And then she was 1...

Where, oh where, has the last year gone??  How can my baby be 1 year old already??  I snap my fingers and that's how fast this past year since Ashton's arrival into our family has gone.  It really seems like last week that we were hopping into the taxi at the hospital to bring her home.  I'm not ready for Ashton not to be a baby anymore.  I absolutely love having a baby in the house.  Ok...well, I really don't love everything about it.  I'm still recovering from the months of sleep deprivation.  But minus that and the struggle to adjust to the demands of two children, Ashton has been such an incredible blessing to our family.

To celebrate her reaching the milestone of her first birthday (and to celebrate Geoff and I surviving a year with another kid!), we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party.  It was quite the appropriate theme for Ashton as she is a bottomless pit when it comes to food.  For those of you who haven't read the book or don't remember, the caterpillar keeps eating more and more food but is always still hungry!  That's our girl.  Just this morning I took her to a playgroup and when snack time came around, she finished off her big bowl of snacks before snatching away the other kids' bowls to eat their leftovers.  As Geoff joked, maybe we should call her our Hungry Hippo instead!  Anyways, Ashton was a bit clueless that the party was for her but she had fun.  Olivia was so excited for Ashton's birthday and her party.  She talked about it for weeks before the day arrived.  Or maybe she was just excited about the fact that we said she could help Ashton blow out her candle.  Despite the fact that Ashton's birthday was three weeks ago now, I heard Olivia walk into Ashton's room yesterday and say "Good morning, Birthday Girl!".   Guess we're still celebrating. 

The lady who made Olivia's rainbow cake back in September also did Ashton's cake.  She had never done a Hungry Caterpillar cake before my request.  I think it turned out ok.  Alright...maybe more like awesome!  This lady really is amazing at her job.

The clean-up crew

I love how their daddy makes them laugh.  I think he was vacuuming his hand here

Here's a little bit more about what Ashton's up to these days:

- Weight: 19.5 lbs (50th percentile) 

- Height:  Don't know

- She's still not walking or even standing on her own.  She walks around everything holding on and loves to push stuff while walking, but she doesn't have the confidence to do it independently yet.

- She has a few words: Mama, Dada, bye-bye (always accompanied by waving motion) and uh-oh.  She loves to drop stuff on the floor and follow it with "uh-oh".  The majority of this dropping activity occurs in her highchair with food.  Thankfully, she's our vacuum too!  :)

- She enjoys tipping her head back, almost upside down, to make gurgling noises.  

- Oh, she can be dramatic.  I'm already concerned how I'm going to cope when she's 13!  If Olivia gets in her space, it's not enough for her to just cry.  She cries loudly and puts her head on the floor in full dramatic tantrum form.  

- She's such a good sleeper.  Up until after she turned 3 and started preschool, I could count the number of times Olivia slept past 7:30 am on one hand.  When Olivia was Ashton's age, she would wake up each morning between 5:30-6:30 no matter what time we put her to bed the night before.  Ashton almost always sleeps until at least 7:00, usually getting up around 7:30.  And she would probably sleep even later if her sister wasn't already up by then running around being loud.  

- Regularly plays peek-a-boo by holding her hands up over her eyes.  She also likes to hold her hand up by her ear and pretend she has a phone.

- Books are a favorite activity.  By activity, I mean pulling them all off the book shelves in Olivia's room and onto the floor (at which time there is a chorus of "uh-ohs").  She also enjoys reading them.  I'll frequently find her sitting amongst all the books she's just pulled onto the floor with one in her lap, babbling away while she flips the pages.  

- Her eyes just light whenever her daddy gets home from work and she hears his voice.