Mandalen's 1st Birthday!

A couple few weeks ago, my baby turned one.  I will blame the fact that I am now more than 23 days late to  write this post on the fact that I am in denial.  You know how you get those emails saying what your baby is doing this week (I signed up for one of those pregnancy ticker things, and the emails just kept coming)?  Well, my last email called her a toddler.  Not a baby.  A toddler.  Needless to say, I cried a little :)

I digress.

I am completely in love with this little girl.

And I'm not the only one.  Every one of her siblings adore her...and fight over her.  Except at mealtime.  No one particularly likes to sit by her at mealtime because she either tries to steal their food or throw hers at them. 

She can make any of us smile.  Even in the most difficult moments, she can always make us smile.

I am not exaggerating when I say she is always happy.

Keep her full and dry and there are rarely tears.

She gets so excited about everything.  

When she is past the point of being super tired, she just starts bobbing up and down on her bum and she whips her head back and forth....while laughing.  

Sometimes, she pretends she's a dog, and she'll growl at me...while laughing.

She loves to play in the water, but she hates laying in it.

She is something of a bottle snob, she'll only drink from the nursers.

She loves to feed herself.

She likes Beethoven, Mo-Tab, and One Direction.  Liah is trying to get her into Taylor Swift, but so far she doesn't seem too swayed.

The one time she will cry is if there is fighting or loud voices.  One time, she was getting too close to the edge of the stairs and I didn't yell, but I firmly said "No Mandalen!"  She looked at me, and in slow motion, the corners of her mouth dropped, and just that fast, she became hysterical.  It took me 10 minutes of reassuring her I wasn't mad to calm her down :)

She is pretty mobile.  She can crawl up all the stairs.  Stand in place.  Walk along furniture.  Crawl/fall down the stairs (this was discovered quite by accident, and I'm diligently working at making sure she doesn't get any more practice at this apparent talent of hers).  And my personal favorite is the bum bounce.  She can bum bounce just about anywhere.

She loves to talk.  Her favorite word is "Ta-Da!"  I think it's her favorite because everything she does and sees is amazing, and she wants everyone to realize just how amazing she is :)

She still will cuddle with me and give me hugs.  There is nothing better in the world than her chubby little cheeks pressed close to mine.  

I love my baby girl.