One

Last Monday Charlotte turned ONE. It's hard to believe that a year has past since we brought that little 7 pound, 9 ounce bundle with the skinny legs and the fuzzy hair home from the hospital and started our life together as a family of three.

Charlotte still has the same bright eyes, but she's changed in so many other ways. I took her for her 12 month immunizations this week and she weighed in at 23 pounds, 12 ounces with a length of 30 1/4 inches (maintaining her place somewhere in the 80-90th percentile for height and weight). Our chubby pumpkin has been slow to move, but in the past couple of weeks she has begun to crawl more proficiently and pull herself up to sitting and standing. It's so much fun to see her little head peaking around the corner as she comes to find us in another room. And it's such a change to see her sitting or standing up in her crib when we go in to get her in the morning or after her nap. She's still furniture-surfing, but now uses walls too, and can stand unsupported for short periods.

Charlotte's verbal abilities are also improving. She often pronounces the first consonant of an object correctly, ie. "buh" for ball, "duh" for duck, "muh" for milk, etc. She can say "ma ma" and "da da"  - exactly that way, with a gap between the syllables - but more often it's "mamamama!" or "dadadada!" She has her own versions of animal noises that we find pretty entertaining. Charlotte talks to herself when she's playing, and when she's caught up in playing she has a funny habit of using her legs to spin herself around in a circle while seated, usually with a stuffed animal or small toy clutched in each hand.

Since Charlotte's birthday was on a weekday and we don't have any family in Edmonton I decided to invite a few girlfriends with babies to join us at a neighbourhood park in the morning for a little celebration. It was a beautiful sunny day and I think Charlotte enjoyed it. Going with a bug theme, I used caterpillar invitations, we gave Charlotte a large helium bee balloon on the morning of her birthday and then brought it along to the park, and I decorated bug cupcakes (recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart). Needless to say it was a more involved dessert than I usually go for but then I've never had a child turn one before! It was kind of fun - and James helped. Despite the theme, the mosquitoes actually stayed away for the most part - an improvement over the previous weeks. James was able to skip out of work and drop by the park for a short while (and deliver coffee for the adults), so we gave Charlotte her cupcake and sang to her while he was there.

I wish I had more photos of the actual party, but it all went by so quickly. Fortunately a friend captured a short video of Charlotte receiving her birthday cupcake (Thanks Lana!) as well as a couple of photos of the moment. I hope these give you a taste (sorry, cupcakes are all gone!) of the occasion.

Catching up with her friend Madi

Swinging with Jake