Piper's 1st Birthday

Hello. It's me again. Wondering where I've been the past 3 months? I think this time of year (Oct-Dec) is going to be busy for me from now on. 2 birthdays, 2 holidays? Yep, busy. But, I haven't given up. And yes, there are several posts that I need to put up, and I will go back and add them later. I decided to just start with December rather than feeling overwhelmed with how far behind I was :) So with that in mind, here is my baby at one year:

This was taken on December 17th (her birthday). She is a pro at standing (especially if she can lean against something!)

Displaying her dimple for us all to see.

Here she is making the face that she makes A LOT. I always want to quote Sebastian from The Little Mermaid when I see it... "you've got to pucker up, like dees" :)

And showing us her mouth full of teeth - 8 in the front plus now she has 2 molars coming in. Originally on this day, we had invited friends over for a Winter "One"derland birthday lunch. Unfortunately, that week a stomach bug managed to find its way into our home and it affected Piper, then myself, then Lila (the morning of the 17th). Bummer. We wanted to spread joy, not germs, so we canceled our party. The good news was the bug was very short-lived, and we all felt better within 12 hours of getting it. But, since we canceled so last minute, I already had the decorations up. I took some pictures to document the would-be celebration.

Photo collage of Piper's first year.

Lila thought I should take a picture of Piper in front of the 1, but Piper wasn't so thrilled to be held in place.

She wanted to take my wall decorations down instead.

The party table

The birthday girl's cupcake (yes, I had made those already too).

A close up of the photo collage. You can see in the middle row the pictures of Piper I took in her pink hat... top pic was on her birth announcement, then at 6 months and then the bottom 2 were at 1 year.

We went ahead and enjoyed the cupcakes. Here she's getting her first look at it.

She didn't really do anything though, so after a minute, Ben put a bite in her mouth.

Now she knew what to do! She didn't go at it like I thought she might, but this was after lunch and she HAD eaten a pretty big lunch. I thought maybe she wouldn't like sweets, but she has since made it known that it is not acceptable to leave her out of any dessert-type enjoyment!

And, notice the pucker again. Seriously, she makes that face ALL. THE. TIME.

So not what we originally planned for her big day, but still an enjoyable time. Aunt Janina braved the threat of illness and joined us for a casual dinner that night (thereby creating a "party" for Lila, who was concerned that Piper wouldn't have one.)