My Blue Eyed Babes: Kara's First Birthday

Oh my dear sweet child! How can you be one? Where has the year gone? It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was pregnant with you, wondering each day if you were going to arrive that day.

You had us convinced that you were going to be a boy for the whole pregnancy. In fact, we had two boy names and no girl names when you were born. You were unnamed for a few hours after you joined us, but that let us look at you, hold you, and choose a name for you, our baby girl.

You’ve always been such an affectionate child – wanting to be snuggled and held. That made the first few months a little tough, with Toddler Tornado around, but we managed. Now, both Dada and Mama love how snuggly you are. The best is when you lay your head on our chests and nuzzle up under our chins.

It’s so fun to watch your little personality come out. You are so different from your sister – it’s wonderful! Jana always wanted the attention of the people around her, while you want the undivided attention of the one you’re with. While you flirt a little with other people when we’re out, you only want to be held by a select few.

You’re a Mama’s girl, through and through, right now. You love your Daddy, there’s no doubt about that, but Mama seems to be the recipient of most of the cuddles and if Mama’s around, that is who you want – no one else.

Everyone always comments on your eyes. They are striking. While they are a beautiful blue, it’s not just that. It’s like you can see your heart and sweet disposition when you look into those eyes. You can see how much you love, through those eyes. You look at people and they just can’t help but smile. With Jana, people would smile and laugh because she was always doing goofy things to make them smile. But with you, it’s not a smile because of humor; people smile because they sense your sweetness and the love you exude.

You like to do things on your own schedule. You got your first two teeth before you were six months old, the bottom two, but didn’t get the top four until you were 11 months old. You rolled over at a few weeks old, held your head up by a couple of months old, sat on your own early, but didn’t crawl until a few days ago. You were happy scooting backward to where ever you wanted to go, but now you want to walk.

You are turning out to be a texture kid (like your Mama) when it comes to eating. You will eat solid foods and you will eat pureed foods, but you don’t like them mixed together. You love Cheerios and you love oatmeal, but you’ll spit them both back out if you get a Cheerio on your spoon with your oatmeal. You love string cheese, quesadilla, turkey hot dog, bananas, grapes, animal crackers, and puffs. You will eat pear, peas and carrots, and anything pureed.

You love to copy the sounds we’re saying. Your favorite sounds are “Da-da”, “ti-ka, ti-ka” (the sound we make when we’re tickling you), and “ra-ra”.

You made the switch to sippy cups with out hesitation. You even had no problem switching to milk in them.

You love your blankie. We had a blanket for you, but you went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house one day and borrowed one of theirs. That was it – it has become yours now. It used to be Cousin Lindsay’s blanket, when she was a baby, but it’s yours now (and, funny coincidence, you share her birthday too!).

You adore your big sister. No one can make you laugh like she does. You love to grab her hand or shirt when she gets close enough to you. You two “talk” back and forth by copying each other’s sounds.

Some days you take two naps, some days one, but you’re a good little sleeper.

You love the sheep that has water sounds that Grandma gave you – you won’t sleep without it.

You love to stand and play with toys on the couch or footrest. You will stand there all day long if we let you.

You love for us to “walk” you around. You get so excited that you start jumping up and down while you walk.

I know not how a year passes so quickly, yet it’s hard to remember of a time without you.

Thank you for a wonderful year of enriching all of our lives. You are such a sweet and loving child.

It’s so fascinating how different you are from Jana, in just a year. You are so precious and wonderful and we love the little person that you are. Your differences make you so special and unique. We love you, my baby girl!

Crooked Binkie!