Happy 1st birthday Kenley Dee!

I’m not even sure where to begin. One year old, how is that possible?

Let’s dive right in.

Overall, Kenley does a very good job eating, even though it can be difficult at times.
She loves peas, macaroni & cheese, string cheese, and pretty much any fruit.
We are still continuing to try new foods and combinations of finger foods,
along with more “meals” rather than just food on her tray.
We have a good size list of the foods we have tried, but some new ones are
cheese quesadillas, chicken nuggets, hot dog (with daddy, of course), ravioli,
pancakes, waffles, noodles, bagel thins, and turkey sandwiches.
Majority of meals are hit or miss, one day she’ll love it, the next it’s on the floor.
She loves the Buddy Fruits pouches and will gulp them down for a snack.
She is still drinking breast milk from a sippy cup,
even though I finished breastfeeding around 11 months (!!).
We’ll either stay on the breast milk until it’s gone, or start mixing it with whole milk.
We haven’t really talked about it much or decided one way or the other. Suggestions?

This girl is on the move! She loves to walk (read: hates to be picked up).
She is all over the place and into everything.
There is no more “getting things done’ when you’re the only parent home with her.
Grandma wanted me to leave her a list of things to do last week when she was home on Friday.
I laughed.
By the end of the day, she was exhausted, and with good reason.
It’s hard work keeping pace with a little one who is constantly on the go.
Her teacher said she and another little boy, who just started walking,
were chasing each other up and down the halls at school this week.
She came home on Monday and Greg and I were both shocked about how fast she is now.

She is quite vocal and has started saying more words.
Each night she says “night night” and we think she understands what that means.
She as also added cat (“ta”), dog, book (“boo”), along with hi, bye, mama, dada, and ball.
We’re working on up, please, and done. She can say done, but chooses to yell majority of the time.
Along with words, she has tons of new sounds and tones that she uses.

We have our evening routine pretty set in stone.
Each night we try to go for a run, or at least a walk.
Kenley has recently started having an actual dinner (rather than just milk before bed).
After dinner, it’s bath time (still in her Whale of a Tub, which we may be graduating from soon),
then it’s to her room, sound machine on, and in the glider for some books.
We say night night and she goes down in her crib.
She rarely cries for more than about ten seconds, snuggles up with her lovies, and is down for the night.
Recently, she’s been waking up crying one to two times a night, it’s usually short and we think she’s still sleeping.
It’s more of a quick scream and a little bit of whining, rather than crying, but it’s still sad.
Hopefully it subsides soon.

Updated 12 months stats:
21 pounds 8 ounces 
29 1/4 inches

This girl in insanely fun and insanely funny too.  She can really crack us up.
I think I speak for Greg as well when I say that I cannot believe how quickly one year can go.
This has, hands down, been the best year of our lives.
We are still amazed each day that we (one) have a child and (two) have such a great one.

Kenley Dee, we love you so much and thank God every single day for you.
Happy birthday!