Scenes from a first birthday party

Somehow, our beautiful little girl has turned 1! I know that parents everywhere, mine included, have always said, "The time goes by fast... enjoy it!" but I never really knew how fast that really was. That is, until I became a parent myself. All I know is one day I found out I was pregnant, the next I had a beautiful baby in my arms, and suddenly now, I have a toddler.

Leah is just an amazing child. She is so loving: one of the first things she does in the morning is climb over me to kiss daddy. She is so happy: she has a gorgeous smile that she will flash for anyone who cares to look. She is so content: I've been asked more than once if she ever cries. She is so dependent: Leah loves her cuddles with mommy and daddy (I still wear her in a baby carrier every day). She is so independent: she is happy to run around and make new friends. She loves animals: her first words (other than "mama" and "dada") have been the names and sounds of animals. Leah's favorite animal is, by far, dogs. She gets so excited whenever she sees a dog (any size!) She calls all of them "puppy" and knows that they say "ffff." (We taught her "woof" and she only caught the "f" part). She knows that monkeys say "ah!" that snakes say, "sss," that ducks say, "cack" (always whispered).

Clearly I'm madly in love with our Leah.

At any rate, our loving, talking, running little girl turned 1 two weeks ago. We celebrated her birth with a wonderful picnic joined by friends and family. It was perfect. I cried (multiple times) and am just so proud and blessed to have been chosen to be Leah's mommy. Here are a few pictures from that day (photos courtesy of my mom!).

Silly smile. :)

The gorgeous cupcakes. It was my idea, but was put together by Julianna and Destiny. I almost cried when I saw how pretty it looked. The "leaves" are white cupcakes with green tinted vanilla whipped icing. The "trunk" is made up of vegan peanut butter chocolate cupcakes. The "grass" is vegan carrot cake cupcakes (which is what Leah got to eat!).

Leah enjoying her first cupcake! (She soon enjoyed a second!)

Opening up and looking at what was by far her favorite gift: a book of dogs from David. You should have seen the smile on her face when we unwrapped it...

Being a cutie pie.

So, happy 1st birthday, my angel.