Mommy of a 1 Year Old!

As of February 8, 2007, my baby is officially ONE! I can't believe it! The night before her birthday, as I sat in the rocking chair in her room quietly rocking Belle to sleep, I teared up thinking that exactly a year ago I was sitting in the exact same chair rocking her, except she was in my stomach. I had just completed her nursery minutes before and was sitting in there taking it all in and admiring the nursery that turned out to be exactly what I was hoping it would be and knowing that in just a couple of days I would have my baby in my arms in that same rocking chair. I can't believe it's been a whole year since then. I know it's cliche, but it SO seems like it was just yesterday!

Fast forward to now... Belle is ONE! Her day started out pretty normal with her morning feeding in bed with Mommy & Daddy, playing and watching her Noggin shows for a few hours, then taking her late-morning nap. After her nap, we eventually got everyone ready and fed, then got ready to get in the car to head to the Brevard Zoo for Belle's first zoo trip. Before we could take off though, I had to change out Annabelle's infant car seat for her big girl forward-facing seat! I've been waiting for this day (and I'm sure she has too... even though she didn't know it was coming) so that she didn't have to recline and could see where we're going and see out the window. It's funny how just turning the seat around and having her more upright makes her look so much older! She loved that she was able to see her Baby Einstein "On the Farm" DVD without contorting her neck too! For her birthday I let her watch the DVD from the time we left the house until we got home. :)

By the time we got to the zoo, they were only going to be open for a little over an hour longer, but that ended up being plenty of time to see all that they had there. Annabelle was entertained by the monkeys, and liked seeing the animals that she knows the signs and words for (birds, ducks, cats (leopard... but we'll take "cat")). Grandpa video taped nearly the whole hour, while Daddy took pictures, and Mommy & Grammy pointed out all of the animals to Bellee. I think Belle enjoyed herself, but next time we'll have to go earlier so the animals aren't all sleepy. :) After the zoo we went to Uno's for some pizza. The hostess told us that they'd bring Annabelle a special dessert since it was her birthday, so we asked the waiter and he brought her her very own kid's sundae! We let her dig into it with her own spoon, and she LOVED that!

On our way home, we stopped at The DQ (Dairy Queen, for those not in-the-know) to get Annabelle her first 1st birthday cake! I had an ice cream cake for my first birthday cake too, but I froze my fingers in it (mom has pictures of me screaming!). So, we got the cake and headed home to open presents. Since I knew Annabelle wouldn't be too into the actual unwrapping of the presents and she already had a few wrapped presents from family, we didn't wrap many of our own presents. Belle still enjoyed unwrapping a few of the presents, but she liked playing with the gifts even more. :) She got lots of neat toys, books, and clothes! What more could a 1 year old girl want? :)

After presents, we got into the cake. Annabelle LOVED the icing and dug in like I would do now if I was allowed to! :) As messy as a 1 year old let loose in an ice cream cake is, she didn't get any in her hair or on her jammies! She kept it all on her face, hands, and on the bib, but still had so much fun! After cake, it was already way past bedtime, so Belle got into bed and I'm sure she had sweet 1 year old girl dreams!

P.S. All pictures from Annabelle's big day are up on our photo album.