Post from earlier this month that I forgot to actually publish…
Our baby girl is now a year old. It doesn’t seem possible at all…we are so thankful that God chose us to be parents of this sweet little girl. Her personality abounds more and more every day. Jaida is sweet and sensitive, fun loving, fearless, cuddly, and starting to show her independence a little. We are starting some discipline with her…mostly stern voices/looks but smacking her hand as well sometimes. And honestly, she really does crumple with her daddy especially. He always feels bad for hurting her feelings and snuggles her afterwards though so we know she is learning that we love her even in the midst of correction.
She loves to do this to show affection as well 
I think Jaida’s favorite thing to do is eat She still takes 18oz of formula every day and loves most any food I give her, especially if it looks like what everyone else is eating. I don’t get much baby food in her these days, unless it’s something she really likes or I alternate bites of “real” food in between. But it’s so much easier to let her feed herself most of the time so I’m thankful she likes it! Her favorites are sweet potatoes, green beans (especially when Aunt Wendy makes them), and bread. The only thing I can think of that she doesn’t like is eggs. Update: As of today (2 weeks after her birthday) she is transitioning from formula to milk and no longer drinks from a bottle!!! Crazy!!!!
We still have a great sleeper on our hands as well…at least as long as we’re home! She naps for about 3 hours each day but varies in how it’s split up. Quite often she’ll still take 2 hour morning naps and then shorter ones in the afternoon. She goes to bed at 7:30 and recently has been sleeping until 8:00…a DREAM!!! If they continue on this sleeping schedule, mommy needs to start going to bed early and getting up to work out
Jaida’s working hard on walking but not quite ready to do it on her own yet. If you hold her fingers though, she’ll walk you anywhere you (read SHE) wants to go! She’s a total climber and still into anything she’s NOT supposed to have. I did find some of Graceyn’s old toys in the attic though and they are definitely helping. I guess I really had mostly baby stuff out still. She likes anything that makes music or other noise and will “dance” along as well.
For her birthday, she got her very own “Abigail” much to her sister’s delight. She does love it though and immediately gave her hugs. When daddy handed her the bottle that goes with it, she even stuck it straight into the baby’s mouth! I was impressed as she held it there, letting baby drink. It always amazes me that girls have such innate nurturing tendencies.
Her other favorite thing is to be outside, near Jake, and swinging. As I said before, she’s pretty fearless. So she really likes to climb up the rock wall, climb over to the slide, and if we don’t move her fast enough, head down headfirst. Disclaimer here…someone is ALWAYS holding onto her when she goes down!!! Daddy likes to let her go down headfirst. So when mommy makes her sit on her bottom, she usually shakes her head “no” and tries to wiggle herself free. So mommy has to move fast and start the sliding…then she forgets that she’s mad and enjoys the ride down
For her birthday, the girls and I went to a nearby park that has a baby swing. Ours needs to be fixed so she can’t sit it in right now. She squealed with delight as I pushed both girls higher and higher. She also had fun just crawling around the other equipment and hanging from the bar. She could actually hang for a few seconds on her own! Very strong girl!!!
Our friends Rylan and Keegan met us there for a bit, then we all met daddy to get birthday ice cream. Her very FIRST ice cream. And yes, she’s our girl…she LOVED IT!!! This shop has baby cones so she got her very own; of course wanted to hold it; and devoured every last bite, cone included. At one point, daddy tried to take it to “clean it up a little.” No way dad! This girl had a death grip on that cone. Too funny Unfortunately, we did go the sugar free route…and quickly learned that was a bad idea. Note to unsuspecting parents…little tummies don’t like sugar-free. And honestly, we wouldn’t have done it on a regular basis anyway. We were just trying to keep her sugar free for as long as possible. Next time she’ll get the real stuff for sure!!!
After a long nap (crashing from the morning’s excitement), Rylan and Keegan (and of course their awesome mommy Aunt Gretchen) came back over to play on the swingset. We had a fund pizza party, complete with cheese sticks for Jaida (a bad idea on top of the sugar free ice cream, sweet potatoes, and pears from earlier in the day).
When daddy got home from work, she opened her gift and had fun playing with the big kids until bedtime. What better birthday can a 1 year old ask for?!?!
