12 Month/1 Year Update!

My Ellie Bear turned ONE!

Here are some pictures from her party...

(another post will be coming soon with detailed pictures of the party itself)

Cupcake Tower!

Matt & Kyla writing a message in Ellie's memory book

Brett & Eilish reading a book at the table

Pappy & Uncle Josh discussing the finer points of life

Hanging out with Grampy

Cake!  For me?!

Here MaMa, have a bite!

This is the BEST THING I'VE EVER EATEN IN MY WHOLE LIFE!

Birthdays are AWESOME!

Opening presents - this one is from Auntie & Uncle Josh!

Saying Bye-Bye to my buddy Sarah - have fun in Germany!!

I honestly have no idea how tall she is or how much she weighs (although we're sure it's over 20 lbs.) because we missed her 12-month checkup a few weeks ago.  You see, I'm pretty sure she's due for some shots, so I wanted to swing by the house (between the babysitter and the doctor) to get her some tylenol.  But she had fallen asleep and it was in the middle of the arctic vortex thingy.  So I let the car running and the heat blowing and just ran inside to get the tylenol.  Couldn't have taken me more than a minute.  However.  We live in town and so I'm always leery of leaving my car unlocked ESPECIALLY while it is running.  I just have this fear that someone will be walking by [in the middle of an arctic vortex?] and think 'hey, free car!' and run off with it.  So I wasn't about to let them do that with my daughter sleeping in the back seat.  So I locked it, while it was running, and took the key fob and my house key inside with me.  Sounds like a good plan, right?  Wrong.  Evidently, there is a safety feature [doesn't seem so safe to me!] that disables the key fob when the key is in the ignition.  So I was locked out of my car with poor Ellie asleep inside.  So what do I do?  Cry hysterically, of course.  And call Andy.  Not sure what he's going to do, but it was the only thing I could think of.  He assured me that he did have the only spare key with him at work (an hour away) and I should just call 911.  Well now that did NOT make me feel any better.  You only call 911 in a real emergency, so if he was telling me to do that, then that must mean that this is a REAL EMERGENCY!  Ellie was still asleep.  But moms, you know what I'm talking about when I say this: no matter the circumstances, if something is preventing you from getting to your child, they are in immediate and grave danger.  Period.  SO I called 911 and barely remembered my phone number [um, caller ID much??] and address to tell them where to come.  The kindly borough police chief showed up just a few minutes later and quickly jimmied open the door (after reminding me that neither he nor the police department is responsible for any damage done to my vehicle, blahblahblah).  And I was FINALLY after 10 WHOLE MINUTES able to get the door open and get to my baby.  She was still asleep.  The chief got a decent giggle out of that and assured me that this wasn't the first time he's done this and it won't be the last.  Thanks, chief.

So anyway, we technically could have made it on time to the checkup (since the office is only a few blocks away), but I was still pretty shaky and crying, so I called and cancelled.  Which Andy had already taken care of.  Oh well, better safe than sorry.  At least I can be responsible about something!  So the very next available appointment isn't until February 6, so we'll find out then how big my little peanut has gotten.  [unless there's another arctic vortex...]

In the meantime, please enjoy this super adorable video that I made to show at the party.  It still feels weird to say that she's a year old.  And yet I feel like this year has taken FOREVER.  So, enjoy the video!  More birthday party details and post-one year old updates coming soon!