Sunday, June 21, 2015

Tilly is ONE - A letter to my baby girl

 
 
 
 
My sweet Tilly,

    How has it already been a year you have been in our lives? In a way it feels like I was just huge and miserably pregnant, and on the other hand I can't even remember my life before you. At 10:01am on June 21, 2014 our lives forever changed. This year has been the most amazing experience, and also the most challenging.   I can honestly say you have been a very easy baby for the most part and I really lucked out with you baby girl.  You love to sleep just like your Mommy and do an average of 12-13 hours a night.  You started your full nights sleep around 7 1/2 weeks and never looked back.  You also take awesome naps on top of this. You did puke pretty much non stop the first 6 months of your life, so there was that.  Thank goodness it never seemed to bother you and you did grow out of it once you started solids.  You have always been a tiny thing staying in the 10 percentile. You are in mostly 12 month clothing, and in size 4 diapers. You are starting to grow into size 3 shoes, but can still fit into 2's.  We had a doctor's visit last week with your nasty virus and you weighed in at 16lbs 8oz.  You hadn't eaten any food in quite a few days though from your sore throat, so maybe by your checkup later this week you will have bumped up some.  Speaking of food, you are a little bit of a picky eater, but have gotten much better.  As of now your favorite foods are any kind of smoked sausage- mostly turkey kielbasa, yogurt, avocado, scrambled eggs with cheese, pancakes, green beans, strawberries, grilled cheese, string cheese, black beans, Plum baby fruit snacks, any type of pasta, and you love ice cream. You still only have 2 teeth (your bottom middle) and never had any teething symptoms. Not sure if the rest will all come in at once and be a nightmare, or what.. we shall see!  You have never been a big drinker and love to stress Mama out with your low liquid intake.   Unfortunately we did have your first sickness doctor's visit as I mentioned before that ended up being a virus.  Thankfully you only had 2 colds and this virus for the whole year, so luckily you have been very healthy! You are such a sassy little girl with a strong personality.  You know what you want and you definitely know what you don't want.  You do great with your schedule and luckily got on one pretty early on.  We have our daily routine down pat.  I couldn't imagine spending my days any other way than with my little buddy.  You constantly crack me up when we go shopping, as you are such a little ham.  You will even lean around me if I stand in your way of interacting with someone.  You love to stare people down until they look at you, and then turbo grin and make eyes at them. We have people constantly coming up to talk to you every time we go out.  You are such an amazing little baby and I am so honored to be your mom.  I can't wait to watch you to continue to grow and become more and more into your personality.  Sometimes it scares me to think of how sassy you'll be in just a few years (months?!)  You have lightened our lives tremendously.  Your daddy and I would not know what to do with ourselves if we didn't have you around.  Sometimes I just sit and stare at you in awe.  You are great at entertaining yourself and love to sit and play with your toys for hours.  You don't like to snuggle unless its time to put you to sleep.. which does make me sad! You can crawl 100mph and love to get into EVERYTHING.  You did take your first steps exactly one week before your birthday, but haven't taken anymore since.  You are completely stark white like your mommy and I am pretty sure are going to keep your light eyes like mine.  Your hair is a mix of light brown and red for the moment.  You love to constantly shake your head and tell us no (uh oh), play peek a boo, play with all your toys, laugh and smile nonstop, give kisses, and explore anything and everything. You are such a happy baby and love to laugh.  It's so funny to sit and watch you play, as you constantly are cracking yourself up. Thank you for such an amazing year and showing us what love really is. One of the best parts of my day is when I walk into your room each morning and you stand up with the biggest grin on your face saying, Mama Mama Mama.  And at the end of the day when your Daddy gets home and you get SOO excited as you turbo crawl to him yelling out, Dada Dada Dada.  You always are so excited and in the best mood when your Daddy gets home each night.  You also don't do as good with naps on the weekends because you want to stay up and hang out with him! To watch you two together just makes me melt.  I am trying to soak up as much of this as I can, as I know these precious baby days don't last forever.  You will always be my first baby and hold such a special place in my heart.  I love you with all my heart, and I always will.

I love you forever,
Mommy
 
 
A little look back on the first year..
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 





 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 















 
 

 


 
 

 

 








 

 
 
 

 
 
Happy 1st Birthday Tilly!
 
 
 

Friday, June 19, 2015

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star First Birthday Party


 
 


First off.. how is my baby already having her first birthday?!?
 

I have been brainstorming and planning what I wanted to do for Tilly's first birthday for months.  I was so excited to plan something cute, girly, pink, and of course throw in some glitter.  This "theme" topped my favorite as I was Pinterest searching a while back.  I loved that I could mix and match décor and not have to get one set of matchy matchy things.  I am not really into the whole character thing for babies, so I knew I wanted to venture off from that.  I loved this look and started shopping as soon as I nailed down the theme.  I got very lucky with the timing, because with this being graduation season, I found SO many options for gold décor and star themed.  My biggest hits were Dollar Tree and the dollar section at Target!!! It worked out perfect.  I was a bit worried how it would all come together, as I just bought random things here and there hoping it would all go together as well in person as it was in my head! 

I'm definitely not into food all over babies' faces, (no offense to everyone who thinks its cute, just not my thing) so I was completely against a smash cake.. uh!  I knew I wanted to get our cupcakes from SAM's because they taste amazing and are a great price.. Unfortunately they only came in quantities of 30. I needed more than 30, but not 60.  The lady then told me I could get a smash cake size cake that also came with an extra 10 cupcakes.  Sigh.  I got suckered in! I wasn't sure until the moment of if I would give it to her, but I thought what the heck.  Funny enough (as you'll see from the pictures below) she was not liking sticking her hand in at first and kept making faces.  That's my girl! Once she tried the icing, she did love it and kept just scrapping it off to eat.. I don't think she actually got any cake- just icing!

Sadly my sweet little baby woke up with a fever the morning of her party and didn't feel good most of the day.  I know she won't even remember, but I hate she wasn't feeling good to fully enjoy it.  After a few days of fever and then a nasty rash, we were off to the doctor for her first sick visit ever to find out she had a virus.  Basically it just had to run it's course and thank goodness she seems to be almost back to 100% now!

Despite her not feeling good, it was a great day filled with our close friends and family.  It was so nice to see everyone and have a fun cookout at our new house.  Thank you so much to everyone who came to celebrate our little princess and brought her some new, fun gifts!!!

Now for some pictures!



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 
 




 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 
 


 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
High Chair Banner (bought banner and Scrapbook Paper to make Letters) '1' Plates- Hobby Lobby
Balloons, Star Plates, Napkins, Silverware, Gold Star Table Topper Décor, Flower Vase, Sidewalk Chalk- Dollar Tree
Months Banner, '1' Candle- Party City
Cupcake Stand- Target
Gold Tray with Cupcakes- Estate Sale
Cupcakes- SAMs Club
Cupcake Toppers, Tilly's Shorts, Crown, Star shirt decal- Etsy
Chalk Board Signs, Gold Straws, Gold Letters, Gold Large Pins- Target Dollar Section
Tilly Banner, Pink Straws- Leftover from my baby shower
Bubble Machine- Amazon
Flowers- Walmart
White Picture Frames- Already had