Happy Happy Birthday Baby

Happy birthday, sweetheart. You are loved and cherished beyond imagination. You have brought me and your daddy such joy this past year. We cannot wait to see what's in store for us.

I am so lucky to be your mommy.

Our girl, the genius

Yes, I realize I'm a bit biased. And maybe she is not quite the level of genius, but she is definitely smart. She's been alert since day one, and now I realize what she's been up to all this time.

She's been quietly observing us, every day, and filing all she sees and hears away into her brain, knowing that one day she would be able to imitate us. That time has come.

She takes keys and tries to put them in the door. She takes cloth diapers and "folds" them. She takes clothes out of one drawer and puts them in another one.

The one thing that blows my mind is something that most babies don't do at this age.

She pretends.

She pretends to eat something from an empty spoon and smacks her lips like she's really enjoying it. Then she'll scoop the spoon into an empty bowl and hand you the (still empty) spoon for you to enjoy. Darren and I have enjoyed plenty of air, smacking our lips like it was lobster. Once she even held the spoon to Kody!

She is one silly little genius.

Tugaloo State Park

I was totally dreading it, but we finally took Kora camping for the first time. Not that I hate camping. I love it. But the thought of taking a newly-walking, poorly-sleeping, almost-one-year-old on a camping trip just made me exhausted. And if that isn't enough activity, we invited our friends who have a two-year old boy along! Not sure what I was smoking when I agreed to this.

However. I have to say the trip far exceeded my expectations. We went hiking, played in the lake, played in the playground, ate good food. We even had a (gasp!) campfire despite the obvious danger to our toddling little ones. After the kiddos went to sleep the adults finished off a couple of bottles of wine and topped everything up with some nice smoky s'mores.

That's a pretty large bass if you compare it to Kora

Speaking of sleep, Kora had one of her best nights that night! I swear I would set up a tent in the backyard and sleep out there every night if I thought she would keep that up.

Hamming it up for the photo

Posing after dinner

Blowing bubbles with Andrew and his dad

Our McMansion Tent

Our campsite