Walking!

Mary Elizabeth has been cruising for quite awhile, but taking a step on her own has been difficult. She would take a couple of steps then sit down. Today when I picked her up from school the teacher said she had walked right across the room today all on her own to get a toy she wanted! I was eager to see if she would do it again when we got home. She walked all on her own several times after we got home. She is unsteady and somewhat tentative, but she is being brave and trying. She is growing up so fast!

One Year Milestones

It is amazing to see how much Mary Elizabeth has changed in the past year. When I think back to trying to get her to drink just 2 oz of formula before she would fall asleep during those first few feedings at the hospital and now she downs 8 oz of whole milk from a sippy cup! ME loves to walk now, but she still insists on holding atleast one finger from a grownup helper. She has taken a few steps on her own, but once she realizes that she is on her own she sits down. Baby food is a thing of the past. Applesauce and yogurt are the closest things to baby food that she still eats. Meat and carbs are her favorites. Any new food has to be closely examined, sometimes this means chewing it for awhile then removing it from her mouth to study then putting it back in or tossing it on the floor. ME refers to most things in one syllable sounds. Mike is "da" baby, bear and Blue are all "ba". She can make a "ruff ruff" sound when asked what a puppy says. She also knows things have names. She will point to or get certain toys when asked. Her 1-year-old checkup had her at 29 lbs and 32 inches. She is still wearing 24months-3T clothes depending on the brand. Tomorrow is an exciting day at school, ME is moving to the Toddler I room. This room seems to have more of a schedule as far as gym, music and art which I think will be good. I am looking forward to what the next year holds in store for us!

1st Birthday!

Mary Elizabeth had such a fun birthday! We had some friends and family over to LuLu and Joe's house. We enjoyed cupcakes, ice cream and watching ME open presents. More birthday photos are at www.mehouse08.shutterfly.com

Christmas Day

Opening presents Christmas morning at LuLu and Joe's. Mary Elizabeth was fascinated by each scrap of wrapping paper. She needed a lot of help with presents or we would still be opening today!

Playing with a ball that Santa brought with her stocking. Stocking stuff also included sippy cups, snack conatainers, new snacks, shampoo and diaper rash cream All the essentials!

Riding the new pony with her friends

Stuff Santa brought waiting for Mary Elizabeth to wake up. Santa brought a pony, Blue, Periwinkle and a DVD (Blue's Big Music Show).

Too cute!

Hugging her friends. This is one of M.E.'s latest accomplishments. She likes to hug!

We had a great Christmas. Mary Elizabeth has such a personality, she makes everything more fun. I do have Christmas pictures to post, but these were too cute to wait. M.E. is something of a stuffed animal addict (mmm... I wonder where that comes from!) One of her favorite activities is pulling all of my old stuffed animals out and playing with them. She talks to them, hugs and of course they get beat on the floor as well. Saturday afternoon she sat with me in our bed and drank a bottle. After the bottle she went crazy pulling all of the animals from the chest at the foot of the bed, into bed with us.

Thanksgiving, FINALLY!

Checking out the butterflies at the Butterfly Center

Eating Thanksgiving dinner. Mary Elizabeth is wearing LuLu's latest dress creation.

Lunch with the girls (LuLu and Mom) while shopping

Exploring the hotel room

Snoozing during a big walk

I haven't been a good blogger recently! I have been so ready for school to be out for Christmas, I think that is all I could think about! Here is our Thanksgiving adventure, finally.

We had a great adventure at Callaway Gardens with LuLu and Joe. The boys played golf and the girls enjoyed a big walk and shopping. LuLu got in some tennis. We also enjoyed good food and great weather. Mary ELizabeth really enjoyed Fantasy in Lights. She bounced and babbled and got really excited to see all the beautiful scenes. Unfortunately she had been suffering from a cold that had developed into an ear infection (we didn't know it at the time) and we had an "incident" in the car about 1/2 way through the ride. I finished the ride covered in vomit and M.E. was stripped down and wrapped in my fleece jacket. I think Mike had been jealous that I was sitting with M.E., until the vomiting started that is!! She was a good sport and enoyed the rest of our vacation, but she was not as cheery as usual. We finished the trip with a visit to the Day Butterfly Center on Saturday as we were leaving. All in all it was a first good trip to Callaway and I am looking forward to many visits in the future.

Mini road trip

With Scottie at Summer Classics

Meeting Scottie's new "child" Sam

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we drove up to see Scottie in Huntsville. We had a nice day, seeing Scottie and Phillip's house, the store all decorated and eating lunch. Mary Elizabeth is a good travel buddy!