saying that there are no words to describe the love you feel for your own child. We are so blessed.

This is my favorite picture from the day Norah was born. I couldn't get enough of this face.
Still can't.

And here is the birthday girl one year later. I feel like this picture perfectly sums up her personality. Happy, active, and fun.

Have fun being 1, Norah!

The Glare

Norah has learned how to give us attitude. She knows how to throw a good tantrum (and people always tell me how happy and smiley she is). But the real kicker is her glare. If you tell her no, she legitimately glares. It used to be occasionally, but now it's all the time. I am telling you, do not get on her bad side.

I caught this while getting some birthday shots (more of those later.) I'm talking about some serious 'tude.

At first it was kind of funny. Now, it's actually starting to get to me. If this is a sign of what's to come, we're in serious trouble here.

I have to remind myself that this is one of those things we're going to look back on and laugh at. Later. Much later. When she stops doing it ALL THE TIME. I'm glad we at least caught a picture of it as proof.