One year ago...

I went into labor at 10:00 P.M. a year ago tonight. Wow. That went really fast. Not the labor. That took 45 hours. But the year. A whole year. And while I'm planning the big one-year party and marveling each day at how much Andie's growing, there are still things that catch me off guard and stop me in my tracks.

*The other day I went through the baby aisle at Target to find some baby q-tips (didn't find them) and realized that Andie has pretty much outgrown that aisle, and I won't be shopping there anymore.

*Today I got an email that used to be titled something like, "Your Baby is 40 weeks old," and it listed all the new things Andie could be doing and gave lots of links to advice I could follow. But today I got an email entitled "My Toddler This Week: Your 1-year Old."

I literally caught my breath when I read that email. 

The day after Andie was born

My Toddler

Andie's 1st Birthday

Possible birthday presents for Andie's one year. Anyone used these? Have suggestions?

Birthday present ideas for Andie

Wouldn't this be a cute 1 year birthday present for Andie?

(plus, there's a 10 percent discount if you enter the word "daily" at checkout)

A personal note . . . Andie Update

I try to keep this mainly business, but for my friends and family following, I thought I'd give you a little Andie update. 

In the past two weeks everything, and I mean, EVERYTHING, has started happening. Andie started crawling April 23rd (yeah, that's almost 11 months--that took forever!), then exactly ONE WEEK LATER she started walking. I was in her room sorting out all the too-small clothes and replacing them with lovely bigger hand-me-downs (thanks, Cami!) and Andie just stood up and walked (almost ran) five steps into my arms! No help, no coaxing. She just did it on her own. I was yelling and cheering, "Andie! You're walking! Andie!"

Andie also started signing. She's a pro at doing "more," but really I think "more" to her means "Okay, Mama, I'm doing sign language, now please give me what I want"--usually what she wants is more, but sometimes what she wants is food, to be picked up, or a drink. We're working out the details. She's also signing "all done" and "nurse." 

In more Andie news, two more teeth are coming in! Not sure if anyone else's kid has done this (I'm sure someone has), but her top teeth (not the middle ones and not the fangs, the ones in between) are coming in. My baby girl's gonna have an "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" smile BEFORE rather than AFTER she loses them.

I've heard that babies grow in spurts. I just had no idea that all this fun could happen in two short weeks. Yikes!