Happy Birthday Riley Mae!

Today is our little Riley Mae's 1st birthday!

For the past week I have been reminiscing about my final week of pregnancy this time last year. The anticipation, the excitement...where we were...what we were doing. I remember that every where we went I kept thinking, "what if my water broke right now?" I had always been scared of the labor & delivery part of having a baby before, but I remember that as the time grew closer, I did not freak out. In fact, I had a peace about it. Throughout the pregnancy, faithfully, God only gave me what I could handle; making it a very pleasant experience overall. From that experience, He instilled in me a peace about the delivery, & I was not anxious about what should have been an incredibly anxiety ridden time. (Which is not like me at all - to not be anxious or worried about something so huge.)

I remeber spending the morning before I went into labor, having breakfast with my husband & 2 dogs at a great cafe in the Huntington Beach park. We knew then that by that time the following week, our lives would have changed forever. Well, they actually changed the very next day.

One

We were all so excited to meet her! And now, we cannot imagine our lives without her! Oh she has developed so much this past month. Here are some of her most recent developments:

• She now walks with holding one of our fingers.
• She makes Indian sounds with her hand & mouth, well , tongue, on cue. (I am sorry if that is not PC, but I can't think of another way to describe it.)
• She does Eskimo Kisses! (Is that PC? Oh well.)
• She loves opening & closing drawers & cabinets.
• She likes to pull things out & put things in...anything (baskets, tubs, cupboards, drawers, etc.)
• When she has had enough to eat, she will slyly pick up pieces of her food & drop them over the side of her high chair & watch them fall to the ground. (The dogs love it when this happens.)
• We have a big white teddy bear in her nursery that she likes to cuddle & wrestle with.
• In fact, she seems to like to lay her head on any soft stuffed animal & and then grin really big.
• She has 5 teeth now & I think I see more coming in!
• She had her first pizza & cupcake tonight (well, at least the frosting)...and loved them both! Pictures are soon to follow.