Rachel's 1st Birthday

I can't believe my baby is already a one year old. (Ok, I admit, technically, now she is actually 14 months old, because I have been way too busy to blog this summer!)



We had a fun little family bbq at my mom's house, where of course she got her traditional first birthday cake, made by Nana- with pink icing and sprinkles!



At first the stickiness was a distraction, but it didn't take her long to figure out that it was worth it!

She got some fun toys from grandparents.

Our little Rachie is such a joy in our home. She has the best strawberry blond hair ever, and the most gorgeous baby blues I have ever seen! She is a smart little thing, and knows how to get what she wants. She is learning new words all the time, and tends to be fiercely independent. She walks well when someone gives her a finger for balance, but chickens out and plops down as soon as we let go and then crawls at lightning speed. We are not sure when she will figure out how much easier it is to walk. She is actually pretty good about not getting into stuff like cupboards, plants, etc, she seems to know her boundaries, and responds fairly well to "no" and so we haven't really needed to babyproof anything, which is a first. She doesn't really even try to go down the stairs-she goes over to them and looks down, especially when she knows the other kids are down there, but she is good about them even though I am paranoid that she is going to try it one day and take a big fall (we have 15 stairs going down!) She loves to babble and talk and you can tell she knows exactly what she is saying, although we sometimes wish we had a translator! She is definitely still very popular with her big brother and sister, they dote on her and treat her like a little treasure. I love how much they love her and are always watching out for her. I hope they are always like that.