Happy Birthday Lily!

I know I've been a bit lax lately with the updates, so I thought I'd use the occasion of Lily's 1st birthday to get you caught up and get back on track.  So here goes.

It's hard to believe a year has passed.  When Amanda and I think back to this time last year and the general state of shock we were in, we never could have imagined how things turned out.  Lily has grown past all our expectations and turns people to mush everywhere she goes.  She shows absolutely no signs of premature birth, and is catching up nicely on her growth chart.

At the end of June, we were a little concerned with some of her progress.  Coming up on nine months, Lily hadn't been sitting up yet and was very objectionable to tummy time.  Our community health nurse, Sue,  gave us a few exercises to work on but Lily wasn't all that interested. 

By July 5th, Lily was sitting up on her own.  And for a few weeks, that was all she wanted to do.  She would sit up in bed and tear apart a magazine, or eat, or just hang out with us.  Until she discovered walking.  Just about a month later, at the beginning of August, Lily officially became an explorer.  With the help of mom or dad, or anyone who wanted to hold her by the hands, Lily started cruising all over the place.  The problem was she was no longer interested in sitting, when we would put her on the floor to sit she would start crying until someone helped her up and took her for a walk. 

Until she started climbing.  At a doctors appointment on August 11th, her 10 month birthday, which is considered her 8th month developmentally, I was holding her in a standing position when she put one foot up on the footrest of a chair and then pushed herself up onto the step.  In my disbelief, I put her back down and she did it again.  As soon as we got home, I wanted to see if that was a fluke or if she was ready for stairs.  I put her in front of our stairs and she put one foot up and then the other.  I was holding her up but not helping her, she went up the stair all by herself.  And then the next, and the next, until she had climbed an entire flight of stairs.  I was in shock, but I really shouldn't have been, considering her track record of amazement.  She now goes up the stairs like she was born doing it, 

At this time Lily was dependent on one of us to get around, we would hold her hands and she would wander.  Then in early September she began to crawl.  Slowly at first, a few steps here and there.  She would crawl with one knee on the floor and use her other foot to push her along.  That went on until near the end of September when she started crawling on both knees at light speed.  When she started crawling up the two steps from the living room to the kitchen, we had to start putting up defenses and finally got our first gate.

On October 1st, we found Lily standing up in her crib for the first time.

And a few days later, here she is looking out the window.

So here we are on Lily's first birthday.  I made her pancakes this morning, something I've been looking forward to for a year now, and hope to do for years to come.  

The little girl who once weighed 2lbs, 6oz, is now just about larger than life, and if you could measure her by her smile alone, she would be larger than life.  Wherever we take her, there are two questions we get more than any others, "does she always smile that much?" and "is she always that happy?"

Yes.

Happy Birthday Lily.  We love you.

Don't forget to breathe.